(Ecns.cn)—Almost every day we hear or read tips for healthy diets from newspapers, the Internet, television or radio. In a report published Tuesday, Shandong Business Daily pointed out that some of these healthy tips are just myths.
Non-fried food is healthy
"Non-fried" has become the latest sales point for chips and instant noodles at supermarkets. These brands promise that their non-fried chips (baked) are much healthier than fried ones.
The report quoted Wu Yongning, a senior nutritionist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying that starchy foods, fried or not, contained acrylamide, a chemical compound that can damage the nervous system and cause cancer.
There is no evidence showing that non-fried chips contain less acrylamide than fried ones, Wu said.
Chicken powder is better than gourmet powder
We all know that adding too much gourmet powder to dishes is bad for your health, so many people turn to chicken powder as an alternative.
In fact, the major components of chicken powder are still found in gourmet powder. To lower the cost, some manufacturers do not even use "chicken" (chicken oil, etc) in the powder at all. Therefore, whether it is chicken powder or gourmet powder – less is best.
Natural color won't come off
Since public concern over food additives is growing, it is understandable that people are obsessed with anything "natural." For example, it is believed by some consumers that the color of black sesame seeds wash off because the seeds were colored by man, implying that the natural color of fruit will not fade when washed.
However, plant pigments are a rather complicated science. For some foods, the natural color will come off as easy as artificial ones.
Sugar free is good
Most of us confuse the notion of "sugar free" with "no sugar in it," but the correct word should really be "sucrose free," which means that it contains no sugar obtained from sugar cane and sugar beet.
Most "sugar free" drinks or foods contain artificial sweeteners which are a few hundred times sweeter than sucrose, which could also mean big trouble for diabetics.
