At the List Universe we love to dispel myths – so here we are, yet again, presenting another list of common myths that need to be debunked and forgotten once and for all. This time we look at medical myths – of which there are thousands. This is a selection of the ten most common, but do feel free to add your own to the comments.
The Myth: Sugar makes kids hyperactive
Dr. Vreeman and Dr. Carroll, both pediatricians at the Riley Hospital for Children recently said: “in at least 12 double-blinded, randomized, controlled trials, scientists have examined how children react to diets containing different levels of sugar. None of these studies, not even studies looking specifically at children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, could detect any differences in behavior between the children who had sugar and those who did not.” This includes artificial and natural sources of sugar. Interestingly, in the study, parents who were told their children had been given sugar when they hadn’t, noted that the child was more hyperactive. So it seems it is all in the parent’s mind.
The Myth: You lose most of your body heat through your head
A military study many years ago tested the loss of temperature in soldiers when exposed to very cold temperatures. They found rapid heat loss in the head – and so the idea that we lose heat through our heads was born. But what they didn’t tell you was that the soldiers were fully clothed except for their heads. This obviously skews the statistics considerably. The fact is, completely naked, you lose approximately 10% of your body heat through the head – the other 90% is lost via the other parts of your body.
The Myth: You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
The origins of this myth is most likely the fact that a 1945 government agency said that the human body needed around 8 glasses of fluid a day. This included the fluid from all of the foods we eat and drinks like tea and coffee. Somehow over time “fluid” turned to “water” and the modern water myth arose. This also lead to silly slogans like “if you are thirsty it is too late” – a concept that would seem to have been invented by water bottlers who have something to gain from excess water consumption in the population in general. So, in reality, if you are thirsty, drink some water. If you are not, don’t.
The Myth: Chewing gum takes seven years to pass through your system
I am sure we have all been told at least once in our life by a concerned adult, not to swallow gum as it will take seven years to leave our bodies. This is right up there with the whole “fruit seed growing a tree in your stomach” silliness, but while most adults realize the tree story is a myth, they don’t realize that the gum one is too. It is true that gum is not digestible in the human body, but it simply passes whole through your system. It doesn’t stick to your insides, it just continues along with any food you have eaten and pops out the other end. This myth may have partly arisen from the fact that swallowing gum was once viewed as lower class and ignorant.
The Myth: Cracking your knuckles will cause arthritis in later life
The cracking sound in the knuckles is caused by the bones moving apart and forming a gas bubble – the sound is the bubble bursting. It is quite common to hear someone warning a knuckle-cracker that they will get arthritis, but the worst that can happen to a compulsive-cracker is that their finger joints may weaken over time. Arthritis is caused by a variety of things (such as crystal formations in the case of gout) – but knuckle cracking isn’t one of them.
The Myth: Teething causes a fever
Scientific studies have been done in the area of teething which show no correlation at all between fever and teething. If your baby is suffering from a new tooth and they also have a fever, it is advisable to check for other causes of the fever. The same is true of diarrhea which is also often blamed on teething in infants. It is always better to be safe than sorry when dealing with the health of children.
The Myth: Cancer treatment is painful and pointless – furthermore, it is incurable
While this may have been almost true thirty years ago, medical advances have meant that modern cancer treatments are far more effective and cause less suffering for the patient. A few decades ago, 90% of children with leukemia died; today 80% survive. Many people think cancer is incurable as there isn’t a “one drug fixes all” cure, but there are many people who are completely cured of cancer. Various drugs exist to treat different types of cancer, and many of them are extremely effective and well worth trying if you do get the disease.
The Myth: Back pain should be treated with bed rest
The opposite is actually true in this case. Bed rest can prevent the lower back from fully recovering – or at the very least, delay the recovery significantly. Patients who continue to engage in ordinary activities recover faster and usually have fewer problems with recurring pain and other back troubles. Interestingly, many studies have shown that this is not just true of back problems, but also many other medical problems. Thirty-nine independent studies found bed rest to be more harmful than good in a broad range of illnesses.
