Diet myths can be scary stuff.

They make gluten appear sinister, give fruits and vegetables a dark side, and grant extra powers to calories eaten after nightfall.

Because there's nothing worse than the fear of food — except maybe the fear of good food — let's shed light on a few of the more frightening myths around:

Gluten-free is the key to a better body: “Gluten free is the way to be,” tweeted Kim Kardashian, with — what else? — a provocative body shot. This after Miley Cyrus attributed her thinner frame of late to a gluten allergy and posted “... gluten is crapppp (sic) anyway.”

Let's hope Kim and Miley's millions of Twitter followers use their heads. Gluten-free is a medically necessary way to be, but only if you suffer from a gluten sensitivity or celiac disease.

It's also a difficult way to be. Gluten is a protein found in nutritious wheat, rye and barley, is in bread, pasta, cereals and other baked goods, but also in less obvious foods including many soups, soy sauces, salad dressings and deli meats. Avoiding gluten, especially when dining out, is no easy task.

The gluten-free diet allows for eating a variety of healthy foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, brown rice and quinoa, as well as animal proteins. And yet the gluten craze has led to the rise of many processed products that aren't nutritious but are expensive, and switching to gluten-free isn't inherently healthy for you or your bottom line.

Bottom line: Beware of celebrity diet advice and self-diagnoses. If you suspect intolerance to gluten, speak to your physician about getting tested. Gluten-free is not for everyone.

Carrots are the new candy: A friend on a sugar-free diet warns me against adding “sugary” grapes, carrots and beets to my smoothies, and a personal trainer says bananas, by way of their sugar, are “fattening.”

Allay your fears about consuming these nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables. One large carrot, for instance, contains only about 3 grams of naturally occurring sugar. Skip carrots, and you'll also skip out on vitamins A, K, C, potassium, magnesium and fiber.

What's truly scary is our consumption of the nutritionally barren sugars and syrups added to a food during processing or preparation. According to The American Heart Association, Americans consume an average of 22.2 teaspoons of added sugars a day, or about 355 empty calories, mostly from sugar-sweetened beverages and sweets. These unnecessary calories displace nutritious foods and may contribute to both obesity and chronic diseases.

The Nutrition Facts label won't tell you how much of a food's total sugar content comes from added sugar, so you'll have to read the ingredient list — very carefully. Sugar is disguised in many forms, including raw sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, sucrose, lactose, molasses, syrup, honey, agave, fruit juice concentrate, cane sugar and evaporated cane juice.

The AHA recommends limiting added sugars to 100 calories or 25 grams (about 6 teaspoons) per day for women, and 150 calories or 36 grams (around 9 teaspoons) per day for men. It doesn't take much to reach your limit. A 20-ounce regular soda contains 65 grams of added sugars (the equivalent amount of naturally occurring sugar, incidentally, in about 3 pounds of carrots, according to

Bottom line: Limit added sugars and make plenty of room for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

Don't eat after dark: This long-standing diet myth just won't die. Sure, my friend lost weight after implementing a “no eating after 8 p.m.” rule, but not because of some caloric witching hour. She was simply eating less altogether.

It's what you eat over time, not after a specific time, that matters, and night owls have nothing to fear from late-night noshing if it works with their schedule.

That said, if you find yourself mindlessly overeating after hours, it might be best to close shop after dinner. Snack on a piece of fruit, drink some water and go to bed. Studies show the less you sleep, the bigger your appetite for unhealthy foods will be tomorrow — and over time, that may add up to weight gain.

Bottom line: Calories can't tell time. Fear the stroke of the clock only when it comes to getting enough sleep.


Claudia Zapata is a registered dietitian. Her column appears every other Sunday in Taste. Email Claudia at, follow her at Twitter at @ClaudiaZapata and on Facebook at ClaudiaZapata, MS, RD.