THE FLAW: “Many patients ask for across-the-board recommendations for macronutrients, like how many grams of carbohydrates or fats food items can contain to be considered healthy,” says Morgan. The trouble is there’s no one answer and it largely depends on the ingredients. “If I told you to avoid foods with less than 10g of carbohydrates per serving, you’d never eat fruit. Yet we know fruit is part of a healthy diet.”
THE FIX: Always take the food item’s ingredients into account. Say a yogurt has 15g of carbohydrates per serving. All cow’s milk-based yogurts contain lactose, which is a natural sugar (a type of carbohydrate). Some, however, also contain added sugars like corn syrup, juice or cane sugar, which are carbohydrates we would want to limit. Nutrition facts are just part of the equation. “When determining the healthfulness of food, it’s equally as important to identify where those nutrients are coming from by reviewing the ingredients list.”