The Myth: Eating turkey makes you sleepy because it contains tryptophan
This is one of the most common myths on this list – and it pops up every year around Thanksgiving. But actually, chicken and ground beef contain almost identical quantities of tryptophan as turkey does. Other foods such as cheese and pork contain significantly more of the chemical than turkey. So why do people think turkey makes them sleepy? It is most likely due to turkey appearing at very large meals often eaten during the day rather than the evening. The heavy meal slows blood flow which can cause drowsiness, and the timing can have a huge psychological impact: in other words, you are imagining it.
The Myth: Eating at night makes you fat
Secret snackers rejoice! This is a complete myth. It doesn’t matter what time of day you eat, as long as you eat only the total calories that you burn each day, you will not gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight, and if you eat more calories, you will gain. It is as simple as that. Having said that, the routine of three meals a day at the same time each day can have other benefits in life (routine is good and it helps humans work more effectively), but snacks at night are no worse than snacks in the morning or afternoon.
The Myth: It is harder to lose weight than to gain weight
Actually – once you get your head around a new eating pattern, math and science are working in your favor. It is mathematically easier to lose than to gain. For example, if you eat 3,500 calories more than you burn, you will gain 0.3 pounds (0.14 kg), but if you burn 3,500 calories more than you eat, you will lose 1 pound (0.45 kg). Also, if you want to lose weight, you can expose yourself to significant changes in temperature which speeds up your metabolism. Finally, the above information is based on a pure fat diet – variations to the math occur when you introduce other types of food.
Contributor: JFrater
Disagreeing with #10 & #5, but looking for further info gives me something to look further into while my fiancee's out of town tonight. Dishes? What mountain of dishes?
I find it humorous when people disagree with items on these lists, as if they know more about it than others who have actually researched and work in those respective fields. If doctors say #10 is BS then it’s BS and nothing you say changes that fact.
#22 Frank, Amen to that. I'll also step out on a very thin limb and say that ADHD is a pseudo-scientific construct designed to appease parents that refuse to do the hard work and control their normal, active (usually boys) children. I am a teacher and I can make ADHD kids sit still indefinitely, even without their stupid drugs.
I hope you know you've offended people with a lot of legitimate problems! I bet you also believe depression isn't real and that people can just snap out of it. I usually just roll my eyes at things like this, but your ignorance is just killing me.
i suggest you educate yourself. just because you're a teacher doesnt mean you cant still learn. as a GIRL with ADD, and not a major degree of it either, I can say that at least in my case, I'm not just some kid that doesn't want to pay attention or work. I'm one of the good kids, not a natural rebel. I enjoy school and slowly realized it was becoming very difficult to concentrate no matter how much effort I put into it. then I was diagnosed, started taking those "stupid drugs", and now am doing very well in school. now, all drugs have some trace of a placebo effect, but I am able to very easily notice a difference in my ability to maintain attention. ADD/ADHD medications work on anyone really, even those without an attention issue, and it's over-diagnosed. but it is a real issue for some people and I believe that as an educator you should be a little more understanding of those minds you're molding. or else they'll just think you're ignorant.
you might want to know what you're talking about before you start to make comments. they wouldn't let you teach a course not knowing a damn thing about it, now would they?
The drugs have an effect on everyone you ignorant brainwashed psychological zombie. Almost all kids have issues concentrating. And just because someone has a small attention span doesn’t mean they have to be considered to have a mental disability. A mental disability should only be considered accurate if something is clearly WRONG with someone’s brain. ADD and in many cases ADHD are just exuses parents use when they can’t control their perfectly normal children. Behaving diffently when under the effect of drugs doesn’t mean that the drugs were necessary. In addition, doctors are often payed more if they can sell more drugs to pacients. ADD and ADHD were created for two purposes: to satisfy parents that cannot control children and to make a crap ton of money for drug companies.
u're obviously either a really bad-tempered un-compromising teacher or the parents consider their kids to have adhd without proper diagnosis. either ways, u seem ill-educated. adhd, when properly diagnosed can be hard for both the parents and the students. why place blame on the parents when they're struggling to make life easier? if u are a teacher, isn't it ur job to educate people on these subjects and be tolerant towards those with special needs? u seem very judgmental
As a university lecturer, I find that the majority of students who have been diagnosed as having ADHD don’t have a thing wrong with them. A few even see it as a free ride and expect to be pass exams despite producing answers that show a low level of understanding and competency.
Most students with ‘special needs’ however just get on with it and show little if any difference in their performance compared to normal students. We all like to look out the window during classes after all, yet we are not all diagnosed as ADHD.
