Do you think carbs are bad for you or inherently fattening? When you feel an urgency to change your physique, are carbs the first thing to go from your plate? Do you worry about the glycemic load of your carbohydrate choices, carefully weighing the pros and cons of a baked potato versus pasta?
We are surrounded by diet culture, and a part of that means taking in false beliefs about nutrition, healthy eating, and the causes of obesity. Unfortunately, taking on false beliefs can negatively impact our choices, increasing our focus on unhelpful details, and distract us from the “big rocks” that can ultimately get us to our goals. If we want to reduce the impact of diet culture on our thinking, and therefore on our actions, we need to regularly inoculate ourselves from the pseudoscience and false beliefs used to justify extreme dietary choices and quick fixes.
If you hold any of the beliefs above, or you work with folks who do, this episode of Sigma Nutrition Radio provides a thoughtful discussion about the state of the evidence for the model of obesity from which they stem and may help you to begin to pull away from those fears.
These anti-carb biases are so ingrained now into our cultural zeitgeist it can feel like incontrovertible fact. Research shows us that the more times we hear a thing, the more likely we are to believe it true, and if all of your friends are “going keto,” your favorite podcast hosts are selling you Magic Spoon, and your mom has cut out bread again, why wouldn’t you think you need to consider those things, too? Ultimately, these false claims harm people, take them further from their goals, and confuse us about who we can trust for nutrition advice. I appreciate that the folks at Sigma Nutrition are doing the work to correct these fallacies, if nothing else to armor their listenership against similar false claims made in the future.
Progressive Strength 