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)

Thanks holly!

I thought for ages it was the MSG in chinese takeaways that made me violently sick a few hours after eating it, until it started happening with fish and chips as well. Turns out I just can't tolerate deep fried food, my stomach hates it. I can now eat vast amounts of chinese as long as I avoid the spring rolls and prawn toast .

Also proves I should stop being a lazy cow and cook my own dinner.

Countess I don't know why you would deny people's own experiences of food intolerance. There are two foods that I now avoid completely because every time I ate them in the past, I got stomach cramps. It took years for me to work out which foods were the culprits. Are you saying I'm deluded? I wouldn't expect a clinical trial to show that lots of people are intolerant to these foods; I just know that I am, and perhaps some other people are. Why is that so hard to accept?

I'm not. I'm saying that while you may sincerely believe that msg, for example, gives you headaches, the science shows this to be entirely unlikely, and its probably something else giving you headaches. Now I don't care what you eat, or why, or how you feel afterwards, or if you feel better avoiding certain things. It's none of my business and I couldn't be less interested.
However, if you come along here and state "I know for a fact that msg does cause headaches because it does to me", I'll probably argue against you.

I think we are all different...I know I am certainly a bit weird about food. Certain foods make me feel sick -some I retch if I try to eat - I really really can't eat them.
Japanese diet wouldn't work for me ...I can't eat fish. Not allergic but the even the smell makes me feel sick (as a child I actually would be sick).
I can eat things that aren't too fishy - like frozen prawns rinsed in water, 'meaty' tinned tuna and salmon sometimes, even have managed chip shop fish if it is bland. And I've tried because I know I'm missing out - spoiled some fantastic expensive meals ordering fish thinking if it was 'nice' enough I would like it ...and I really really don't.
I also had an allergic reaction to something - after cooking a special dinner for someone when I was a chef - it could have been oysters - opened lots, didn't eat any -really couldn't (or white asparagus or nasturtiums...which I did eat lots of.)
I think I have a problem with texture/slimy seeds too. I don't like aubergines, courgettes, not cooked tomatoes (cooked they have to be strained -no skin or seeds), fruit (the smell of bananas makes me feel sick - my siblings hate bananas too). I can drink orange juice sometimes but not eat an orange, the odd cooked fruit I can eat and enjoy (apple) - but cooked pear or plums - grainy or slimy no way ....but I love rhubarb (raw & cooked) and most other veggies ....I can happily eat a plate of spinach or mushrooms or broccoli or carrots or celeriac (even things like fennel or salsify or kohl rabi etc- not okra though) and I love nuts and grains and dried seeds like pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
Thankfully my DCs love fruit and like fish but don't like aubergines or courgettes or raw tomatoes ...DP eats anything (except brussel sprouts - which I love!)....and he loves ratatouille - which is my idea of hell!

I would love anyone that denies the possibility of an aspartame/behaviour link to try and look after my eldest son after a drink of sugarfree squash.

The other three are fine, he turns into a banshee.

That all sounds psychosomatic, unlucky. Lots of people have food issues, thats a different thing to intolerances.

It could be neurological. Which is a different thing from psychosomatic ... although innate revulsion could lead to psychosomatic complications.

Wheat intolerance for years was laughed at but finally has been recognised scientifically as a separate condition or conditions to coeliacs disease.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07315724.2014.869996
Just because scientific evidence doesn't yet match anecdotal reports doesn't mean, that all anecdotal reports aren't true.

Scientific evidence is a very murky world of cherry picking, and poor design. And to blindly believe that unless it's been proven it's not true is as naive as believing all you hear.

Wheat give me severe acid indigestion - is that intolerence? I care not! I have a cure for what was 25 years of chronic pain that doesn't involve regular consumption of Rennie and Zantac. There was no test that could prove that wheat was the source of my pain, my reaction is real - it's science that is limited.

Countess I would certainly come on here and say to you that msg CAN cause headaches, if there were sufficient evidence. Are you saying that in all the trials there were no reported headaches? If so that would be quite bizarre, as most clinical trials of any drug would consider headache as a potential side effect.