Having myself having been diagnosed as having such severe learning difficulties that I needed to go to a ‘special’ school, yet went to a normal one due to my mother’s instance and subsequently obtained both law and finance qualifications to a post graduate level, without any extra help, please excuse my cynicism that ‘special needs’ is somewhat over diagnosed.
It has turned into a self perpetuating industry, in which those diagnosing students as ADHD derive their incomes from doing so.
^^^^FTW^^^^
I already knew about most items on this list but strongly disagree with two of them.
The best study I have ever seen on the connection between sugar and hyperactivity is my own study raising 2 children.
They eat sugary foods or candy and bounce off the walls for the next hour. No sugar and they are calm. That's simple enough to understand isn't it?
And as far as your #1 and the bonus. Of course it's harder to lose weight than to gain. You make it sound as simple as changing the decades old patterns and lifestyle you've been living. Don't you think that would be tremendously hard to do?
.29 BigwigRabbit
You're not a teacher you're an ass. Please find another career quickly! (And take that idiot Frank with you).
Study of your own… what a fool… Let me guess, your kids names are Billy and Sally and you live in some forest in Arkansas…
I totally agree with you, i have two children and i can tell when my son has had sugar, whether it be from candy or even natural sugar in fruit, he gets very hyper and it just changes his attitude, doesn’t listen etc. and it isn’t just me that see’s this, other family members, friends, babysitters and even teachers have experienced his behaviour changes. so ya both 29bigwigrabbit and frank can take a flying leap!!
You guys only think its the sugar, but its not.
bigwig: i'm right there with you. discipline solves all sorts of problems. paying attention is one of them.
as a test, take your average ADHD student and put him down with an x-box. (assuming he likes gaming) observe for a while. does he have alot of trouble paying attention to the game he is playing? no. why? because he wants to pay attention to it.
i work with junior high and high school students and it is just a matter of preference and discipline for my ADD kiddos. students know where there is "a hole" in authority. if claiming a disease and telling people you have to take some pills will give you more freedom to do whatever you want, the average student is going to jump on this gravy train.
this is such a general statement. its more likely that due to the age group u work with that they dont want to pay attention. also, those who CLAIM to have ADD may or may not have it, but those who actually do are struggling. u make it seem like the problem is with the student's personality and not their mind. it's not their fault if they have a disorder. u seem like the type of person, who'd claim that people in wheelchairs are just lazy. they should just be made to walk. u are a shameful person especially when u're supposed to give a healthy environment to these kids, not judge them. i doubt u are an actual educator, but if u are i hope u lose ur job
It is a fair point – how many kids with ADHD have problems concentrating while playing an x-box?
Very few?
That should tell us how over diagnosed ADHD is.
All of this ‘special needs’ has turned into an industry in itself.
If you employ people to find witches, they find witches.
After all my volunteering experiences, I strongly disagree with the first >
“if you’re thirsty it’s already too late” comes from the fact that the first sign of dehydration is being thirsty.
cool list btw
Agreed. It is entirely necessary to consume adequate amounts of water throughout the day. (granted other forms of liquids can be substituted such as juices and teas). Especially with the elderly, thirst is NOT always an appropriate indicator of hydration status. In addition, much of the time you feel hungry, you're body is attempting to tell you that it's thirsty.
*After all my volunteering experiences, I strongly disagree with number 10 >
i don't think sugar causes u to be hyperactive, but it could have a placebo affect. because children believe the myth they justify the way they act or it have a placebo affect on adults. u tend to perceive it more because u look for signs that justify ur own judgement
I actually have huge difficulties gaining weight although my diet consists of what people would call “bad food”.. pizza and the likes… There’s certainly a question of metabolism…
This list has a lot of food related myths, which is medical in a way but I was expecting more purely medical stuff.
Interesting list though, thanks.
I have to say that I honestly disagree with #’s 10, 3, 1 and the bonus. But what do I know, I’ll have to do some researching. I still love this site though. Thanx JFrater.
“Eating at night makes you fat” could that be true if it was related to the time you went to sleep? If you usually go to sleep at 10pm and you ate a sugary snack at 9:30pm then wouldn’t more of it turn into fat rather than if you ate if at midday and were active afterwards.
