The Truth About Food

Ladies, ladies, hear ye! How often we fret about the food we eat and their effect on the waist line. We follow blindly and faithfully some of the fad diets or myths of food. How effective are these in helping us maintain our BMI is anyone's guess.

For those with a more inquisitive mind (or perhaps cynic attitude) and would like to understand more thoroughly the effect of the fad diets or eating habits, the recent series of documentaries on Channel NewsAsia offer answers to some of our questions. It aims to tell us the truth about food, including how to be slim. "The Truth About Food" is a documentary that airs every Sunday evening on CNA. Each week, the documentary features different topics relating to food.

Colourful food is not only pleasing to sight and whets your appetite; colourful food is also more beneficial to your body. For example, red wine taken in moderation, strengthens your heart. Spinach helps to improve eye-sight. Tomatoes improves our skin's resistance towards sun burnt.
How does food play a part in maintaining our weight or in slimming down? Is how big or small we are determined by our metabolism? Is a high protein diet effective? Well, answers are revealed in the different experiments conducted.

1) Our sizes are not determined by our metabolic rate but our food intake.

2) A person who consumes a high protein diet has a more satiating meal than a person who consumes a high carbohydrate or high fat meal. Hence, this reduces the food intake of the person who consumes a high-protein meal.

3) A person who consumes a high-calcium meal passes out more fats than one who does not because calcium will bind the fat together and prevents it from being absorbed by the body.

4) A detox diet does not result in more toxins being passed out.

5) When water and solid food are taken separately compared to if they were made into soup, the latter can sustain us from hunger for a longer period of time. This is because the soup can expand our gastric for a longer period of time than water and solid food. Hence, this sends signal to our brains that we are full.

6) We tend to overeat by being served a larger portion of the food. In addition, we tend to overeat if we do not see what we have eaten.

Knowing the truth and denouncing the myth surrounding food, we can better manage our diet and work towards greater health.