Certainly, we'd all love to live in a magical Star Trek world where a computer could replicate all of our favorite treats yet pump them full of all the health components of your average field of broccoli, but it's time to put the magical thinking to rest. That stupid cabbage soup diet? It's not a "free diet food," it's a really badly contrived, kind of disgusting vegetable soup. That's it! Seriously, it's easy to understand why people would think that something like lettuce would be something you could eat in unlimited quantities without having calories, but in truth, 100 calories of lettuce is exactly the same as 100 calories of corn or one of those little 100-calorie packs of fake Oreos. It's just that 100 calories of lettuce is a much larger volume of food than 100 calories of a Starbucks Mocha.
Are 100-calorie packs the root of all evil? Some scientists think so.
It's this kind of crazy thinking that we're all susceptible to. I mean, I recently realized that I could follow my nutritionist's weird low-carb plan if I had a lunch with two 6-packs of Chicken McNuggets...and with that, I officially reached the breaking point. I'm tired of listening to weird exclusionary theories. We all know about the old salad switcheroo trick, where some salads have way more fat and calories than a supposedly "bad for you" burger. Of course, that's not going to stop packaged food manufacturers from trying to tell you that the sugarified gummy worms are technically a health food because they're sweetened with fruit juice. Although really, anyone who honestly thought that margarine was better for you than butter must have really gotten brainwashed by those Fabio commercials back in the '80s.
If you've spent any time on health and wellness or dieting forums, you'll know that there is so much crazy food mythology being spouted that it's hard to know who to trust. Men's Health has decided to bust some common food myths, so you can stop people in their tracks when they try to tell you that a food has "negative calories." Food is food! We have to stop looking toward approved lists of "safe" foods and start thinking about plain common sense. Eat until you're full. Pick foods that are things that your grandmother would have served. Eat a little bit of everything and try it, you might like it. What a revolution!
Related: Get hooked on cooking! Use these simple tricks to fix diet-friendly fare that's faster than delivery.
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