Your metabolism is still very much up and running when you sleep and uses calories to fuel its repairs and functions…just like when you are awake.
Cool list. Relieved about the knuckles!!!
Ok, interesting list (and i rejoice at #1) but I’m rather skeptical about 10. Where did you get your information for that one because life experience says otherwise for me. Of course it’s certainly possible it’s psychological (just look at placebos and such) perhaps, having been told your entire life that sugar will cause hyperactivity in children, the parent sees hyperactivity when there is none and the child acts more hyper just because that’s what the brain has been told it should do? I dunno but very interesting list. Kinda missing the literature though…
I’ve heard the one about hyperactivity and sugar and love telling people it’s all it their heads, but people are usually hard-headed. I’m surprised people argue with these items, it’s hard to argue with empirical evidence.
I don’t agree with 10. I’m a routine mother and my children went to bed and usually fell asleep well before 8 at night. But if for one or the other reason they had too much sugar during the day, I would struggle way after 10 to get them to sleep. And I don’t think I imagined 2 to 4 hours difference in their bedtime. But that was just my experience.
As for the rest, especially number 1, I’m delighted. I hate drinking water and I always swallow chewing gum. And man, those snacks while watching late night movies always made me feel guilty, but not anymore.
So your children have trouble sleeping after consuming sugar. but does it cause hyperactivity???
nice one. Thank God that the 8 glasses of water a day is a myth. I better convince my mom about this myth. She gets mad when I don’t finish two big, fracking water bottles I’m forced to bring to school everyday. Well, finishing those bottles is like drowning for me, and after 5 minutes I feel like throwing up.
i have to disagree with #10 too.
sorry, but after watching my 5 year old cousin a few times, i know to hide the pixie sticks.
“It is harder to lose weight than to gain weight” is not a myth for majority of people are lazy enough to do “burn” calories and un-disciplined that they eat bad food. The mathematical way has a point but it ain’t reality. You still have to break the boundaries of being disciplined
Einar.
#10 is correct. My eldest boy went through testing for his hyperactivity 18 years ago. One of the first things they ruled out was sugar. After several months of eliminating different foods/food additives, it was found to be an additive (very often added to foods that contain sugar), that was the cause.
We have seen with other children that went through the same testing that none reacted to sugar itself. The testing was done at the Mater Childrens Hospital. The children were reacting to a variety of different foods, but none to sugar.
Most parents notice a change because in their kids after they remove chocolate and other items that contain sugar. What they don’t realize is that most foods contain some sugar, so if you have a reaction to sugar you would have a very restricted diet.
To give you an idea, go to your pantry and have a look at the ingredients in your processed food and you will find that most of the food will contain sugar. Even things that you wouldn’t think would have sugar contain enough to cause a reaction.
Sweet list, as an avid knuckle cracker and pretty much every other joint that i can pop, its good to see number 6 on here. I’ve known what the “pop” is for a long time and i believe that when people tell me that it causes arthritis, they are just saying that cuz it *****es them off.
*kra-krack-krack-pop!*
“Yer gonna get arthritis!”
….pause….
*Begins popping every joint possible.”
Ha! *****s.
though cracking knuckles doe not cause arthritis it can cause future joint pain, it may be mild, but why risk it for a habit that could cause people to dislike being around u?
“The Myth: Cracking your knuckles will cause arthritis in later life”
Ha! I never believed that! Awesome.
”
The Myth: Eating at night makes you fat”
If anyone actually believed that… then wow.
it’s hard to lose weight..argh…
Oh forgot to add – of course it’s easier to gain weight than lose it! All I have to do to gain weight is sit around eating chocolate!
(someone had to say it)
It is funny how people disagree with number 10 (children do not get hyperactive from eating sugar) when there have been actual studies done that clearly shows it is an imagined effect.
I especially find Rina amusing at comment number 10 – Rina, is it possible that you have sometimes struggled with getting your children to bed and thought to yourself “They must have been getting to much sugar today.” Is it possible that on the days they have had some sugar you have sighed and braced yourself for the combat, which your children would have immediately picked up on and started acting up? Is it possible that there was days when they went to bed late and you couldn’t remember them having much sugar at all? Is it possible you told them “Don’t have to much sugar or you will get hyper,” thus causing them to act out your expectations?
