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

433 replies

TattyDevine · 26/02/2015 12:53

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)

OP posts:
TalkinPeace · 26/02/2015 14:17

stubbornstains
Ketosis and starvation mode are completely different things.
One is an entirely natural fat burning process, the other is a fairy tale

stubbornstains · 26/02/2015 14:18

I think the origin of the "having to eat enough to maintain weight loss", "breakfast being the most important meal of the day" stuff must be that, if you skip a nice healthy filling breakfast, you run the risk of being STARVING at 11.00 am, and scoffing 3 packets of crisps and a flapjack Grin.

lovelychops · 26/02/2015 14:18

As Nancy said unthread- the thing about 'needing' to eat breakfast / it being the most important meal of the day.
I regularly skip breakfast as I just don't feel hungry in the morning. And I'm fine. If I have porridge Im absolutely starving by lunchtime.

stubbornstains · 26/02/2015 14:19

I thought "starvation mode" was another term for ketosis? What is starvation mode supposed to be then??

TalkinPeace · 26/02/2015 14:19

I've not eaten since 8pm yesterday.
I won't eat till 7 tonight.
Perfectly normal Thursday.

Verbena37 · 26/02/2015 14:20

There was an article by a nephrologist a few weeks ago about not needing to drink so much water. He said it was dangerous to drink too much and our body doesn't need all that two litres a day nonsense.

Drink when you're thirsty and check the colour of your urine is pale to yellow.

Honsandrevels · 26/02/2015 14:20

My MIL believes that having a tummy upset is due to a cold on your tummy and that's why you should wear a vest. Hmm Vomiting from allowing your abdomen to become cold?

toomuchtooold · 26/02/2015 14:21

My work (a healthcare company!) gave us all flasks that we could use to carry around our precious drinking water. "Fill me 4 times a day", it says on the side. I use it to take my morning cup of tea on the train Grin

MeeWhoo · 26/02/2015 14:22

If you've been breastfeeding a baby all night, then you definitely wake up in "starvation mode"...Grin Grin

Stealthpolarbear · 26/02/2015 14:22

hatsucks there was a thread about this a while ago
apparently blended fruit and veg can only count as one of your five a day no matter how many there are
i queried that - one apple plus one banaba plus two sticks of celery = 3 of 5
stick the entire lot in a blender and consume the contents = 1 of 5
how?? it's the same stuff!

Honsandrevels · 26/02/2015 14:23

Re drinking. If you have kidney disease you are usually limited on the amount you can drink per day to reduce stress on the kidneys.

ErrolTheDragon · 26/02/2015 14:24

It's a myth that any of us will be in any way, shape or form 'starving' if we miss a meal or two. (The inappropriate use of that word instead of 'a bit hungry' makes me quite cross).

TheEponymousGrub · 26/02/2015 14:27

hair is self-cleansing I tried this. For a few weeks I only washed my hair with water.

It was FILTHY with grease. I kept hoping it would come ok in the end, but then one day my boss asked me if it was raining outside! I mumbled, No I'm trying this thing with my hair...
..and washed it that evening.

I will say, though, that my scalp was in great shape during those few weeks. (Whereas in normal hair-life I'm rather prone to flakiness.) I was almost sorry to go back to the shampoo, but I looked so disgusting.

Quangle · 26/02/2015 14:29

I think washing fruit and veg is nonsense because

a) pesticides are designed to be rain-resistant so aren't going to be destroyed by a quick sluish under the tap and
b) e-coli and the like will shrug and laugh at a drizzle of cold water as well

I think it's a quasi-religious ritual with no meaning. It obviously wouldn't achieve anything in terms of hygiene if you ran your chopping board under cold water for a few seconds so why should it be any different if it's a courgette? Plus my courgette is actually going to be heated which is a much more effective way to kill bacteria than a drop of cold water.

I do remove obvious dirt from potatoes etc but really, other than that, what is the point?

