Nutrition Quiz: Myth or Fact?

People have been arguing over whether coffee is good or bad for you for over a century. While drinking too much is not good, coffee is actually one of the biggest sources of antioxidants in the Western diet.

Many energy drinks have more sugar and calories than a cup of Pepsi of equal size. While they claim the energy boost comes from the vitamins in them, it's really just a sugar rush combined with caffeine and occasionally other substances.

While diabetics might want to avoid egg yolks, eating eggs in moderation is actually good for most people. They are very nutritious and raise your good cholesterol, rather than your bad cholesterol.

While eating an excess of fat is bad, fat is not actually the health villain it has made out to be. We think of fat this way largely because the sugar industry funded studies to make fat look worse for you than sugar decades ago.

Oranges are a solid source of vitamin C. Others include broccoli, papaya and red bell pepper.

Red meat is one of the biggest modern health villains. However, as long as the red meat is unprocessed, studies have shown little evidence that it will cause heart disease, diabetes or cancer in most people.

The false sweeteners in diet sodas lead to hard to control food cravings. In fact, according to a University of Texas study, people who drink 3 diet sodas a week have been found to be more than 40% more likely to be obese.

Those with kidney problems are generally advised to cut back on their protein intake. However, for most people, eating a high protein diet will not negatively affect their kidneys at all.

While a cheeseburger from McDonald's and an avocado might have the same amount of calories, they are still vastly different foods. Just because two foods have the same number of calories does not mean that they have the same nutrients or will affect your hormones and health in the same way.

Leafy greens are full of healthy vitamins and minerals. They are some of the best things you can eat to improve your heart health.

It is a popular myth that low-fat and high-carb diets cause weight loss and prevent disease. This has been explored in multiple scientific studies and been debunked by all of them.

Hot peppers have been shown to have a metabolism-boosting effect. However, if you can't take the heat, don't worry. Milder peppers may have some calorie-burning potential too!

One common myth is that eating a high-protein diet sucks the calcium out of your bones and can lead to osteoporosis. In the long term, however, high protein intake has been shown to lessen osteoporosis and fractures in old age.

While peanuts themselves are great for you, most store-bought peanut butter is highly processed and loaded with sugar and unhealthy fats. Yikes.

The FDA does not regulate the use of the word, so it's more or less a marketing buzzword companies put on everything from fresh fruit to Cheetos. Always read the ingredients of what you eat and don't rely on labels.

While many raw food advocates claim that cooking food makes it nutrition-less and cancer-causing, that is not accurate. Some foods release more of their nutrients when prepared in certain ways.

Bananas are one of many plant-based potassium sources. Others include potatoes, broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes.

While some brands do make healthy nutrition bars, most do not. Often they are loaded with sugar, trans fats, sodium and all sorts of additives.

While many people reach for snack foods in times of stress, it might not be helping. According to one psychiatric study, people who eat a lot of highly processed foods are more likely to be depressed than those who eat the least amount.

While some consider potatoes to be empty carbs, that is wrong. They actually contain healthy phytochemicals, like flavanoids.

While you are better off eating 600 calories of vegetables than 600 calories of cookies, overeating is never good for you. Moderation is always key.

Calorie counts are the same for a food whether you eat it at 3 a.m. or p.m. This is an old myth that has to go!

While yogurt with live active cultures is good for your gut, most yogurts you can buy in a store are not. This is because they are high in sugar, which can exacerbate stomach issues.

Low-carb diets are not for everyone, but they have been proven way more beneficial than low-fat diets in over a dozen studies. They are especially useful for people with certain conditions, like obesity and diabetes.

Studies have shown that gluten-free diets can benefit people with gluten sensitivity, IBS and epilepsy, too. While not everyone needs to go gluten-free for their health, it can benefit people with certain conditions.

There are 3 main body types, some of which are more prone to store fat than others. While leading a healthy lifestyle is important, your genetics, hormones, overall health, age and numerous other factors play a big role in how easily you can gain or lose muscle and fat.

Many experts believe that sugar is behind many of the world's biggest health-killers. These include obesity, heart disease and cancer.

Some people say that certain foods, like celery, are "negative calorie foods" because you burn more calories chewing them than you gain eating them. That has no scientific basis.

While chocolate does contain healthy polyphenols, most of these are taken out during processing. If you want your chocolate to have any health benefits, it needs to be 70% cacao or higher.

High fructose corn syrup has been used in foods for decades because of how cheap it is, and has gotten a reputation for being even worse than sugar. However, studies indicate that your body can't tell the difference between HFCS and regular sugar, and both are bad for you.

Nutrition is often more about balance than avoiding "evil" or "bad" foods. Recent studies have found that consuming reasonable amounts of saturated fat does not increase your stroke or heart attack risk and is actually good for you.

The myth that consuming salt is bad for your heart and causes strokes and heart attacks has been out there for a long time. For the average person, eating less salt has no effect on these things at all, though it does slightly reduce blood pressure.

Modern wheat has been genetically tampered with and is far less nutritious than old school varieties of wheat. It can also increase inflammatory markers in those with certain conditions.

Eating 5-6 small meals instead of 2-3 larger meals has no effect on calorie burning at all. While for some people, this may offer some benefits, it can also cause others to accumulate more fat.