I'm shaking my head at this advice

My favorite is the part about your body producing its own fat when you starve yourself.

Mine too.

And Microwaves changing DNA.

I see what they're *trying* to say but... no.

hands down my favorite response.

Id be really upset in all honesty if that was my health advisor. That's not advice. If you read it carefully, that's what the individual does to maintain his/her own body weight. Now I'm no expert, clearly, but I do know that each person has an individual chemical makeup and certain are proven to work some folks and not for some. There are lots of variables to consider such as height, diet, GENETICS..etc.

I really hope your friend just comes to hang out with us in MFP land. Good luck

As a Nurse part of my job is to educate clients on healthy eating for reducing cholesterol, and weight loss.
Reading this, knowing just how inaccurate the advise was

Just made me laugh, and laugh...

I hope no one actually believes any of it!

As a Nurse part of my job is to educate clients on healthy eating for reducing cholesterol, and weight loss.
Reading this, knowing just how inaccurate the advise was

Just made me laugh, and laugh...

I hope no one actually believes any of it!

I too am an RN and saw through it pretty quickly. There's something to said for the value of Registered health professionals which that person obviously is not. haha

My guess is that this "Advice" is coming from a person who has a financial interest in California's farming/produce economy. I have been getting slammed with emails about drinking 8 ounces of Lemon juice per day to cure cancer! And similar "pass this on to someone you love" type spams. Nuts, citrus, vegetables... every one of these "pass this on" emails is tied directly to California's growers. This vegan who eats chicken and beef blew their scheme. Just my opinion from what I have been getting attacked with.

My best advice is to have a Body Composition performed as mentioned above. Once you know your At Rest Metabolic Rate (ARMR), you know what you have to eat to maintain your weight just for your body to function. It's probably around 1,500 to 1,800 or so. Then add to that, the amount of energy (in calories) burned each day during the course of your typical day. Say 500, or if you are disabled, ill, or otherwise immobile then your ARMR is the number of calories you can consume without gaining weight. For every 100 calories per day less than that, you will lose 1 pound in 5 weeks. 3,500 calories in 1 pound of body fat. 7 days per week X 5 Weeks = 35. 35 X 100 calories = 3,500 or 1 pound of weight.

I am not a nutritionist or dietician and don't have any science to back up what I'm about to say, however if she wants to make a rebuttal using scientific studies/facts instead of making unfounded claims (the Loch Ness monster exists and it eats dark matter! Prove me wrong!) she can feel free to.

"As a vegan.. I maintain my weight and even lose weight naturally!" Yes, it is called energy balance. Some other things that maintain their weight naturally and lose weight naturally: an oxygen atom, a wardrobe, the planet Earth.

"Losing the dairy and eggs is a must." No it isn't unless you have a food intolerance.

"Dairy and eggs will MAINTAIN your weight making it impossible to lose." If an egg has 100 calories and your TDEE is 4,000 calories, and you go on an egg-only diet, you have to eat 40 eggs a day to maintain your weight. Eat one less egg a day and you lose weight.

"Eat only egg Dairy clogs arteries anyway so it is not healthy.." Dietary cholesterol does not clog arteries. Saturated fats may if you already have atherosclerosis from eating trans fats. I say "may" instead of "will" because at present there isn't enough data to say either way (hence the Wikipedia article "Saturated fat and cardiovascular disease controversy").

"Plenty of raw fruits and veggies have calcium in it so you wont lack that." The equivalent of 3 glasses of milk? What if I hate fruit and vegetables?

"Almond milk to replace Cows milk.." I prefer goats milk, although there's nothing wrong with cows milk especially post workout with sugar and chocolate added.

"Avoid all refined foods such as white rice white pasta white bread white allpurpose flour white sugar and white salt (including sea salt).." Bull. I don't have diabetes, coeliac disease, a gluten intolerance/allergy, or high/low blood pressure. Nothing wrong with salt or sugar, but some people just need to pay closer attention to them because they have a health issue. Others want their food to digest slower.

"Himalayan pink crystal salt has 84 minerals in it.. Every mineral that the body needs for optimum health.." You do realise a "trace" amount of something means "contains" can be used, yes? So, how do you convert trace amounts of minerals to the RDA for those minerals? Women with heavy periods need more iron... surely eating more pink voodoo salt to compensate (pushing up the amount of everything else) would not be "optimal" would it? How many grams is a 214 lb man supposed to consume per day?

"Use organic sugar cane sparingly.." Yep, that stuff is expensive. Go with the regular sugar cane or the stuff from sugar beet.

"Avoid bread at all costs during weightloss.. It is glutenous and has the wrong type of carbs.." Nothing wrong with bread (see above about coeliacs/gluten). Wheat/wholegrain bread contains complex carbs.

"You need "complex carbs" from raw fruits and veggies.." Raw fruit and veggies contain fibrous carbs, not complex carbs.

