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)

Gallic thank you, as I suspected. Just wait until holiday season when they trot out all the "what you must do on a flight!" articles and they will be saying you must spray your face with a tiny Evian aerosol

Regarding whether or not to drink when you have a gastro bug - once again I figure if you were getting dehydrated you would get thirsty. If you are not yet dehydrated you wouldn't (anyone without a thirst trigger disorder anyway)

Personally I find initially I don't want to drink, and wouldn't be able to keep it down. As time goes on and more vomiting/the runs I get a raging thirst so I drink.

Just thought of another one! Caffeine shampoo. How the hell is caffeine in shampoo good for you?

Can anyone explain why eating sweets makes me feel so ill? After eating them I will have a headache and feel sick.

It seems to be worse with sweets like haribo etc, then it is with stuff like cakes and biscuits.

I assumed it was some sort of sugar low thing... I have no idea. I tend to avoid very sweet foods because of it.

I drink water when I have a vomiting bug because it's easy to throw up dilute stomach contents but agony to throw up bile.

wonderful thread. Although I'm now really confused as to the causes of piles; so far we have cold surfaces, hot surfaces and wet grass. Where should I sit?

Anywhere, as long as you're a safe distance away from the nearest penis. For, as I can I can confirm from recent experience, pregnancy and childbirth are one of the biggest causes .

I have a friend who married an Egyptian man. When she spends time in Egypt with her in laws they insist she drinks cold drinks when it's cold and hot drinks when it is hot which always amuses me.

As I have got older eating at night is out of the question because it keeps me awake all night. Drinking too much during the day also does the same. Liquid from teas coffees and different foods along with a few glasses of water is sufficient. I used to drink 6 glasses of water on top of my daily intake of drinks and food and was bloated all the time. I think the advice on the amount of daily water consumption has been revised thank goodness.

more on historical sleeping patterns where the first & second sleep were common. I used historical evidence such as this to console myself when my DD2 was going through her 'Georgian phase' - she'd be wide awake from about 2-4am and then sleep happily til 8-ish.

There is no systematic evidence for lavender as a sleep aid. Mind you, there's only weak evidence for it as a burn treatment (most herbal oils have antibacterial, antifungal & antioxidant properties) and I swear by it all the same. Before applying my lavender oil, I hold the burn in ice-cold water for ages - which is probably what really makes them heal faster!

Yes silverjohn. I recently had a vomiting bug and was in agony trying to throw up bile until I finally drank some water. Next time I'm getting water straight away.

foSho, I don't suppose wine makes you sick as well? I've developed a sulphite allergy. It means wine makes me violently ill, and so do foods using sulphites or sulphur dioxide as a stabiliser. Haribos do.

It's a bastard about the wine, but I can still drink limited amounts of beer & any amount of vodka ...

Stress raises your chance of pregnancy loss.

This first came about post war ... as a way of encouraging women back into the home from work.
There was a modern study done ... on women, who had been tornado victims, living in mobile homes in Tornado Alley. Women whose income etc were factors. And whose stress was more "terror for their lives".

Not to mention this is unutterably cruel to say to a woman pregnant after loss: she can't help but be nervous and Joe blogs tells her she's causing her second chance baby harm??

The problem about the sleeping in 2 phases thing is that it's probably true, but we do rather live in a society nowadays that forces us into sleeping in an 8-hour block, determined by having to get up for work etc and spending hours online every evening, so whether natural or not, it's a difficult one to reconcile with modern life.

GallicIsCharlie yes wine makes me very ill! I tend to stick to vodka. I'm shocked it could be connected. Are there any other foods/drinks you have to avoid?

I can't drink wine or lemonade or eat gummy sweets or most takeaways without getting a headache or a stomach ache. Interesting that there could be a link for at least some of those. I've not tried vodka - I tend to avoid all alcohol at the moment, just in case it makes me ill. I'll have to conduct an experiment... Ooh, also can't take aspirin or paracetamol... I'm just sensitive to everything!

Yeah, I scrutinise labels like a nutter, foSho. It's annoying, they could use Vitamin C for the same result but I guess sulphites must be cheaper. Sausages ALWAYS contain sulphites (though not all scotch eggs do, so that's how I get my sausage fix.) Check the labels of anything fruit-flavoured or made of fruit - brandy and port are out and most fruit liqueurs, though not all. You might find onions set you off - they have a lot of natural sulphur, and I've become less tolerant to the point where I no longer eat them.