In short, is it possible it was all in your head? No? Surely not… Parents experience always trumps science, right? So you parents out there still do it the same way it has always been done? Wrap the babies up in tight little bundles so they can’t move, give your kids frequent spankings to keep them in line, that sort of thing? There are a lot of areas in which parents experience is just imagination, a selfperpetuating myth if you so wish. Science has spoken, now deal with the fact that your kids are hyper because of you – not because of sugar.
Are you OK?
Once I ate an apple and accidentally swallowed a seed. A few months later I had to have surgery to remove a small tree!
True story…..
That is false
sigh….i have to be the downer and dispute #5. Teething CAN cause diarrhea. Everytime my daughter cut a tooth, it was diarrhea city. (and yes, i took her to the doc the first 5 times) Nothing was wrong with her. All that pain and stress of teething gave her the runs. When you get really really stressed, don’t you ever get a bad case of the runs?
Or maybe my child was just weird. (which is very likely)
Yay for #1!
* Fever from teething?
If infants didn’t put everything in their mouth, then germs wouldn’t get inside their body.
* Hyperactive Kids?
Although I hate kids and avoid those snot nosed little *****s, i though it would have been from food colourings and additives… typically food with such rubbish in them are high sugar ie: junkfoods. Sugar does give a burst of energy and too much can , speaking from you experiences.
If I ever have a sore back, I tend to lie down on the sofa which is pretty similar to bed rest. It nearly always makes me feel better so maybe there is some truth to the bed rest one.
Or maybe it’s just me thinking it’s going to make me feel better and therefore I do feel better. Probs quite as likely.
wow all this time I believed the arthritis one and the eating at night one :O Im relieved!
#5 = Cutest. Baby. EVER!
Thank goodness suger doesn’t make me hyper – now i can eat all the sweets i want!
Numbers six and eight are related though. Gout is caused by Uric acid building up in the joints, as well as other places in the body, and is very irritating and sometimes painful. One of the chief causes for this? Dehydration. It can also be caused by high blood pressure, because if your blood pressure is too high, then your blood moves through the kidneys too fast to remove excess salts, acids, and other things. One of the causes for high blood pressure can also be dehydration.
I’m not saying that you need eight glasses a day, but your body needs a certain amount of water handy to flush out toxins and such, and if it doesn’t have it, it takes it from the blood, which causes you to become more dehydrated. So, if you’re thirsty, drink a glass of water, not a soda. The High Fructose Corn Syrup in soda, not to mention the other sugars, are among the things your body will need water for. So, the more clear water you drink, the better.
Also, if you do develop gout, a good, easy, and cheap cure (not intended as modern medical treatment, or diagnostic tool) is a couple glasses of water, and a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar, twice a day until the symptoms go away. Took two days for it to work for me.
Not sure about a couple of these, kids do seem to get hyper when consuming fixxy drinks, may not be sugar but possibly something else.
The heat through the head one is I feel wrong, I was both in the Army and at Sea in cold places. I can assure anyone out there that if you exsercise heavily while wearing head gear you will boil, in very quick order. Body core temerature must be maintained and a lot of heat is lost from the extremities, head, hands and feet. I have a bald friend who always wears a hat or he will freeze, and as we originaly come from 58 degress North we know what the cold is about.
Also the converse is true, in a desert location you must cover the head or you will boil as well.
Overall not a bad list.
1) Scientific studies can prove anything, and there are always contrary studies. It comes down to who you believe.
2) None of these will apply to everyone. There will always be an exception
3) All those people who are cracking their knuckles with relief? Weak joints – not a good thing.
4) Heat through the head? The original statement stands depending how you read it. You lose most of your body heat through your head [when you are clothed] I imagine stands true.
5) Fat and food is mostly about metabolism, but my understanding was that metabolism in general slows down when sleeping therefore food is more likely to be stored/converted inefficiently.
Not bad list, but a bit too anti-sensationalist for my liking.
“if you eat 3,500 calories more than you burn, you will gain 0.3 pounds (0.14 kg), but if you burn 3,500 calories more than you eat, you will lose 1 pound (0.45 kg).”
I agree with 14 – It is hard to burn so much more than you eat in many cases.
In most cases the people who need to lose weight don’t have the enduracne for exercise to burn more than they eat – even with a diet.