MrsHathaway · 26/02/2015 14:31

Stealth I think it's because although yes the calorie content is the same, the fibre content isn't - and fibre is one of the things the five a day are for.

Kittymum03 · 26/02/2015 14:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sleepwhenidie · 26/02/2015 14:39

On the fructose/sucrose thing - they are both the same essentially but to suggest that eating an apple with 20g of sugar that is wrapped up in the fibre etc of the apple in a form our bodies are equipped to process, is equivalent to ingesting 20g of sugar (whether fructose or sucrose) in its concentrated, unwrapped state, in say, ketchup or a soft drink, is just daft. Cut down on the products with added sugar or 'unwrapped' fructose and a couple of pieces of fruit a day are unlikely to cause any health problems.

Topseyt · 26/02/2015 14:43

I drink according to thirst and always have. I have never drunk 2 litres of pure water a day. I just don't like it enough on its own, unless I really am thirsty during warm weather.

Wasn't 5 a day a marketing ploy cooked up by a marketing board for fruit and vegetables?? So people with a vested interest in getting us to at least buy more? It was so successful that governments have virtually adopted it as policy. It doesn't have much basis in scientific fact, as far as I know.

The notion that real butter is bad for you, whilst all of this artificially produced spread is good is tosh. I prefer real butter and have largely switched back to it. Salted, if you please.

Stillwishihadabs · 26/02/2015 14:52

Agree sleep. We had a drug rep come in yesterday and bought some smoothies with him. Back in the noughties I used to have these fairly regularly and I remember thinking how "I could feel it doing me good". A couple of years ago I stopped buying juice and now we drink water with our meals. I tasted it yesterday and it just tasted too sweet. I think if you mulch up fruit and veg you do destroy the slow release qualities and therefore much of their nutritional value.

RedToothBrush · 26/02/2015 14:54

Most of the change4life government website...

mikado1 · 26/02/2015 15:06

Love this thread. I need to drink lots of water every day or I will have a headache by the afternoon. It's a complete pita. As a child/teen I don't ever remember drinking anything except a caprisun at lunch and would have been much more active/sporty than I am now. I am laughing at a lot of these myths as they are exactly what my dad would say to me-wet head/cold ground etc!

I am a bit disturbed tho by the possibility that there's no point washing my fruit and veg! ! :(

TheCuntOfMonteCristo · 26/02/2015 15:08

I went to school back when you had a drink with your breakfast, another drink with your school dinner and then drank whatever when you got home. No child ever collapsed with dehydration not even during the heatwave of '76.

Same with sun block. When our DCs started school I was astounded to discover they had to take sun block to school with them from early April onwards. And a sun hat. And a plastic water bottle. I very rarely complied. They haven't died yet.

Breakfast? What's that? Never eat it. I haven't eaten since 7 o'clock last night and I'm just about to eat a sarnie and some fruit for a late lunch. Will eat my main meal again at about 7 o'clock tonight. This is standard operating procedure for me. I'm above average height and a size 12.

haggardoldwitch · 26/02/2015 15:15

The myths about Malaria prevention annoy me. Garlic capsules, tonic water, Marmite, citronella candles, Avon skin so soft and vitamin B offer no protection.
Appropriate medication, 50% deet, loose covering clothes & nets do.

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 26/02/2015 15:18

That you should only weigh yourself once a week at the same time.

On its own weight is a pretty crap measure of how fat you are due to changes in food consumption, hydration, glycogen stores, muscle and fat composition. Your weight will vary by several pounds due to a combination of these.

Try weighing yourself twice a day for a week to see the variation.

Far better to use waist measurement and clothes fit to keep an eye on your 'weight'.

Interrobang · 26/02/2015 15:18

That we need meat or dairy. We need neither.
And in fact, both are more detrimental than beneficial for our optimal health.

www.facebook.com/pages/The-China-Study/30125373591?fref=ts is a start.

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