Like urban legends, nutrition and diet myths seem to stick around for years. A few well-known ones come to mind, like the one about grapefruit burning fat or the one that eating sugar causes diabetes.

Then, there are all the weight-loss myths. Here we think of apple cider vinegar and cabbage soup diets and the literally dozens of others.

To separate the facts from the myths, I thought that we could run through a few of the tales that often follow these words: "You know, the other day I heard..."

Myth: Olive oil is lower kilojoules than other oils

Facts: Somehow, with all the hype about the heart-health benefits of olive oil, the idea has somehow been created that olive oil contains less kilojoules than other oils and fats. People often forget that olive oil is still a fat. All oils are made up of 100 percent fat and supply basically the same number of kilojoules – about 190 kilojoules per teaspoon. "Light" olive oil has nothing to do with the amount of kilojoules and simply refers to the flavour and production method.

So even though olive oil is a source of healthy monounsaturated fats, be mindful of how much you drizzle or douse.

Look out for the facts about other nutrition myths next time.