When it comes to losing weight it’s rather simple. Eat less, move around more. Of course there are always exceptions. For the people that suffer from true medical issues that prevent them from losing/gaining/ or maintaining weight that “normal” people do, this is an everyday uphill struggle. Metabolism of course comes into play.
Losing weight is hard for me…because I’m lazy and I just want it to fall off with a snap of my fingers.
number 2 is good. i love thanksgiving. go to a relatives house, watch football, eat a huge meal, watch more football, fall asleep, wake up, eat pie. its the perfect holiday.
i’ve heard #1 from medical professionals. if children get hyper from eating chocolate, it’s because there is caffeine in chocolate, not because of the sugar. that’s why doctors recommend for pregnant women not to eat chocolate as well as obstain from caffeine intake for the baby’s sake.
if sugar makes people hyper, then why isn’t candy a staple for a person trying to lose weight? just something to think about.
29. BigwigRabbit
Actually, ADHD is real, it’s just no where near as common as educators and therapy types make it out to be. The real cases you see huge differences in the children with and without the medications. Furthermore, the children actually want to be on the medication in cases where it is a real diagnosis and not some one wanting to ignore a kid’s difficulties. It’s a lot like watching some one who needs anti-psycotics go off the rails to watch a real ADHD case go without the meds.
That said, most of the minor ADD cases are really just little boys who need recess and smaller class sizes. They can also be little girls who are having trouble keeping up or staying interested in the material covered in class. Recent educational studies have been overwhelmingly showing that recess helps kids focus better in the classroom.
I hit the trip wires for ADD when I was a kid because of other learning difficulties mostly related to fine motor skills and reading skills. For me and most of the ‘ADD’ kids I’ve met in my life, smaller classrooms and behavior modification therapies work well. Having a dedicated teacher who works to keep the interest of everyone in the class is a blessing so good on you for working on that.
The thing about late night snacking is that it is usually pointless. You’re about to go to bed so you could just as easily skip the snack. The reason why you shouldn’t late night snack isn’t bad because of the way the food is processed but because those calories are typically extra calories.
It is true that sugars and simple carbs if not burnt quickly will turn to fat more readily but if your net calories for every day is 0, that fat will get burnt anyway.
just a quick thing about number one-
eating at night in and of itself doesn’t make you fat, that’s true. However, night eaters do tend to gain more wieght because a)they’re eating more, and b) lets say you down some oatmeal for breakfast. Then you walk to your car, walk into your office, maybe stand up and chat with people, walk up or down some stairs…you get my drift. Now, let’s say you eat that same oatmeal at night and then you….lie down and sleep. You aren’t burning anything except the minimal amount of calories you burn while you sleep. So yes, night eating can cause weight gain, but from outside factors, not just the fact that it’s nightime.
ADD is just a way of getting attention…I should know, I have it and so does my daughter. We both laugh it off and know it’s not sugar! I knew that one about #10.
I am glad that drinking 8 glasses is an option not a fact…i hate water. I need something in it…gin, voodka…you know, the usuals.
and thank God for #1 and the bonus! I can eat at night and loose weight (as long as I figure out a way to burn those calories before sleep!) hee, hee
*lose
TonyDee, by that logic an infant should be running a fever constantly.
I think ADD is both real and fake. To me, probably more than half are just kids who’s parent’s don’t want to sit with them and read a book or interact wiht them. They have “work” and would rather do that then actually watch and take care of their child. And then there are the kids who actually have the disorder. Who really can’t pay attention, and can’t focus on the simple tasks. But, there are the ones who aren’t and get treated like they are. The ones with all the meds and whatnot. It just sickens me to see these boisterous children who’s parent’s can care a less about rasing their children and would rather just stuff pills down their throat!!!
i’m gonna have alot of fun with number 10
i’m gonna tell every parent i know about this one lol
I’m sorry but I beg to differ on N.8. Drinking water is essential for anyone’s health, as staying hydrated is necessary for most metabolic functions (beta-oxidation of fats included… Think about it next time you go on a diet). The whole “when you’re thirsty it’s too late” is *not* a slogan invented by bottled water brands, thirst is really one of the first symptoms of dehydration. I’m glad that some commenters pointed out the importance of drinking water for maintaining proper renal function; I’d also like to add that coffee and tea are not necessarily good means of fluid intake, as they often contain far too much sugar, which is harmful on the arteries and is of course fattening, and may also contain too much caffeine, which promotes lipolysis and raises the cholesterol levels. Water keeps you hydrated and it’s harmless (it’s only toxic when poisoned or taken in massive amounts). Plus, nobody said you have to drink bottled water. More often than not, tap water is just good enough.
