Health "facts" that you believe to be myths and why. See if you can change my mind.

[TattyDevine]

Anyone got any? I've got a couple.

First one is this bullshit that you have to drink a certain amount of water a day that isn't dictated by your body's thirst or cues, but by some arbitrary amount.

Why the hell would your body not tell you if it needed water? How have we evolved this far not realising we needed to be drinking double or triple the amount of water we feel we need to? Thirsty, have a drink. Not thirsty, don't. Like food. Hungry, eat. Not hungry? Shouldn't eat. What terrible fate will befall us if we don't drink 2 litres of water a day? And how did we evolve for thousands and thousands of years before this bit of knowledge was bestowed upon us?

2nd one - don't eat at night because you won't burn it and it will be stored as fat, but if you eat the same amount but during the day you will burn it.

Well, surely if you have done the same level of activity in a day and had the same amount of food within that day it will even out? Over a 24 hour period, I've taken in x amount of energy and burned y amount. If I took most of it in at night it makes up for the deficit in the morning. If I take it evenly over the day there was no deficit to make up for but I've still taken in the same amount and burned up the same amount.

3rd one - coffee and tea dehydrates you because it is a mild diuretic. Okay so its a mild diuretic but you are still more hydrated drinking it because it doesn't make you piss out more than what you took in in terms of extra fluid by drinking it in the first place. So it still counts as a drink. (In fact my GP surgery has a poster saying about taking plenty of fluids if you have a cold, and that it doesn't have to be water but a cup of tea or coffee is just as good). When I read that, I was so revived by the no nonsense common sense approach I had to restrain myself from licking the poster with delight.

Yours please, and try and convince me otherwise with non bullshitty science if you think I'm wrong (which I'm happy to be with a proper science-boffiny cut-down)

found it

mutation and genetic drift.

I shall have to think about that.

I haven't read all the messages but totally think it's nonsense that people get themselves in a flap about "chemicals" in food, and how they all give you cancer, and how 'natural' products are good for you. Chemicals can be any substance made from anything, natural or man-made. There are plenty of 'natural' substances which can kill or harm you and plenty of man-made ones which will not harm you or even do you good. Hydrogen and oxygen are both chemicals, and last time I checked, if you put them together you get that amazing stuff you should drink more of - water!

The sugar thing makes me laugh. I have never seen any evidence of any sugar high (or E numbers high) in my kids. A friend of mine cut out sugar in her family's diet as she was convinced it was affecting her son's behaviour. We went camping, and as a treat they had sugary cereal instead of the usual wholewheat cardboard. About 2.30 they were both feeling tired, and she blamed this on the sugar they had eaten for breakfast giving them a high they were then coming down from. Nothing to do with having slept on the floor in the cold then? That won't make you feel tired the next day?

I also think most 'allergies' and 'intolerances' are total nonsense. I know a child that has never tasted tomatoes because she 'might' be allergic to it. Surely you shouldn't eat anything then, just in case. I've always maintained the 'don't eat peanuts when pregnant' thing was rubbish to, a person who has never been exposed to something is surely more likely to react to it when given to it that a person who has been exposed to small amounts of it over a long period time, from in utero onwards.

You use all your brain. It doesn't just sit there with nothing going on in part of it.

Quite a lot of evolution is actually neutral.
Then there are also founder effects, bottlenecks, sexual selection, introgression, recombination. Not to mention epigenetics, but it's more of a short term thing.

You can get pregnant by swallowing spunk.

I think I most likely need a detox.

Oh and not really health but the myth put about mostly by hairdressers and beauticians, that cutting your hair makes it grow thicker, and that shaving your legs (free) will make you into a gorilla whereas waxing them (expensive) will make you smooth and silky.

In case you haven't worked it out yet, hair grows from the roots not the ends so it makes no difference what you do to the ends.

On a serious note, you don't use all your brain all the time, though. Only parts at any one point. You can visualise the parts that are active at each time.
But, over a long time we do end up using all of our brain.

Also more seriously, (could be a myth, though) we are supposed to memorise better things that are associated with stronger emotions. Such as what happened and where you were on sept 11. Or when your child was born.

Ooh two more - all salt is bad for you - nope too much salt is bad for you but a) everyone's requirements are different & b) if you cook from scratch then you won't be anywhere near the daily salt limits and if you have low blood pressure will start suffering from fainting fits & dizzy spells.

Skin creams with various stripping agents are good for your skin! Nope - they'll give you a lovely temporary glow but that top horny layer of skin is there for a reason - to protect your body / layers of skin from external agents such as sunlight, cold - in the long run that anti-ageing cream will actually make you look older as layers of your skin that shouldn't be exposed to the world yet are.