Ignore American websites about sulphites in food, they seem to put them in everything. E-numbers to watch out for are E220 to E228, also E150 which is caramel suphate (??!) If it says Sulphur Dioxide in the preservatives, that's a sulphite. Check dried fruit; ime about half are preserved with sulphites and the rest are OK as they coat them with oil instead.

Sulphites are not the same as Sulphates - sulphates don't tend to trigger allergies.

There are new laws on sulphite labelling, so it's getting easier to see which products to avoid :)

caramel sulphite - made my own mistake there!

Interesting thread. I also doubt that drinking 2-3 litres of water a day is good for you!

Ahh I usually eat veggie sausages and I don't like scotch eggs or dried fruit. I haven't noticed myself get ill from onion though I'll start to pay attention as I do sometimes feel sick after eating and I can't pin down why so maybe that. I have noticed I feel sick if I eat things that are too garlicky.

My favourite health myth is "headlice prefer clean hair ". Umm, no they don't, it was just put about to try to stop kids bullying each other /reduce the stigma of having them. Although headlice can happily tolerate hair washing, they much prefer to be undisturbed. You contract headlice from an infected person - the lice don't wander about picking and choosing the cleanest head

....oh, and if I have a cold, people telling me to 'take loads of vitamin C'. I always pull a concerned face and say 'Oh my, god, do you think I have scurvy as well??'

Gummibaer I think I drink about 2-3 litres a day. But I get really thirsty if I don't and waters the only thing I really drink. It hasn't done me any harm but I drink a lot more than most people I know.

Water's*

wow, this thread is a head fuck.

too many people saying things are myths that directly contradict what someone else has said is a myth (there are opposing views in fruit sugars, starvation mode and dairy at least)!

For me personally, drinking lots of water is a good thing. I'm never thirsty and drank exclusively diet coke for years. I've now given that up almost completely and aim for 1-2 litres of water a day plus coconut water. I do believe it stops me feeling hungry and I do believe it's improved my skin, energy and mental health.

I also don't believe that fruit is bad for you. I eat around 4-5 portions of vegetables a day but I also eat 4-5 portions of fruit a day. I don't see anything but good effects from this.

I don't believe that meat is bad for you either. I eat both chicken and fish every day and again, feel that my health has improved.

Having said that, those 4 things (chicken, fish, fruit and veg) are pretty much all I eat (sometimes eat eggs and nuts and I do cook with olive oil). And that's a change from existing largely on diet coke, low cal hot chocolate, flavoured rice cakes, ice lollies and sweets. So it's probably more about the general healthy change than any specific food being good or bad.

Eating refined sugar or starchy carbohydrates now makes my feel like death warmed up. Nausea and diarrhoea are the main problems. But I don't know that that makes them inherently unhealthy for me - just that my body is adapting to not having them and starting to reject them.

My personal thoughts on things that ARE myths:

• 'you shouldn't eat more than 6 eggs a week' - why not? I don't think the cholesterol in eggs is the same as that in the body and, if you aren't eating anything else high in, eggs are a great protein and healthy fat source and relatively low calorie.
• 'women shouldn't ever eat below 1200 calories to lose and should eat around 2000 to maintain' - ha! As a tiny woman I eat around 1100-1200 to maintain and 800-900 to lose. (net that is - exercise obviously changes things).
• 'If you stop stressing about infertility you are likely to get pregnant' - works for some people but I really don't think this can be scientifically sound.

Re; the additives in party food make children hyperactive...there was a study a few years ago where they divided a group of children in to 2 groups. They fed one group cucumber sticks, hummous, celery etc... no sugar, additives. The other group was fed high sugar/additive, coloured foods....BUT... they told the parents that their children had been fed the opposite type of food, ie, the additive, sugar free group's parents were told they had had party food and vice versa. They were asked to keep a log of their children's behaviour. Something like 70% recorded 'hyperactive behaviour' in the sugar free group and a similar percentage recorded 'normal behaviour in the high sugar group. I love this,' it's the 'nocebo' ,opposite of placebo...what you believe influences what you experience.