Hi everyone this is Monica Reinagle the nutrition diva back with the second in a

special three-part series exploring the biggest mistakes even health conscious people make with their

diets.

I want to say thanks to our friends at iTunes for featuring this series and welcome to any new

listeners who've just discovered the podcast.

In the first installment of this three-part series, I talked about the all-important difference

between natural and healthy, because people often make the mistake of thinking that something is good for you just because it's all natural or organic.

Today I want to explore a different kind of nutritional blind spot

that has to do with quality versus quantity. Even when a food is good

for you, it doesn't necessarily follow that you can eat it in unlimited quantities.

Whole grains and fresh fruits are two examples of healthy foods that can

easily be over-consumed. As I talked about in my podcast on whole grains, you

hear an awful lot these days about the benefits of

whole grains. People who replace refined grain products like white bread with

whole grain products like whole wheat bread have lower rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity,

and many other diseases. But a lot of people have misunderstood this to mean that whole grains

are like vegetables. The more the better. I have friends, for example, who

wouldn't be caught dead eating a forkful of white rice, after all, they're watching their

waistlines.

Yet they see nothing wrong with eating two or three cups of brown rice with dinner,

and they can't imagine why they struggle with their weight.

Whole grains are definitely better for you than refined grains, but that doesn't mean that portion sizes don't matter.

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