The hair thing has always irritated me! It's dead cells and protein, it doesn't "know"! Sure it may look thicker if it's got a blunt edge and same length - but it's not! It's just optical or making the best of it!

And, supposedly, most of the normal memory issues are not about lack of memory, but how to access it. The more you access some information, the better you remember it.
That is why I can speak better French after even a few hours of being exposed to it.
And we recommend to students that they practice answering questions rather than just reading the material.

Might there be something in the waxing thing weakening the follicle? Probably not even...

Mmmm too many peels can give a person a slightly shiny "waxwork" look I agree. Best not to get greedy with those

The last big report showed the most good (unsurprisingly) comes from going from 0 to 2 portions of fruit & veg, but the more the merrier!

Are you the only other person on here that actually read that report and not just the badly reported headlines that went with it? I think there's a lot of people that still think it said we should be aiming for 7-10 and 5 was too few.

Jessica, he's not only an MP, but he's on the select committee for Health, and the select committee for science and technology.

Yes yes yes to the breakfast thing and the 3 meals a day thing I almost never eat breakfast and my weight is all the better for it! I really don't think most of us need "3 square meals" a day. Growing children, manual workers, athletes and pregnant women maybe, but most of us really don't need 3 full meals per day.....

doing exercise in the morning somehow counts for 'more' than doing it mid-day. I can see how it may fit into the day more conveniently, or doing exercise really late in the day may not be a good thing, but I don't see how exercising early is better than mid morning.

In fact, if I get up early, do a work out then have a big, healthy breakfast, I'll probably be knackered and sleep/eat shite for the rest of the day. Nothing like a full size chocolate cake after going for a swim.

Jessica I actually do both...use shampoo if they are really dirty and if possible give them a plain water rinse. If I'm feeling less keen just run over the main areas with warm water...but either the way the water is always filthy...

Coffee thing I thought it was because you then had a toxin (caffeine) to get rid of - via the kidneys...but I guess that would mean you made concentrated wee...but that isn't what I've found ...
I have a caffeine addiction - if I've had to get up early for something and I'm struggling I will drink maybe 3 cups (triple strength) -more than usual but if I do that I feel the urgent need to wee often - like it irritates my bladder but the wee is pale colour
(I do have psychological peeing issues though too -panic if I need to pee and can't go - really have to go and have actually lost control)

Also years and years ago I used to work in an hot environment. I drank massive amounts of coffee (20-30 cups a day), tried to cut down then got a kidney stone. Which I had to pee out by drinking water - 9-10 pints (??? a lot anyway - never away from a loo) ...the pain changed and I was told it was because it was moving/had moved ...(can scratch inside of the tubes - like a paper cut - apparently)
Then 3-4 years later, no prior symptoms I got the peeing out a stone pain ...couldn't get a Dr appt for days...so inconclusive ...but I am almost sure it was another stone....
What I found interesting about this was I hadn't started drinking lots of water before ...but I had been drinking lots of coffee (working to a deadline)....I think purely the increased volume of liquid taken in made the stone move...(and maybe the reduction in liquid volume intake had caused my first stone...not, as I was told, my coffee intake)

Thank you Rafa maybe my brain can do without the detox!

We only started to sleep through the night in one block 200 years ago!?!?!? What? Where can I find out more about that?

If I don't eat mid-morning I won't get fat. I haven't eaten mid-morning for years and it worked until two months ago. Then I started getting hungry. I still stick to the rule but the scales are telling me that I have gained a stone.

Rafals I've read the report. I don't trust the media. I still think that for most people five a day is too few for optimal health (good or average health is a different story), especially since that includes fruit and some legumes.

I actually think we should concentrate more on vegetables as a proportion of the diet, rather than numbers of servings.

We only started to sleep through the night in one block 200 years ago!

remember that before gaslight, candles were expensive - people lived much more by the sun. So, bed at sundown, rise at sunup - with a wakeful period in the 'witching hours'. You could start with this wiki.

My DH used to suffer badly from insomnia when he went out to work. Now he's a consultant so can choose his hours, he often goes to bed earlier, wakes up in the small hours, downloads the news to his pad, reads for quite a while and then goes back to sleep again. He was quite pleased when I told him this was actually a normal sleep pattern! (I stick to modern abnormal of staying up too late MNing, then having to get up before light still at this time of year to get DD off to school, but I'm OK with it as I sleep well enough)

That veg thing.. well of course the biggest difference will be if you increase from 0 to 2 servings. If you're eating no fruit or veg you'll be seriously lacking some vitamins and minerals, and fibre. Thereafter it's probably a curve which rises but levels off. (yes, I read that report)

Yes but that wasn't widely reported Errol.

It's the message some people I know could do with!

Well I think its nonsence that carrots make you see in the dark...had a bowl full last night then fell down the stairs haha