Myth Busting: Nutrition Edition

A lot of popular nutrition trends are rooted in pseudoscience—they’re seen as factual and effective but lack any true scientific support. Some of these baseless trends are more harmful than others, but all of them convey a general misunderstanding of nutrition. I want to set the record straight on a select few that I’ve been particularly annoyed with as of late—I’m feeling angsty and argumentative today.

Lemon water

If you’ve heard that lemon water is detoxifying, alkalizing, or that it’ll help you lose weight, you’ve been bamboozled. We’ve all watched an influencer’s morning routine where they preach lemon water on an empty stomach for all these remarkable health benefits, but there’s actually little to no evidence supporting these claims.

The only things that can “detox” your body are your digestive and renal systems—your liver and kidneys filter out toxins, not your daily lemon water. As for the alkalizing claim, it would actually be really bad if lemon water alkalized your blood. Your body regulates your blood pH for you, and if food or beverages had the power to alter that mechanism, we’d all be dead (Petre, 2023). So, no, lemon water does not have alkalizing effects, nor do we want it to.

Lemon water also doesn’t elicit weight loss. This claim likely originates from the fact that lemons contain pectin, a fibre that might reduce appetite, but the quantity of pectin in a lemon is negligible (Leech, 2023). If you’re replacing high-calorie beverages with lemon water throughout the day, that might support your calorie deficit, but any potential weight loss is not a direct result of the lemon water itself.

Adding a squeeze of lemon to your water provides a small boost of vitamin C, but no groundbreaking health benefits of lemon water are supported by evidence—plain water is just as beneficial. If you enjoy the taste of lemon in your water, by all means, drink up, but know that the effects are minimal outside of good old hydration.

Juice cleanses

If you’ve never fallen victim to a juice cleanse, keep it that way. Much like lemon water, juice cleanses supposedly promote weight loss and rid your body of toxins—but, also much like lemon water, these claims aren’t evidence-based.

Juice cleanses can elicit a laxative effect, but an increase in bowel movements doesn’t mean you’re “detoxing”; it’s just your body’s response to the sugar and lack of fibre. As mentioned, your digestive and renal systems remove toxins, not any certain food or beverage. Drinking fluids helps to support your body’s built-in detoxification system, but juice cleanses specifically don’t enhance this process any more than normal hydration (Nall, 2023).

Another supposed benefit of a juice cleanse is weight loss. Circling back to bowel movements for a moment, let’s be clear that going to the bathroom more frequently is not a weight loss tactic, and using it as such can quickly become disordered eating. With that aside, juice cleanses overall aren’t effective weight loss tools. Any weight lost as a result of severe caloric restriction on a juice cleanse will likely be regained when normal eating habits resume—but most of that weight is probably water weight anyways, not fat (Obert et al., 2017; Devje, 2023). Longer cleanses may also result in a loss of muscle mass, which is never ideal, but especially counterproductive if your goal is weight loss.

Juice cleanses are a recipe for malnutrition—they lack calories, fibre, fat, protein, and a ton of essential micronutrients. If you absolutely love juicing, incorporate it into an otherwise balanced diet, but don’t put yourself through the physiological and psychological hell that is a juice cleanse.

Gluten-free diets

When a typical gluten-containing food is turned gluten-free, along with the gluten goes a ton of valuable nutrients. Research has shown that gluten-free options contain less protein, potassium, magnesium, folate, calcium, and vitamin E, to name a few (Taetzsch et al., 2018). This same research also shows that gluten-free diets are often associated with higher calorie and fat intakes and lower fibre intakes.

I’m not quite sure how gluten-free diets became popularized for those without celiac disease or some sort of sensitivity, intolerance, or allergy, given the complete lack of evidence supporting gluten-free for those who don’t actually need it. Then again, diet culture loves an unsubstantiated claim, so I’m not that surprised. But let’s be clear that there’s no research to suggest gluten-free diets are nutritionally superior—unless, of course, you actually can’t eat gluten. There is, however, research to suggest that gluten-free diets are nutritionally inferior to gluten-inclusive diets. Take that, pseudoscience.

Raw milk

Ah, saving the best for last—and by that, I mean possibly one of the worst current nutrition trends. There’s been an uptick in the number of influencers promoting raw milk, claiming it’s more nutritious than pasteurized milk (it’s not), and that it’s beneficial for lactose intolerance (nope), asthma (uh-uh), and autoimmune disorders, including allergies (still no). I have yet to see an evidence-based source that supports these claims, because the Raw Milk Institute, where most of these claims originate, doesn’t exactly scream objectivity and credibility.

