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)

Vitamin C is E300. A useful fact to throw at offer to those who hate E numbers.

I do like bacon lol and a nice steak

Yes to the poster who said about going outside with wet hair will induce a cold. I get irrationally irritated about that one

I've heard hair is self-cleansing.

I was going to try it on my kids lovely virgin hair.

Just pick the baked beans out and you are good to go.

But I backed down when my daughters lovely blond hair took on a green hue after swimming...

Is hair really self cleaning? What about your scalp? Your scalp is skin. It needs to be washed.

Insomnia- it is normal to wake at night, even to stay awake for a couple of hours in the night. We only started to sleep in one consolidated block about 200 years ago. You do not need drugs to treat this.

Children need factor 50 sunscreen during the 30 minutes they are outside during the school day in England.

Mistaking thirst for hunger would go on my list of myths tbh. They are utterly different feelings.

I'd also add to the myths the one that says if you can get out of bed and pick up a £10 note from the garden, you haven't got flu. It's quite possible to have flu with mild - or even no symptoms.

Skin can regulate itself and clean unnecessary oils and removes dead skin so no you don't need to wash it either really

ill add the one i usually bring to these threads
starvation mode
the ides that you prevent weight losst by eating too little, and that to lose weight you need to eat more
no evidence for starvation mode afaik, and if it does exist, i doubt it appies to people who have had only one hob nob with morning tea, rather than two

"people noticed you got a certain illness after getting cold -so it was called a 'cold')"

and people noticed that living in damp, swampy places resulted in malaria, so it was named after the damp, stagnant air that was obviously the cause.

Children need factor 50 sunscreen during the 30 minutes they are outside during the school day in England.

That's a particularly problematic myth - apart from the re-emergence of rickets, it seems as though insufficient natural vitamin D production may be implicated in a variety of conditions. (but you don't need to get a tan and certainly not burn to get enough sun)

The idea that some foods can only be eaten at certain times of day so you can't have cereal for dinner or steak for breakfast. Bullocks steak is a very good breakfast

I hate the aspartame myth. It has been proven to be a myth and has no science backing it up at all, yet people still believe it is the devil and you will develop cancer, and all this nasty stuff Of course, like everything it doesn't agree with everyone but it doesn't make it inherently dangerous.

Also as for the weight gain and aspartame myth? the reason people often don't lose weight or put on wait when switching to diet drinks is because people often end up eating more because they stupidly think that because they have drank less calories they can eat more. The science about how diet drinks causes spikes and makes you crave sweet foods is sketchy at best.

You need to eat three meals a day.. erm, no.

If you don't eat enough calories you will hold onto weight or even gain it as your body will go into starvation mode . No, all that means is that you will lose less weight slower than expected if you cut your calories down to too little, but you will still lose weight. Starvation mode is widely misunderstood. No one gains weight because they don't eat enough.

Feed a cold, starve a flu.

No. Just drink wine and eat crisps all the time, thanks.

Yes at Stealthpolarbear!

Starvation mode!

I had a colleague who lost 3 stone on slimming world and was doing a pretty good job at keeping it off 5 years later, but half a stone had slipped on.

She was banging on about why, and saying "maybe I'm not eating enough" etc etc.

Then one night we were out and she was eating canapes like spring rolls and stuff "I'm on a green day"

Asked her if she was sinning it. Nope.

So you are eating plenty. Half a stone has gone back on because you've stopped sinning EVERYTHING like you do when you are first on it.

She went back to basics and it came off for her.

(I'm not a fan of slimming world actually for me but it worked for her previously, so all she had to do was return to the programme and it worked again)

But I love how she'd been brainwashed into the "not eating enough" thing when in fact she was eating the wrong stuff.

Is it really, still wish? I've never slept through the night in my life. Wake 4-5 times, at least once for an hour. So bed at 11, will wake at 1.30, 2.15, from about half 3 to half four and again usually between 5 and 6. Up for the day at 7 and I am permanently knackered.

I think there's something in starvation mode in terms of exercising without enough calories particularly protein and your body using lean mass, but its more complicated and a bit less likely than the average dieter who is probably just needing to tweak. (And twerk!)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
only for the manufacturers of breakfast foods

If you skip a meal you will go into starvation mode
Funny that after not eating overnight you do not wake up in starvation mode then .....

Has any said sitting on a cold floor will give you piles?

Is it really true that if you whiz up fruit in a blender thingy it loses more nutrients than if the fruit is whole? I don't understand sciencey things.

The water one is of particular interest to me. During pregnancy my body wanted about twice as much as before - I listened to it and drank water obediently! But when not pregnant I suspect that our strong wills often override the milder prompts of body/brain. We are creatures of habit and sometimes we can de facto not be drinking enough water (especially if the liquid we drink requires liquid to process other ingredients out of the body, if the weather is hot or we are sweating through activity. So really the guidance should be pay attention to the signals that your brain is sending to you!

Actually Mistigris additives can cause hyperactivity. A lot of the main culprits were removed from European food many years ago, but they are still found in American food and food imported from outside of the EU.

We spent a couple of month in the US when my daughter was 5, and her behaviour became atrocious. She'd be buzzing, almost doing wall of death laps round the living room, still awake at 10pm (bedtime was 6:30pm). She'd also flip from hyper to depressed 'no one wants me around'.

I did some research, we cut out everything that had the artificial colours in, had to shop at whole foods and buy organic to be sure, and within a few days she was back to her old self. It was very noticeable if her diet slipped as well. One day my DH came home and she was hyper again, he asked what she eaten, so we went through everything, I'd bought an Arbies chocolate milkshake (thought chocolate would be fine), DH checked online and it had Red 40 in it (think they call it Tartrazine over here).

I know annecdote doesn't make data, but these have been removed from Eurpean food due to research. If I hadn't seen the deterioration in DDs behaviour, if she'd always had food with those additives in, I would have thought she had ADHD, or similar, the behaviour was that extreme.

Aspartame makes me feel really ill (nausea, lightheaded, itchy skin). I notice the taste of it in food almost instantly and can smell it on other people's breath. No idea why though as other people seem to be fine with it.

Agree with all the other points though. I can't believe that so many people STILL opt for low fat foods when on a diet. I keep trying to convince my friend that when she buys a 'low fat' yoghurt, that it's basically a shit storm of chemicals in a plastic pot. It's unbelievable that 'low fat' is still being pedalled as the healthy option.

Re Sea Salt as opposed to Table Salt - I thought that Sea Salt had more iodine in it, thus making it healthier for your thyroid? Or is this another myth?

no evidence for starvation mode afaik, and if it does exist, i doubt it appies to people who have had only one hob nob with morning tea, rather than two

Well, there is, it's called "ketosis", and is easily measurable by the presence of chemicals called ketones in your body (do they come out in your wee or something?). It's not that easy to achieve through dieting though- although possible if you cut out ALL carbs for several days- but, for example, my friend went into ketosis when suffering severe HG.

I am on phone so can't link. But Google polyphasic sleep there is a huge website and some loons but the scientific back ground is v interesting.

thatsucks isn't it wet grass that gives you piles?