Nutritional FAQ’s
By Peter Louie
Whether you want to lose weight, gain weight, or improve your sports performance, proper diet and nutrition is imperative to achieving your goals.
We get asked many questions regarding diet because there is so much conflicting information out there. Here are 3 common questions we get asked.
Are Eggs good for you?
Answer: Yes and No.
The egg white, or albumen, contains 17 calories of which basically all of it is protein (4gm). This is why you will find egg-white meals in every health food café. It also contains water and B-Vitamins. Egg whites are basically ok for everyone.
The egg yolk contains approximately 16% protein so 100g of egg yolk would have 16 grams of protein. 100g of egg yolk also contains over 1000mg of cholesterol and this is where eggs get a bad rap.
Cholesterol is a fat like substance present in all of our cells. It was believed that cholesterol was the main culprit in causing heart attacks and this was before the understanding of HDL and LDL. However, a paper by HH Vorster (1992) showed that ingested cholesterol from high fat diets had no significant increase in lipoproteins in healthy, active individuals. The key words here are healthy and active.
Summary: If you’re healthy and active, eating eggs and egg yolks has little to no effect on your cholesterol levels.
One medium egg (boiled) contains:
| Calories | Protein | Fat | Saturated Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 84 Calories | 8.3g | 5.7g | 1.6g |
Should I Eat Breakfast
Answer: Yes, to those who have health conditions and certain individuals (listed below).
No, to those who are looking at weight loss.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; this is something we hear very often either by peers or on television or even by professionals. Some studies suggest that skipping breakfast, as a way to limit calorie intake, will help in weight loss. This works for weight loss only if you don’t “fill up” at other meals.
Will eating Breakfast increase my Metabolism?
Another theory is that eating breakfast may help with weight loss because of the efficient burning of calories early in the day. This appears to be a myth. So far there is no proof that eating breakfast directly increases one’s metabolic rate. In fact, it’s been found that there is ‘no significant difference’ in metabolic rates between breakfast eaters and breakfast skippers.
So, whether you skip breakfast or not seems to be a personal choice. For weight loss it ultimately comes down to eating healthily and calorie control. However, if your goal is to gain lean mass then we do recommend you eat a high-protein breakfast to ensure you’re getting enough protein throughout the day.
We recommend the following always have breakfast:
Pregnant Women.
Children & Adolescents.
Those who want to build lean muscle.
Medical reasons require you to do so.
Those who just love breakfast.
Should I have 6 meals or 3 Meals a day?
Another theory out there is that eating smaller meals more often increases your body’s ability to burn fat. An 8-week study looked at the difference in weight loss between participants who ate 3 times a day versus 6 times per day. They all reduced their food intake by an average of 700 calories a day. Half of the 16 participants ate 3 times per day. The other half ate 6 times per day. Participants in each group lost the same amount of weight!
Another study concluded that increasing meal frequency from three to six per day had no significant effect on 24-hour fat burning. It did however show an increase in perceived hunger and the desire to eat which could lead to over-eating.
So, over the course of a day what really matters is the number of calories consumed.
Summary
Be careful of the hogwash and fad diets that are on the internet. When it comes to dietary or nutritional requirements there is no off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all magical solution. Some people increase their calorie intake and don’t gain weight. Others decrease their calorie intake and don’t lose weight. The old adage of eat healthily, eat in moderation, and exercise regularly seems to be one of the better options. But this too doesn’t seem to work for everyone.
For more information on the studies mentioned above or if you have any questions pertaining to diet and nutrition, please contact us at 012-334-1511 or send us an enquiry here.