"Eat a handful of each per day (almonds sunflower seeds and a mix of brazilnuts with walnuts) .. Nuts are not high in saturated fat.. They are over 80% monounsaturated fats which lowers cholesterol and blood sugar levels." Bull, they do no such thing. All fats slow down glucose blood sugar absorption so you'd get a similar effect from a greasy rasher of bacon. The link between unsaturated fats, dietary cholesterol, cholesterol produced by the body... not seen enough evidence to believe one way or the other.

"Try eating veggies raw.. When you cook food you make it acidic and we need an 80% alkaline intake and 20% acidic and most fruits are naturally acidic.. Lemons limes and grapefruits sound acidic but turn to alkaline when consumed because of the low sugar content in these 3 fruits.." Wait, so naturally acidic food becomes alkaline when you eat it? So if you cook a lemon and it becomes more acidic, does eating it make it alkaline? Why don't that work for vegetables?

"Squeeze half a lemon in your morning water on an empty stomach everyday! This is what everyone should consume before they eat anything for breakfast." I prefer tap water. Flavourings have no benefit.

"Avoid fish unless you have mercury/radiation free fish in Oz then eat 2 salmon steaks per week no more than 250g each.." Yes, don't eat a blue whale every day because they are high in mercury from all the little fish they eat which builds up over time. If these salmon steaks are mercury free, why is the serving size being limited?

"Eat a 300g piece of chicken breast or grassfed beef per day.." So... you are encouraging some people to give up eggs and start eating chicken? How vegetarian of you.

"One portion a day is plenty and make one of your meals a large raw salad and add guacomole and a touch of olive oil as your salad dressing." That entirely depends on your macros. If I were trying to eat 1 gram protein per pound bodyweight I'd more than likely have 2 or 3 portions.

"Avoid any processed foods and avoid anything in a can." Why? If I followed that advice I would currently be ~296 lb because I wouldn't be "on diet". I've lost 61+ lb eating processed food.

"Also.. A couple homemade smoothies/juices are very important as well.. One should be half carrot and half apple.. The otger should be 2 kiwis and a bunch of your favorite veggies inckuding 3 leaves of kale or collard greens/spinach." As important as eating fibre, or as important as looking both ways before crossing a road? There are different degrees of importance.

"I spent my whole half hour busride telling you all this because I am a health advisor and a nutritionist by trade. " So what? Someone trying to sell me a horse manure supplement or acai berries supplement can also make similar claims without any proof to back them up.

"Avoid pharmaceuticals including weightloss pills like Duramine. Like Thomas said.. Your body will produce its own fat to protect you when you begin to starve yourself and its the wrong type of fat." I'd say avoid pills that make give you diarrhoea, but whatever. The body doesn't produce fat, it converts body fat to Acetyl-CoA which can be used the same way as if derived from dietary fat. Surely you use a pill so you don't starve yourself?

"Avoid microwaves.. It changes the DNA of the food which is not recognized by the human body." If you boil water, the water molecules are CHANGED?!?! Microwaves just excite water molecules making them vibrate and heating the food. Please provide scientific studies that have shown microwaves to be able to cause genetic mutations in dead things (other than those that would occur naturally through the act of being dead and being cooked). DNA has nothing to do with digestion. The reason we can't digest plastic is because it is plastic. If the dead cooked thing consists of proteins, fats, carbs, and nucleic acids, our body doesn't really care if it is a giant moth from the Gamma Quadrant that has been genetically engineered to have a bigger brain. The only things that matter are toxicity, whether eating it would burn through our throat/stomach, and if indigestible whether the body can excrete it.

"Red meat and poultry sparingly is okay.. As long as it is no more than a 200g portion per day" Classing red meat and poultry together? What?

"[...] also I noticed you said you had a Gatorade.. Try your best to consume smoothies and water only for fluids. It is very important." Yep, that kiwi smoothie is more important than exercise! ...

"Naturally, a vegan diet will help you lose weight without exercise if you consume between 1800-2200 calories a day." Bull. My BMR is 1,774 calories per day. 1800-2200 on a vegan diet whilst laying in bed all day will cause me weight GAIN.

"If you consume less than 1800 calories a day.. Your body will maintain your weight, if not gain." Bull. If I consume 1,800 calories a day I will gain weight. Yesterday I consumed 3,535 calories and lost weight... this thing called exercise means you can eat more as there's this thing called energy balance.

"No soda.. No pop.. No fizz." Bull.

"Anything with a sugarfree label or a DIET before its name has Aspartame in it." Bull.

"A chemical sweetener that contains formaldehyde and causes neurological problems." Bull. The process according to a representative of the USFDA in response to snopes.com says the process is aspartame -> methanol -> formaldehyde, like the process of kiwi -> methanol -> formaldehyde. If going down the formaldehyde route of fear-mongering, why are you advocating citrus fruit that is converted to more methanol and thus "contains" more formaldehyde? By using "contains" so loosely you could also claim oxygen contains iron because there is a process somewhere where if you stick oxygen in at one end iron comes out the other (smelting). I avoid aspartame because it is man-made, no other reason.

"Avoid fat-free and sugar-free labels." What you do is look at the ingredients label instead of the marketing label.

"Your body needs fat, but corporations fail to tell us we need the RIGHT FATS.." Yep, eat those saturated fats for nerve creation/repair, brain cell creation/repair, among other things. Those unsaturated fats are helpful too.

