Health & Wellness
Trendy, Not True: Nutrition Fads Debunked
Feb
You can also view the video version of this here on my YouTube channel.
Nutrition wellness trends are interesting things. A social influencer can spread a great deal of misinformation or even disinformation on nutrition, health, wellness, skincare—just about anything actually.
Some wellness trends are a blip on the radar, fading into the recesses of the internet as quickly as they appeared. (Celery juice, anyone?) Others have serious staying power. Here’s three potions and powders that have secured a foot hold in the wellness zeitgeist.
Seed oils
Seed oils—like canola, corn, soy, sunflower, and safflower—have gotten a bad rap in some circles.
They’re “toxic” because they cause inflammation that leads to obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and more, critics charge. The main villain: linoleic acid (an exceptional fatty acid for the face by the way), an omega-6 fat found in seed oils. The logic goes like this: The body converts linoleic acid into arachidonic acid, which then gets converted into prostaglandins. And prostaglandins set off inflammatory responses throughout the body.
The problem? Only about two-tenths of 1 percent of the linoleic acid we consume is converted to arachidonic acid. (Numerically two-tenths of 1 percent looks like this: 0.002)
What’s more, in an analysis of 30 studies that tracked roughly 70,000 people, those with the highest blood levels of linoleic acid—and arachidonic acid—had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. (Both are omega-6 fats)
Most seed-oil critics recommend swapping them for butter and olive, avocado, or coconut oil. Olive and avocado oils are fine, but coconut oil and butter are loaded with saturated fat. Replacing saturated fat with omega-6 fats not only lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol; it slashes the risk of cardiovascular disease by roughly 30 percent.
Bottom line
Be smarter than them! Ignore the seed-oil-is-toxic hype.
Alkaline water
Alkaline waters have been a mainstay in the bottled-water aisle for years. Are they worth the higher price tag? No.
On the pH scale of 0 to 14, which measures how acidic or alkaline a substance is, water sits smack in the middle, with a neutral pH of 7. Alkaline water typically has a pH between 8 and 9.
Most claims hinge on the idea that alkaline water can neutralize acid. For example, you might have heard that alkaline water can neutralize stomach acid and ease gastric reflux.
Stomach acid has an extremely acidic pH (1.5 to 3). Sure, you might be able to briefly and slightly raise that pH if you gulp down, say, a liter (slightly more than a quart) of alkaline water. But would that translate to less reflux? Who knows? No randomized trials have looked.
And don’t expect alkaline water to change the pH of your blood. The average adult body contains about 30 to 50 liters of water, so drinking a liter or two of mildly alkaline water is trivial. But more importantly, your body is incredibly good at keeping your blood’s pH within a very tight range (7.35 to 7.45), regardless of what you eat or drink.
Bottom line
There’s no evidence that you can—or reason why you should try to—change your body’s pH. You know some health trends are just plain dumb.
Greens powders
Interested in hacking your way to wellness? Look no further than the latest magic fairy dust: powdered greens.
Depending on which pricey powder you purchase, you can expect promises to support digestion and immunity, relieve bloat, or boost energy. The way they’re marketed it reminds me of the bottled tinctures peddlers used to sell in the 1800’s.
Many companies also sprinkle in, for good measure, a mix of powdered fruits and other vegetables, probiotics, prebiotics, adaptogens, and antioxidants.
But there’s no evidence (or reason to believe) that powdered greens, other powdered vegetables, or powdered fruits hold a candle to the real deal. All are low in the unprocessed fiber and the potassium you’d get in whole greens, fruits, and veggies. And despite claims like “2 servings of fruits and vegetables,” the powdered stuff doesn’t fill you up or help lower blood pressure like a hearty salad or a bowl of stir-fried broccoli.
I’d love to see a head-to-head trial pitting powdered versus intact greens on all those promised health benefits. Odds are, we’ll be waiting a millennium.
Bottom line
Powdered greens are a sad substitute for the real things. Don’t waste your money! 
