Interesting.
They say you should banish late night meals and stop after one bite of dessert. Obviously "they" don't live in the real world!
Most of the time nutritionists and dietitians are full of brilliant ideas that help you eat healthier, stay slim and live longer. But once in a while, food gurus forget the rest of us have limited time, funds and willpower. That's when they spit out wonky bits of wisdom like, "Ask your waiter to wrap up half your main before you start eating." Yeah, he'd be happy to... not! We collected seven of the hardest to swallow suggestions and replaced them with healthy tips a normal person can actually use.
THE ADVICE: Chug eight glasses of water a day.
Why it's useless: Peeing every 20 minutes seriously interferes with life.
The real deal: Believe it or not, the eight-glass quota isn't etched in stone. Yes, we need to be well-hydrated, but if your urine is clear or close to it, you're probably getting enough fluids. If your No. 1 is neon yellow, lighten things up by adding one or two glasses a day. Once your body adjusts to getting more fluid (and you don't have to run to the loo every 10 minutes), add another, says Karen Benzinger, a dietary consultant. And don't forget that all liquids - including tea, juice, even the tonic in your vodka drink - help keep your body sufficiently saturated.
THE ADVICE: Don't drink juice - it's a sugar bomb.
Why it's useless: Juice is a breakfast staple, and it's essential for smoothies.
The real deal: There's a big difference between 100 per cent juice and a bottle of sugar water with a few cranberries squeezed into it. Yes, juice has a lot of the sweet stuff, but a glass of 100 per cent juice also counts as a full serving of fruit and delivers many of the same vitamins and antioxidants, making it worth the occasional sugar rush, says health consultant Jessica Ganzer.
And it can be the easiest way to get a superfood. Drinking 100 per cent pomegranate juice is easy, picking apart a real pomegranate, not so much. As long as you drink 100 per cent juice (from concentrate is fine) and limit yourself to one glass a day, you're not breaking any rules of good nutrition. If you're seriously cutting back on kilojoules or carbs, try a Nudie juice. They have no added sugar and many come with pulp that amps up the fibre content. Plus they taste great.
THE ADVICE: Shut the kitchen down after 7pm to prevent weight gain.
Why it's useless: After a long day at work and a trip to the gym, you either eat dinner at 9:30pm or starve.
The real deal: The no-food-right-before-bedtime rule was meant for the nightowl nosher who mindlessly wolfs down a packet of Tim Tams while watching Criminal Minds. If you get home long after dark, a late dinner is perfectly fine. A kilojoule is a kilojoule, no matter what time you eat it, according to Katie Clark, a family health care professor. But do keep your evening meal light - along the lines of a chicken breast, steamed broccoli and brown rice. Too much chow will keep you up at night. To break down all that food, your gut has to churn like a cement truck.
THE ADVICE: Slowly simmer raw, unrefined oats instead of nuking the instant kind.
Why it's useless: We're busy. The only way that we have time for breakfast is when breakfast doesn't take any time.
The real deal: The pros push this tip because people usually eat flavoured instant porridge which can contain up to a whopping 10g of sugar per 40g packet compared with 1g or less of sweetness in the raw stuff. Unrefined oats are less processed than the rolled oats used in the just-add-water variety, so they take longer to digest. This keeps your blood sugar nice and steady, helping you avoid mood swings and hunger pangs. Having said that, instant oats are still wholegrain oats (they're just mashed up a bit more), so they come with most of the same health benefits. One of these is the cholesterol-lowering, hunger-satisfying soluble fibre beta-glucan. This turns gummy when it hits your gastrointestinal tract, binds with cholesterol, and drags it out. "I'd rather my clients eat one-minute porridge than no oats at all," Ganzer says. If you find unsweetened oats about as appetising as cardboard, combine half a packet of the flavoured kind with half a packet of plain.
THE ADVICE: If you must drink while you diet, order a white-wine spritzer.
Why it's useless: Despite the dainty name, there's just no getting past the taste of watered-down wine.
The real deal: There's no weight-loss magic in a spritzer - a cup of wine diluted with kilojoule-free carbonated water. It's just another portion- control trick that trims your total kilojoule intake, Clark says. If you baulk at the idea of outdated cocktails or weak-tasting booze then slowly sipping a glass of water between rounds of chardy pretty much accomplishes the same goal.
THE ADVICE: Put half your main in a doggy bag before you start to eat.
Why it's useless: You know that you have portion-control issues, but that doesn't mean you want everyone else at your table to know it too.
The real deal: A better way to cut back on restaurant bingeing is to pretend the bread basket is sprinkled with cyanide and to double up on vegie sides instead of ordering hot chips. Also effective: try putting your fork down between bites, which gives your stomach and brain time to register that you're full (which takes about 20 minutes). Once your gauge hits "F", ask the waiter to box up the rest of your food right away so you won't keep nibbling, Benzinger says.
THE ADVICE: Have just one bite of dessert.
Why it's useless: That's like telling a drug addict to have just a little crack. Unlikely.
The real deal: Eating a big piece of chocolate cake is like watching reality TV. There's nothing right about it, so just revel in how deliciously wrong it is. And before the debauchery, plan for the extra kilojoules: skip the entree or (ouch) the booze. "If the dessert is really that good, it's worth the sacrifice," Benzinger says.