"Avocados and nuts.. Mainstream likes to say theae are not that good when you consume a lot lol.. That is a big joke.. Eat 100g of nuts/seeds per day.. Preferably alkaline nuts such as almonds and brazilnuts. Add a tablespoon of each seed (hemp seeds, flax seeds, and chia seeds) in each meal on top of cereal, pasta, sauce, soup, salad or even in veggie dips.. Hemp seeds have the highest plant protein ratio than all the other plants in the world. 3 grams of hemp seeds has 1 gram of protein and I consume 60g a day giving me 20 grams of protein per day!" If you eat too much, you will gain weight. Calorie dense foods like avocados and nuts will make you get fat if you "consume a lot" - that is a fact. Excess carbs, proteins, and fats are converted to Acetyl-CoA and excess Acetyl-CoA is converted to body fat. See, this is science I *have* read about.

"Thomas Goodine makes a lot of valid points except I do not believe in nutritional facts." Someone doesn't believe in bomb calorimeters? The thousands (millions?) of pounds of weight loss that people have encountered by counting calories is coincidence?

"Get a calorie counter.. Such as myfitnesspal.com is a great site. Add the foods you eat and it calculates it for you. I just do not think Nutritional Facts on a box are that accurate, it is deceptive in some way or another." Bomb calorimeters are pretty accurate from what I've read, and mass produced food (i.e. the processed stuff you are advising people to stay away from) are likely to be the most accurate because the +/- 5/20% (depending on what the law in the region allows) is more than likely negated by the fact the machines make all products identical. MFP uses the nutritional facts boxes (or whatever they are called in your/my country) for their database. Mineral and vitamin contents of food, I'd agree because of soil depletion and not having done enough research to know how those are calculated, but I'm willing to be educated on the subject... are you?

Some people, seriously ....

Ive been eating bread every single day in the past year, included eggs on the weekend for a nice healthy breakfast and oh wow lost 100lbs

Glad your friend has someone like you to point her in the right direction

i love the part about the microwave changing DNA! That's a fabulous scientific acheivement.

Many people are unaware that any lay person can call themselves a "Nutritionist". There is no certification or regulating governing body for "nutritionists". You can have ZERO training or education and sell yourself as a nutritionist. I would only take nutritional advice seriously if it came from a highly educated, certified, licenced, well-trained professional like a Registered Dietician.

Also, anyone with half a brain who is mentoring or counselling a client with weight loss needs would emphasize exercise as an EQUALLY important part of their program. If they told me you can lose weight (in a healthy way) without exercise I'd be as skeptical as if they tried to tell me ultra low cal diets or rapid weight loss would be healthy or sustainable. Red flags!!

In a nutshell, if you eat well but don't exercise you are wasting your time just as it would be a waste of time to exercise and then eat an unhealthy diet.

I hope your friend sees the light.

I do have to disagree with you on this point. I have lost all my weight through diet alone. I do not exercise - other than normal everyday life activities like housecleaning or yard work.

The OP did make me giggle especially when a vegan (nothing wrong with being vegan) recommended eating chicken and beef every day. There are some good points mixed in with a whole lot of bad points in the FB post.

I personally think their advice, while well meaning, is off. I find some little bits of truth wrapped around a lot of misinformation.

I personally don't eat eggs or dairy because I don't think they are good for you. I may eventually start incorporating eggs back in once a week for an omelette or something, but never milk. I just don't think milk is good for you, that is my opinion though.

I also think the "eat a vegan diet and eat meat" thing was funny. I do think we eat too much meat though and I personally think we shouldn't be eating it more than 3 times a week.

The microwave thing is so way off, IMO. This is probably the person that boils their veggies which is actually losing way more nutrients.

Since I am not overly active I am pretty confident I would gain weight or MAYBE maintain at 1800 cals a day.

Jen

I have to say, the only part I agree with is eating at least 1800-2200 calories. Suggesting one eat below their BMR (the # of cals is takes to basically lay in bed all day?) is not healthy, you are not feeding your body what it needs to function and even *excel* at daily activities including exercise!

That's crazy. On the microwave cooking. I personally know of only one person ever getting sick from microwave cooking. Apparently this woman thought they were the bees knees and cooked absolutely everything in one. She apparently ended up with some kind of nutrient deficiency . This was an extreme case. Most people eat a mixture of cooked and raw veggies, proteins meat etc cooked in different ways, so the odd meal heated in microwave is fine. I don't like our small kitchen , no room for one

That theory about extremists applies to every aspect of life.

It's like every piece of bad advice and misconception about nutrition and diet all wrapped into one big facebook post. Awesome!

I have to say that I've seen most of that stuff posted around here it's just usually one at a time. You usually find the "dairy is bad for you" or "cleanse with lemon juice/ fruit smoothies" or "don't eat below BMR" or "no aspartame/artificial sweeteners" or "eat 6 small meals a day." Finding them all wrapped up together is pretty awesome. I think I would just be impressed at the ability of that person to take everything that has no scientific backing and put them all together.