The New York Times asks experts to dispel 10 nutrition myths

Myth No. 1: Fresh fruits and vegetables are always healthier than canned, frozen or dried varieties: Despite this belief, Egan reports that research has found that frozen, canned and dried fruits and vegetables can be just as nutritious as their fresh counterparts. That said, Sara Bleich, a professor of public health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the Times that it’s important to read the nutrition labels to look for added sugars, saturated fats and sodium.

Myth No. 2: All fat is bad. This isn’t true, according to Dr. Vijaya Surampudi, an associate professor of medicine at the U.C.L.A. Center for Human Nutrition. Egan writes that Surampudi said that while certain types of fats, including saturated and trans fats, can increase your risk for conditions like heart disease or stroke, healthy fats, like monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, actually help reduce your risk.

Myth No. 3: ‘Calories in, calories out’ is the most important factor for long-term weight gain. Egan reports that while there is some truth to this in the short term, “research does not suggest that eating more will cause sustained weight gain that results in becoming overweight or obese.”

Myth No. 4: People with Type 2 diabetes shouldn’t eat fruit. Dr. Linda Shiue, an internist and the director of culinary medicine and lifestyle medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, told the Times that it’s time to bust this myth, adding that “everyone — including those with Type 2 diabetes — can benefit from the health-promoting nutrients in fruit like fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants,” Egan writes.

Myth No. 5: Plant milk is healthier than dairy milk. “It’s just not true,” Kathleen Merrigan, a professor of sustainable food systems at Arizona State University and a former U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture, told the Times. In particular, Merrigan stressed that cow’s milk has more protein per cup than plant milks, at eight grams per cup. Further, she said many plant-based milks have many more added ingredients than cow’s milk, like sodium and added sugars.

Myth No. 6: White potatoes are bad for you. While white potatoes are known to have a high glycemic index, potatoes can actually be beneficial for health, Daphene Altema-Johnson, a program officer of food communities and public health at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, told the Times. Egan reports that white potatoes are rich in vitamin C, potassium, fiber and other nutrients, especially when consumed with the skin.

Myth No. 7: You should never feed peanut products to your children within their first few years of life. For years, this was the advice of experts, but now, allergy experts told the Times that “it’s better to introduce peanut products to your child early on.”

Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, gave Egan a detailed description of how to introduce peanut products to babies that don’t have severe eczema or a known food allergy at around 4 to 6 months, and encouraged families with babies that have severe exema to talk to their pediatrician or an allergist about when to introduce peanut products to their infants. “It is also important to feed your baby a diverse diet in their first year of life to prevent food allergies,” Gupta told the Times.

Myth No. 8: The protein in plants is incomplete. Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist and professor of medicine at Stanford University, told the Times that plant-based foods contain all of the building blocks of proteins, called amino acids, but the proportion of these amino acids isn’t as ideal as that found in animal-based foods. “So, to get an adequate mix, you simply need to eat a variety of plant-based foods throughout the day — such as beans, grains and nuts — and eat enough total protein,” Egan writes.

Myth No. 9: Eating soy-based foods can increase the risk of breast cancer. Egan reports that high doses of plant estrogens in soy called isoflavones have been found to stimulate breast tumor cell growth in animal studies. “However, this relationship has not been substantiated in human studies,” Dr. Frank B. Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the Times.

Myth No. 10: Fundamental nutrition advice keeps changing — a lot. This is not the case, Dr. Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, told the Times. Egan writes: “Yes, science evolves, but the bottom-line dietary guidance remains consistent. As author Michael Pollan distilled to seven simple words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” That advice worked 70 years ago, and it still does today, Dr. Nestle said.”