I know it must be mainly 'in my head' - I feel queasy picking up apple cores.
But I heard someone on the radio who had a similar dislike of aubergines, courgettes and raw tomato (and peppers -forgot them!)- they were a 'supertaster' -which I'm pretty sure in some science lesson I did the test and I wasn't ...but find it interesting my DCs don't like them either (and DP cooks them -and I've tried my best not to give them the same odd tastes -I mashed up banana for them and hid my disgust!)
I do wonder if some of it is some innate warning thing to avoid certain foods...because of intolerance - or an allergy - (it was a proper allergic reaction -massive hives etc, needed steroids)

If there were sufficient evidence, sure. But there isn't. Thats my point.

MSG isn't a drug and they weren't clinical trials in that way. And no, not most clinical trials would state headache as a side effect. You're mixing up about different things in one post.

wouldnt*

I said "would consider headache as a potential side effect", not "would state headache as a side effect". Please read more carefully. So what sort of trials were they then? It doesn't sound as though they were particularly rigorous. MSG may not be a medicine, but as an additive to food produced for human consumption, presumably it has been tested on humans?

It still doesn't make much sense. You don't decide what are the potential side effects before you do the trials, you do them and the see what the actual side effects are. It would be an utter waste of time to consider every possible potential side effect, unless you had a proper scientific basis for looking for something in particulat

If you want to know how rigurous these tests were, try looking them up, I'm not your personal science dictionary (and don't make such daft assumptions before you do, critical thinking, remember?). They have been conducted for decades, so take your time. Obviously food additive for human consumption has been tested on humans. Sheesh.

When I was at university several male friends of mine tried the hair is self-cleaning thing. Even after several months they still reeked, so I'm not buying it - even if it's technically true, naturally clean hair isn't clean to our artificial standards.

I've just seen a corker of mad things people believe on another thread:

Have you seen a homeopath? I believe they can induce a spontaneous hysterectomy with a personally dowsed combination of essences

Perhaps, instead of declaring that they have an intolerance, people should go back to saying "Such and such doesn't agree with me", like my 74 year old auntie does. Sounds vaguer, but it actually more accurate.

Anyhoo, I had an absolute perfect storm of myths flung at me last night..."Cancer cells feed on sugar". "Gluten has a terrible effect on you, even if you're not coeliac". (so why did you agree to come out to dinner in Pizza sodding Express then?? ). Countered with, when I got home, "Well, that's bollocks, your body actually needs gluten". (although he was unable to clarify that with why, or what, indeed, gluten actually is. I suspect he may have been mixing it up with glucose ).

Not read the whole thread so sorry if this has been said already.

I've always been told that cough medicines don't actually work. They May sooth a cough, but they don't cure it.

so where is that thread with homeopathy causing spontaneous hysterectomies? I have one badly applied bollocks to put in the right place

Well I would say there is a reasonable way of working this out, it is to drink half your body weight in pounds, in fluid ounces, a day, SO, if you weigh 10 stone that would be 140 lbs and that would mean 70 fl ounces of fluid a day, easy rally.

By he way by the time your body tells you that you are thirsty, you are already seriously dehydrated.
Eating at night is not really good, why are you not asleep at night? Obviously you will burn more in the day if you are rushing about than you will burn if you area lying down at night. The best, is to finish eating by about 8pm, then have a 16 hour fast, until 12 noon the next day and then eat. Break your day down into 3 sections, the eating section from 12noon -8 pm, the digesting section from 8pm to 4 am and the elimination cycle from 4 am until 12 noon. Your body will love this and work much better.

Unfortunately, in the Western World, doctors do not study nutrition so what they tell you about eating and drinking is probably here say or has been told them by some drug company Rep who's only motive is profit. I am sure many doctors are very sincere but sady they are often sincerely wrong!

Yes tea and coffee are fluids, but, especially coffee, is a diuretic (well the caffeine is), so discretion is needed in the amount of caffeine drunk. Rooibos tea grows without caffeine and organic decaff is fine. In non organic de caff, the chemicals used to remove the caffeine are extremely toxic. They say they are not in there by the time you get it but would you believe that. Organic de caff is decaffeinated using water.

It just tells me that you gut is not working properly and you probably need some serious probiotics to try and sort it out

Aspartame is a neurotoxin and neuro suppressant. It can lead to many serious health problems and one can die of aspartame syndrome.
Just steer clear of it at all times>

I would suggest reading Dr Natasha Mcbride's book - Gut and Psychology syndrome. It will open up a new world on information about the gut and all behaviour.