Coca-Cola Southern Africa recently invited acclaimed sports scientist Dr. Clemens Drenowatz from the University of North Carolina to give an exclusive and candid talk about the intricate details of energy balance. Dr Drenowatz spoke about some of the most common diet myths:Myth 1: Small sustained changes in energy intake (or energy expenditure) will produce large changes in body weight in the long term.Why it's common: Predictions suggesting that large weight changes occur in response to small daily differences between energy intake and energy expenditure assume that such a difference will accumulate indefinitely. For example, it's been assumed that a deficit of 3500 calories results in a weight loss of 0.45kg.Fact: The above assumption was based on short-term experiments and does not consider how the body adapts in response to weight change. Changes in body weight and body composition alter energy requirements and, therefore, do not allow for a linear weight loss.Myth 2: Breastfeeding is protective against obesity.Why it's common: Given the numerous health benefits of breast-feeding, a protective effect against obesity seems intuitive. It has also been advertised by various health organisations.Fact: Evidence on the benefits of breast feeding regarding weight management stems predominantly from epidemiological observational studies that focused on body weight during childhood and adolescence.While formula-fed infants have been shown to grow more quickly than their breast-fed counterparts, this effect usually starts to diminish after the first 12 months and there is currently no compelling evidence for a causal relationship between breast-feeding and body weight in adulthood. A WHO analysis also revealed strong publication bias, so studies that do not find evidence of an association between breast feeding and later obesity are less likely to be published.Myth 3: High carbohydrate intake contributes to weight gainWhy it's common: When you eat carbohydrates, your body turns them into sugars, which are then stored as fat.Fact: The conversion of carbohydrates/ sugars into fat does require some energy and the contribution of de-novo lipogenesis (conversion of carbohydrates into fat) to total fat balance is quite limited.Ultimately, excess calories, rather than calories from carbohydrates, contribute to weight gain. The benefits of low carbohydrate diets on weight loss can generally be attributed to a lower caloric intake in general. Several foods that are generally considered healthy, like vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, also contain carbohydrates...