We’ve all got them: food fears. Tuna’s toxic, sugar’s really bad for you, and that soy in your morning latté could give you breast cancer. Here, we examine the most debated foods so you can stop stressing and start enjoying.
BY Valerie Latona PHOTOGRAPHY by Andrew Scrivani
After Manhattan nutritionist Brooke Alpert, MS, RD, sweats through her favorite Soul Cycle class on Manhattan’s Upper East side, she watches her fellow cycling devotees make a beeline for the nearby Juice Generation—the popular New York City juice chain—for their post-sweat fix. One of the most requested drinks on the menu is Daily Detox, a blend of fresh carrot, cucumber, apple, lemon, and ginger.
The thinking: Daily juicing will cleanse your body of all its junk, detoxing it in the process. “Juicing is great because of all the micronutrients you get from greens like kale and spinach,” says Alpert, whose company, B Nutritious, counsels clients on eating well. “On the other hand, it’s not great because some of these juices—fruit-based ones, in particular—contain a lot of natural sugar, which is absorbed very quickly by the body. These people think they’re doing something good for their bodies, but they’re actually overdoing it and, in the process, consuming more calories than they’re burning.”
Organic Produce
A recent review of studies at the Stanford School of Medicine, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and widely reported in the media, found that organic produce was no more nutritious than the conventionally grown kind. Many experts dispute this, however, saying the funding for the study was from food manufacturers and inherently biased.
“Logically, something without carcinogens sprayed on them is going to be the healthier, tastier option,” says B Nutritious founder Alpert, who recommends organic produce for all of her clients.
Access the full article with complete list of nutrition myths in the Winter/Spring 2013 issue NOW. Page 122
