From GMOs to lectins, veganism to sugar, we debunked and dispelled 2017’s most common and cringe-worthy myths.

1. New Food Fad: Lectin-Free Diet

From Gwyenth Paltrow to Tom Brady, many celebrities are touting a lectin-free diet as a way to clear all your health ailments. But not only is this diet completely void of scientific merit, it would also be removing healthy foods like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant from the diet.

2. Goodbye Sugar: A Diet With No Sugar?

A diet without sugar would be pretty boring. You would also be missing a lot of nutrients, like vitamins A, B, and C; fiber, healthful fats, and gut-healthy probiotics.

3. “The Case Against Sugar” Is a Weak One

Gary Taubes will always demonize sugar, which is why we explained, with science, why his new book, The Case Against Sugar, was a weak.

4. Why I Constantly Said “What the…?” While Watching What the Health

There’s nothing wrong with a vegan diet, but using fear-based tactics and cherry-picking science made the documentary What the Health a junk science nightmare.

5. Fast Take: What You Need to Know About a New Study Linking Beverages to Stroke or Dementia

Our Fast Take broke down why a recent study linking diet soda and dementia wasn’t as strong as the media reported.

6. Fast Take: When Bad Headlines Overshadow Good Science

Junk science doesn’t always mean a study was conducted poorly. This well-done study on palm oil and cancer was misreported by the media, scaring consumers and getting the science all wrong.

7. Ditching Fruit Because of Its Sugar Content? That’s Bananas!

Fruit is more than sugar, but you wouldn’t know from this popular Buzzfeed video. While it’s important to eat everything in moderation, removing fruit from the diet because of sugar, can do more harm than good.

8. Fast Take: Debunking Another Cheesy Report

A report on phthalates made consumers rethink their favorite childhood snack, but with all the hoopla, many missed the memo that phthalates are not only safe, but that the presence of them in the body, isn’t automatically a cause for concern.

9. #CenterYourFocus: 5 Foods to Include in Your Shopping Cart

If you live by the mantra “shop the perimeter,” you’re missing out on a lot of healthy foods like oats, olive oils, frozen fruits and vegetables, and canned beans and fish.

10. Fast Take! The Dirty Dozen: Wash, Rinse, Eat, and Repeat

A new year, a new Dirty Dozen. The EWG’s most infamous list, the Dirty Dozen, does nothing but scare people away from fruits and vegetables, which is a big factor for one’s health.

Join us in 2018 for more myth-debunking and fear-dispelling content!