False Facts People Believed About Food 50 Years Ago

Due to food regulations, you won't find raw milk at a typical grocery store. Instead, you'll find pasteurized milk, which has gone through the process of being heated to eliminate harmful bacteria. Although this process is commonplace, you may have heard of the supposed benefits of raw milk. Raw milk is simply milk that has not gone through this sterilization process.

For years, raw milk drinkers have claimed this is the healthier way to get your dairy. Advocates believe the non-pasteurized version contains more enzymes and beneficial bacteria. Mark McAfee, founder of Organic Pastures and distributor of raw milk, shared his thoughts with Bon Appétit. "Raw milk is like breast milk: non-allergenic, full of good bacteria, the ultimate immune-booster," he said. "Tens of thousands of people have reported to us that, when they drink raw milk, they have no problems digesting it, their children have a decreased risk of asthma, and their eczema is cured in four to six weeks."

These are bold claims on behalf of raw milk. However, the research doesn't seem to back them up, and the risks associated with drinking raw milk outweigh the potential benefits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that consuming raw milk may lead to foodborne illness, particularly for children, adults over 65, and anyone with a compromised immune system. Furthermore, studies have not found any significant nutritional loss between pasteurized and raw milk.

For far too long, egg yolks have been demonized for their high cholesterol content. This caused health enthusiasts to give up the flavorful yellow center for egg white omelets and other supposedly healthier alternatives. Bad press around egg yolks reached a peak in the 1980s. "When the cholesterol scare started in the '80s, eggs were an easy target," Linda Braun, consumer services manager for the American Egg Board, told the New York Times. "Americans like to think if they can remove just one thing from their diet, everything will be all right. Unfortunately, eggs were that one thing."

But just because food contains cholesterol doesn't mean you should never eat it. Whole eggs, including the delicious yolk, can make a healthy addition to your diet. The classic breakfast is a great way to start your day and not something to be scared of. While it's true that yolks contain most of an egg's cholesterol content, they also house vital nutrients such as iron, folate, and vitamins.

Furthermore, a recent study found that eating egg yolks in moderation won't increase your body's cholesterol levels in the way people feared during the '80s. Dr. Luc Djoussé, one of the researchers, told Time, "Current scientific data do not justify worries about egg consumption, including egg yolk, when it comes to heart health." Unless you have compounding health factors to consider, eating eggs in moderation is perfectly healthy, according to modern research. 

Microwaves are an excellent time-saving option that uses electromagnetic waves to cook vegetables and other foods in a fraction of the time it would take to heat the same dish in the oven or stovetop. As microwaves became more popular, many were understandably suspicious of the miraculous technology, and the belief that microwaves zapped nutrients out of food gained wide acceptance. This is a food myth that your parents or grandparents likely believed and may have even taught you, but it's not actually true.

According to research done by Harvard Medical School, cooking food in the microwave may be one of the best ways to maintain nutrients. Some of the nutritional content of your food decreases when exposed to heat. Because of this, a cooking method like microwaving, which works quickly, gives the nutrients less time to break down and maintains a lot of the health content.

There are, of course, drawbacks to cooking in the microwave. We've all experienced a disappointing frozen dinner where you pop it in the microwave for the instructed time only to have pockets that are still cold while others are molten hot. And, of course, microwaving doesn't always give the best texture or flavor results. Nonetheless, it's a convenient heating method that works great for many foods, and you don't have to worry about it zapping out your nutrients.

Imagine you're getting ready to prepare dinner, and you have frozen chicken breast in the freezer. If you want to defrost the meat quickly, you may think you can just leave it out on the counter to speed up the process. For years, many home chefs have done just this, believing it's safe to leave meat out at room temperature to defrost. But this is one kitchen myth that can have bad consequences. Leaving meat on the counter can lead to rapid bacteria growth and cause foodborne illness. To avoid this, you shouldn't leave perishable foods like raw meat at room temperature for longer than two hours.

There are a few options that you can use to safely thaw your meat. The first is to transfer the frozen meat from your freezer to your fridge and let it gently thaw at a cool temperature. You'll need to plan ahead for this method as it may take a full 24 hours for your meat to defrost in the low fridge temperature. For a faster option, the USDA recommends thawing meat in cold water. You can do this by sealing the meat in a plastic bag (be sure there are no leaks) and placing the bag in a large bowl of cold water. Change the water every 30 minutes until the meat thaws. You also should NOT thaw the meat in hot water.

Because of diet trends, the word carbs has become synonymous with high-calorie, filling dishes like bread and pasta. This misconception has led to the demonization of carbs as something to be avoided, but carbohydrates can not only be a part of a healthy diet; they're essential to it.

To fully understand how incorrect this food myth is, you first need to know what carbs actually are. While you'll find carbohydrates in fluffy white bread and other baked goods, they're also present in all kinds of foods, including fruits, starches, and legumes. Carbohydrates are a basic food group that gives your body glucose, which is then converted into energy. It's an essential function for your physical activity every day.

Despite what you may have learned, cutting back carbs is not the secret to health. In fact, the more physically active you are, the more energy your body will need from carbs. For the healthiest carb options, you can opt for unprocessed carbs, such as whole grains, but don't try to remove them from your diet. Because of the variety of healthy foods containing carbs and the necessary function that carbohydrates serve, cutting them out is unrealistic and will have damaging side effects. Doing away with carbs can lower your energy and lead to nutrient deficiencies.

Although many diet plans and health coaches have touted sweet potato fries and baked sweet potatoes as the healthy alternative to classic potato recipes, it's not that clear cut. While it's true that sweet potatoes are a delicious and healthy ingredient that you can incorporate into many sweet potato recipes for a well-balanced diet, they aren't as different from white potatoes as you might think. Despite what you may have been taught, you can enjoy both white and sweet potatoes and get different health benefits from each one.

If you've always been told that sweet potatoes are the healthy choice, you may be shocked to see just how similar sweet potatoes and white potatoes are nutritionally. When it comes to calories, fat, carbs, and protein, the two types of potatoes are practically identical. Sweet potatoes have a much higher vitamin A concentration and more dietary fiber. However, regular white potatoes are a better source of potassium. So, which one is the "healthy choice" depends more on what is missing from your diet, and there's no need to reject white potatoes altogether.