I don’t spend a lot of time on Pinterest, but I know Alissa does, and we often have a big laugh when she’s on the health and / or fitness boards. The amount of misinformation that gets disseminated there is astounding. It would take me a few years to refute all of the incorrect “pins,” and that’s time I just don’t have.
I do have time to take care of one right now, though. . . This is one of the most ridiculous pins I’ve heard, and one of the most absurd claims I’ve ever heard. I wanted to go over this one in particular because it completely disregards science, and tries to give the middle finger to how our bodies work.
Have you heard the one about how taking Honey and Cinnamon together will make you lose weight? Here’s the claim:
“Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast and on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. When taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.”
This is ridiculous. First off, there is no food that will “not allow the fat to accumulate” on the body. Fat doesn’t accumulate– Fat is stored. You have an amount of fat cells in your body, and if you gain weight / fat, those fat cells fill with oil. If you lose weight, those fat cells don’t go away. . . They simply release and oxidize that oil. The person that came up with this outrageous claim probably believes that eating fatty foods will lead to fat gain because fat will “accumulate” in your body, but that is a myth as well.
Weight gain and weight loss in normal, healthy individuals is a simple numbers game. Your body expends a certain amount of energy throughout the day– If you eat more energy (Fun fact: A calorie is a unit of energy) than you expend, you will gain weight; If you eat less energy than you expend, you will lose weight. If we don’t account for body types and depressed metabolisms (from Chronic Dieting), it is that simple. So the claim that it will reduce weight even when eating a high calorie diet? Wrong.
Also, “it reduces the weight of even the most obese person.” What!? So they’re claiming that this is a thermogenic (fat burning) food? What’s interesting is that honey is comprised of 100% carbs; Carbs are the least thermogenic of the macro nutrients. Ridiculous. For the record, protein is generally accepted as the most thermogenic food (Though some studies claim fat is); The one consistency to all of these studies is that carbs come in last.
So what will happen if you eat that concoction twice a day? Nothing. You will eat honey and cinnamon, which is more calories than you (probably) would have eaten otherwise. If anything, if you don’t put a lot of cinnamon in this (as cinnamon can help control blood sugar), you will make your body fattier as you may be spiking your blood sugar and forcing an insulin response multiple times per day. (Honey has a very high glycemic load; I eat honey only when I want to spike my blood sugar.)
“But Gabriel, how do you explain my mailman’s dog’s best friend who lost weight with this LOL?” Easy. They made a lifestyle adjustment separate from the honey cinnamon that helped them to lose weight. (I crafted that hypothetical rebuttal myself– I haven’t heard of anyone even doing this.)
If anything claims you will lose weight with no effort, it lies; If anything claims that it will drastically cut the time it takes to achieve your goals, it’s probably not going to. If you chase after fad diets and crazy concoctions, the amount of time you spend on all of that could have been used simply changing your lifestyle, and then you would see real results.
It’s worth noting that there are many other (claimed) benefits of a Cinnamon Honey concoction– I’m not addressing a single one of those. . . Just the incorrect claim that it can help you lose weight.