Most of us have probably heard one or two ‘facts’ about food – especially when it relates to diet, forbidden foods for sickies, or healthy food fads. While some may still hold true, it’s time to settle the score once and for all and clear the misconceptions you may have about food.
Eating food within 5 (or 3) seconds of dropping it on the floor is safe
Everyone’s probably heard of the 5-second rule – but if you’ve actually read studies (or even watched Mythbusters), you’ll know that once food touches the floor, it’s a gone case. Bacteria contaminates food within milliseconds.
Sure, moist foods attract more bacteria than dry ones, but that doesn’t guarantee its safety. Whether or not the food is safe to eat depends on where you dropped it – if you dropped it onto a kopitiam floor, you can forget about it.
Your vanilla ice cream has beaver butt secretions
Some of you may know that some animal secretions are used in the perfume industry – and you may have heard that a beaver’s secretion (called castoreum) is one of them. However, this secretion from the beaver’s anal gland is so expensive at US$70 per pound (not to mention there is no humane way to do so) that it’s unlikely to show up as a perfume or a food flavouring. But maybe, just maybe, you can find it in your small-batch liquor that’s hand made in some hipster city somewhere.
Eating chocolate gives you acne
Now, this is one that has been circulating forever. When scientists actually did studies – they found that there was ‘no difference’ between the zit count of those who did eat more chocolate and those who didn’t. Apparently the chocolate nor the fat made any difference on acne.
Organic food is pesticide-free and more nutritious
This one is a relatively new concept for food fads. Everyone knows that ‘natural is best’, and that’s what some products want you to think. You know you’d pay extra for foods labelled ‘organic’ or ‘pesticide-free’, but did you know that farmers who grow organic produce are permitted to use chemicals? Sure, they’re derived from natural sources, but apparently some have been found to be worse for the environment than their synthetic counterparts. Plus, pesticide levels for non-organic foods are no higher than those labelled ‘organic’, according to the USDA. A review of 98,727 potentially relevant studies have also shown that organic food doesn’t have any extra benefits over their non-organic counterparts.
Natural sugar like honey is better for you than processed sugar
Some people seem to have a misconception that honey is better than process sugar. Some also believe that brown sugar is better than white sugar. The bottom line is, sugar is sugar – they’re made with the same compounds (fructose/glucose). The next time you’re craving for something sweet, check the calorie derived from sugars – this is the listing you should look out for.
Coffee stunts your growth
Did you know that this idea was perpetuated by a cereal manufacturer in order to sway consumers to drink their morning beverage called ‘Postum’? Their ad campaign called coffee a ‘nerve poison’ that should never be served to kids.
However, most research finds no correlation between caffeine consumption and bone growth in kids. While caffeine consumption does slightly limit calcium absorption, even a small tablespoon of milk will more than adequately offset the effects of a cup of coffee.
Eating ice cream will make your cold worse
This is probably one myth that many parents have told their children. The idea that dairy increases mucous production isn’t true – doctors at Mayo Clinic observed that frozen dairy products can soothe a sore throat. However, for some people, eating ice cream could trigger a reflexive cough action.
It takes 7 years for gum to digest if you swallow it
If you happen to accidentally swallow gum, it would pass through your intestines and exit your body just like anything else you eat. However, gum is mostly indigestible, and the only cases where it may cause a problem is if you swallow gum with other items that shouldn’t be in your stomach, like a coin.
You can’t swim immediately after eating or you can cramp and drown
Many of us have probably heard this myth since we were young, but there’s no evidence to support this claim. Remember the news where an Aussie rapper swam away from a yacht after eating an expensive (and filling) meal in order to avoid paying the bill?
The theory behind this myth swirls around the idea that we need oxygen to digest food, and if the blood is drawn to the stomach, less blood will be available to our muscles – so we cramp up. There’s been no documented cases of drowning from a full stomach.
Everyone should drink eight glasses of water a day
You’ve probably heard about this one from almost everyone. While hydration is very important, you don’t actually need eight glasses of water. In healthy folk, researchers have not found any connection between fluid intake and kidney disease, heart disease, sodium levels, or even skin quality. There’s no guideline to the amount of water anyone should drink – a good rule is to drink when you’re thirsty.
Yogurt will help put your digestive system back in order
We’ve often heard that yoghurt is helps digestion – and slims our figure – because of probiotics, or “good bacteria”. While bacteria are essential to our gut, we already have millions of them in our bodies. It’s not proven that adding yoghurt to your diet will aid in slimming, but that’s because most yoghurts actually contain a lot of sugar, which we know is the real culprit of expanding waistlines.