Raw milk is not nutritionally superior to pasteurized milk—studies have shown that any impact on milk’s nutritional value as a result of pasteurization is minimal and largely insignificant (Macdonald et al., 2011). Raw milk advocates also point to the fact that unpasteurized milk contains Bifidobacterium, a good probiotic—which it does. However, Bifidobacterium doesn’t come from a cow’s milk; rather, it’s found in a cow’s GI tract (Beerens et al., 2000). This means that if your raw milk contains Bifidobacteria, it’s actually been contaminated with cow manure, and without pasteurization, pathogenic compounds also present in that fecal matter may still be alive. There’s no point in risking severe illness for the sake of probiotics, given that a variety of pasteurized dairy is enriched with probiotics, minus the pathogens.

Additionally, raw milk demonstrates no reduction in the malabsorption or intolerance of lactose (Mummah et al., 2014). As for the assertion that raw milk protects against asthma and allergies, the study typically referenced in support of this claim was conducted using farm milk, not raw milk, and it’s unclear whether the effects were even a result of the milk itself or other farm-related factors (Waser et al., 2007).

To put into perspective just how dangerous raw milk really is, in the United States, only 3.2% and 1.6% of the population consume unpasteurized milk and cheese, respectively, but unpasteurized dairy represents 96% of all contaminated dairy illnesses (Costard et al., 2017). The statistics are there, but the evidence isn’t, so why is raw milk consumption a thing?

These certainly aren’t the only unsubstantiated nutrition trends, and unfortunately, there’s always more to come. Best case scenario, bad nutrition advice will be a waste of your time; worst case scenario, it’ll encourage you to actively put yourself in harm’s way. Do yourself the favour and due diligence of fact-checking any wellness culture trend against evidence-based sources before trying it out. Or, you can stick with me—my claims will always have scientific receipts.

References

Beerens, H., Hass Brac de la Perriere, B., & Gavini, F. (2000). Evaluation of the hygienic quality of raw milk based on the presence of bifidobacteria: the cow as a source of faecal contamination. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 54(3), 163-169. doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1605(99)00194-4

Costard, S., Espejo, L., Groenendaal, H., & Zagmutt, F. J. (2017). Outbreak-Related Disease Burden Associated with Consumption of Unpasteurized Cow’s Milk and Cheese, United States, 2009–2014. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 23(6). doi.org/10.3201/eid2306.151603

Devje, S. (2023, November 30). It’s Time to Leave Juice Cleanses Behind — Here’s Why. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/juice-cleanse

Leech, J. (2023, November 16). Benefits of drinking lemon water. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318662

Macdonald, L. E., Brett, J., Kelton, D., Majowicz, S. E., Snedeker, K., & Sargeant, J. M. (2011). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of pasteurization on milk vitamins, and evidence for raw milk consumption and other health-related outcomes. Journal of Food Protection, 74(11), 1814-1832. doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-10-269

Mummah, S., Oelrich, B., Hope, J., Vu, Q., & Gardner, C. D. (2014). Effect of Raw Milk on Lactose Intolerance: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study. Annals of Family Medicine, 12(2), 134-141. doi.org/10.1370/afm.1618

Nall, R. (2023, May 19). What are the pros and cons of a juice cleanse? Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323136#:~:text=An%20increase%20in%20fluid%20consumption,the%20ability%20to%20remove%20toxins.

Obert, J., Pearlman, M., Obert, L., & Chapin, S. (2017). Popular Weight Loss Strategies: a Review of Four Weight Loss Techniques. Current Gastroenterology Reports, 19(61). doi.org/10.1007/s11894-017-0603-8

Petre, A. (2023, May 5). Lemon Juice: Acidic or Alkaline, and Does It Matter? Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/lemon-juice-acidic-or-alkaline

Taetzsch, A., Das, S. K., Brown, C., Krauss, A., Silver, R. E., & Roberts, S. B. (2018). Are Gluten-Free Diets More Nutritious? An Evaluation of Self-Selected and Recommended Gluten-Free and Gluten-Containing Dietary Patterns. Nutrients, 10(12), 1881. doi: 10.3390/nu10121881

Waser, M., Michels, K. B., Bieli, C., Flöistrup, H., Pershagen, G., von Mutius, E., Ege, M., Riedler, J., Schram-Bijkerk, D., Brunekreef, B., van Hage, M., Lauener, R., Braun-Fahrländer, C., & the PARSIFAL Study team. (2007). Inverse association of farm milk consumption with asthma and allergy in rural and suburban populations across Europe. Clinical & Experimental Allergy, 37(5), 661-670. doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02640.x