Credit: Dr Idz/Penguin
Strong Women
“I’m an NHS doctor, and here’s the truth behind the biggest social media nutrition myths – from seed oils to ultra-processed foods”
By Lauren Geall
1 year ago
7 min read
From the fear surrounding ‘inflammatory’ seed oils to the demonisation of ultra-processed foods, NHS doctor and social media star Dr Idz sets the record straight.
Making sense of the endless amount of health information online can often feel like an impossible task. Social media may have democratised health and wellness content, but it’s also made it hard to know who to trust. Search for any trending health topic and you’ll be met by a barrage of videos all featuring different claims, with many pushing products, supplements and treatment protocols for you to buy. It’s exhausting – and with one in five of us now turning to the internet as our first port of call when we’re looking for health advice, that lack of clear-cut information is also deeply concerning.
Few people are as familiar with the issue as Dr Idrees Mughal – or, as he’s better known on TikTok and Instagram, Dr Idz. Alongside being an NHS doctor with a master’s in nutritional research, Dr Idz also runs hugely successful social media accounts where he debunks the latest claims in diet and nutritional science.
“I get tagged in around 200-400 videos every day by people asking me whether the claims in the video are correct, and that’s not to mention the 1,000s of private messages I get from people saying they’re confused or overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there,” he tells Strong Women.
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It’s clear that Dr Idz’s help is sorely needed, and his new book, Saturated Facts, aims to set more records straight. Tackling myths from across the worlds of diet and nutrition as well as the latest cutting-edge science on topics ranging from gut health to chrono-nutrition and the link between diet and mental wellbeing, it’s a deep dive packed full of accurate information and scientific research, all summarised in Dr Idz’s recognisable tone.
But before you tuck into that, we thought we’d ask Dr Idz to tackle some of the biggest health and nutrition myths that are dominating social media at the moment. Are seed oils really inflammatory? Is sugar bad for us? And should we be avoiding all ultra-processed foods? Dr Idz explains all…
Myth No. 1: seed oils are inflammatory
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“This is nonsense,” Dr Idz says. “There’s literally no controlled human research showing that seed oils are inflammatory. Actually, a review from 2017 that analysed 10 randomised control trials in humans which measured the effect of seed oils on inflammation found that zero of them – zero out of 10 – showed no significant increases in systemic inflammatory biomarkers. In fact, three of them were shown to have an anti-inflammatory effect.
“There are a couple of reasons why people believe this myth to be true, though. Firstly, there’s the ‘appeal to nature’ fallacy, which claims that because seed oils are unnatural, they’re bad for us. But just because something is natural doesn’t make it healthy. Heavy metals are natural – arsenic is found in rice, vegetables, fruits and fish. But that doesn’t mean arsenic is healthy for you. Parasites are natural, but you’re not going to go around consuming lots of parasites. There are hundreds of toxic plants that grow in the wild but will make you sick if you eat them. So, the idea that natural equals healthy and unnatural equals unhealthy can quickly be dismantled.
“Others believe the issue lies in the fact that seed oils are high in an omega-six fatty acid called linoleic acid, which can increase the conversion of arachidonic acid – a pro-inflammatory cytokine. But that’s nonsense because meta-analyses have shown that increasing dietary linoleic acid intake by 500% or decreasing it by 90% leads to no significant changes in arachidonic acid anywhere in the body. And arachidonic acid is also involved in both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory pathways.
“The main thing to remember here is that seed oils are not just comprised of linoleic acids, and when you look at food and how it might affect your health, you can’t just take out one ingredient or one component of that food and use that to come to a verdict. If you want to go by logic you could say: ‘Well, apples contain cyanide, so apples are toxic.’ Linoleic acid only makes up 20-30% of most seed oils, and the majority of seed oils are actually monounsaturated fats.”
Myth No. 2: sugar is bad for you
Credit: Getty
“This is a big one, because sugar has been demonised for decades,” he explains. “To start with, I think people need to understand what sugar is – it’s literally just a small combination or an isolation of carbohydrate molecules. That’s literally all it is. Just because it tastes sweet, that doesn’t mean it’s any more harmful than any other form of carbohydrates you’re consuming. When you digest pasta, rice, noodles or even fruit, they all get broken down into simple carbohydrates – simple sugars. At the end of the day, all these things are just sources of energy, and our body needs energy.”
“Where the problem lies is when you combine sugars with some fats and a bit of salt with little fibre and protein, as you’ll find with some ultra-processed foods. Food manufacturers know what combination of ingredients and nutrients to use to make something tasty and almost irresistible. It’s the case with all doughnuts, cakes and pies – they’re not just sugar, they’re a combination of sugars, fats and salt. And that makes them tasty and easy to consume because they don’t have any fibre, which can lead to overeating and all the associated issues such as type two diabetes and insulin resistance.”
“So, sugar is not bad for you. It’s just that hyper-palatable, ultra-processed foods (which often contain sugar) can be harmful for you – if they’ve over-consumed.”
Myth No. 3: we should all give up oat milk because it spikes blood sugar
Credit: Getty
“Plant-based milk alternatives are there to serve a need and a demand in the population – no one is framing oat milk as this majorly healthy superfood, and if you can tolerate dairy milk, that’s fine,” Dr Idz says.
“But for people like me who are severely lactose intolerant, plant-based milks can be a great option – they’re often fortified with calcium and vitamin D as well as lots of other vitamins and minerals, and they’ve got a decent amount of protein and healthy fats in them sometimes (they actually tend to use vegetable oils, aka seed oils). These milks exist for a very good reason, whether you’re a busy parent who can’t go out and find lactose-free milk for your child with an intolerance or you want to stay away from cow’s milk for moral or ethical reasons.”
“As for the blood sugar point, blood sugar spikes are not inherently harmful. You do not need to obsess over transient spikes in blood sugar. If you’re not diabetic and you don’t have insulin resistance, don’t worry about it. Blood sugar spikes do not cause diabetes.”
Myth No. 4: ultra-processed foods should be avoided
Credit: Getty
“Again, you can’t just use a blanket statement and say all ultra-processed foods are bad because that’s like saying all forms of fat are bad or all forms of protein are bad – it’s a very arbitrary statement. The reason I say that is because the label ‘ultra-processed food’ applies to many, many different types of food – yoghurt, for example, can be classified as ultra-processed, as can a glass of orange juice with no added sugar. And there are dozens of controlled trials that show a glass of orange juice a day can have benefits.”
“Protein and supplement powders are also a prime example of this being a myth. Creatine monohydrate is the most evidence-based supplement in the entire world – it has over 500,000 research papers on it – but it’s ultra-processed. Does that mean it’s harmful for you? No. The same is the case with whey protein – it can improve strength and muscle mass outcomes and even help liver disease patient outcomes. You can’t just label a huge group of foods and call it bad.”
“The problem lies in the ultra-processed foods that are very calorie dense and have had the fibre and protein removed so there’s just fat, salt and sugar. But that’s just one type of ultra-processed foods, not a feature of all of them. There are dozens and dozens of ultra-processed foods that are going to be OK for you, and in some cases actually beneficial for you.
“We have to be careful not to demonise ultra-processed foods because often they’re the most accessible and affordable – they’re the ones people have access to and they’re ‘shelf-stable’ so they last for a long time. Some people can’t buy fresh produce all the time – it’s expensive and takes a lot of effort to get out to the shops every couple of days. The narrative that fresh is better and we should all go organic and natural is just guilt-tripping the average person into feeling like what they can afford is toxic for them and their children. It’s a toxic narrative.”
Images: Getty
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