I definately don’t think ADHD is a way of getting attention. I’ve met fellow college students that actually do struggle with it, and it’s quite apparent. My ex, who was SO excited to see Grindhouse when it came out, couldn’t pay attention to it for more then five minutes. He would start talking, play with his cell phone, fidget, get up and walk around the lobby, etc. etc. When we left the theater, he just mumbled “sorry”, but didn’t make a big production out of it. Even during our high school graduation, he couldn’t help but fidget the whole time. ADHD isn’t just an academic disease, and for actual sufferers, it’s not a method for getting attention.
I also think a lot of students are mislabeled as attention deficit, especially in school districts that are not equipped to handle other learning disabilities. I have dyscalculia , but that remained undiagnosed until my senior year (my dyslexia wasn’t recognized until the end of my freshman year of college). Until then, I was labeled as “ADHD/ADD”. I was labeled as an “ADD” student until the NIMH stopped recognizing it- and despite having less energy then my classmates- I was incorrectly diagnosed as ADHD.
I know plenty of people with a wide range of physical + mental aliments that are misdiagnosed. Depression, bipolar disorder, prolonged illness, bladder infections, aspergers syndrome are easily misdiagnosed (dismissed?)P at the elementary level as “ADHD”.
With number 8, it all depends on where you are. The more humid it is, the more likely you will lose the water in your body and it is best to drink more water.
With number 1, it all depends on when and what you snack and when you sleep after you snack. If you snack to close to your bedtime and if you eat too much, your body will not have time to digest what foods you ate.
There is definite evidence for the existence of ADHD, and it is most certainly a condition that many people suffer from. I think there is some confusion about it as often people are misdiagnosed or diagnosed too quickly. However, anyone claiming it doesn’t exist is ignorant, plain and simple.
Question:
“Eating at night makes you fat” could that be true if it was related to the time you went to sleep? If you usually go to sleep at 10pm and you ate a sugary snack at 9:30pm then wouldn’t more of it turn into fat rather than if you ate if at midday and were active afterwards.”
Answer:
No.
“With number 1, it all depends on when and what you snack and when you sleep after you snack. If you snack to close to your bedtime and if you eat too much, your body will not have time to digest what foods you ate.”
…Wrong. The only thing that matters is what you eat compared to how active you are throughout the day. The time that you eat is irrelevant.
“nice one. Thank God that the 8 glasses of water a day is a myth. I better convince my mom about this myth. She gets mad when I don’t finish two big, fracking water bottles I’m forced to bring to school everyday. Well, finishing those bottles is like drowning for me, and after 5 minutes I feel like throwing up.”
…Then Stop drinking so much soda. And no, the information on the water is not correct. Fact: If your urine is not almost colorless then you are NOT drinking enough water. But don’t worry about that, kidneys are overrated.
I get hyper when I eat a lot of sugar, and I’m a teenager. I don’t bounce off the walls like a little kid would, but I really have to disagree with #10.
“For example, if you eat 3,500 calories more than you burn, you will gain 0.3 pounds (0.14 kg), but if you burn 3,500 calories more than you eat, you will lose 1 pound (0.45 kg).”
This is completely and utterly wrong. Where exactly did you get that info? If you eat 3,500 cals more than you burn, you’ll gain a pound, not .03 .
Well, not a bad list… But not a good one, either. For instance, #9 Body Heat. Next time I’m standing in the snow completely naked, I’ll remember to reach for some clothes, and not the hat that I would ordinarily reach for to stay warm. The army study was far more practical.
#1 Midnight Snacking. While your point might be valid regarding the timing of your intake, your assertion that simply consuming less calories than you burn = losing weight is false. That simplistic approach to weight loss, in my opinion, perpetuates weight loss myths. An example- say you burn 2000 calories a day typically. If you starve yourself for a month on 500 calories per day, you will lose weight. At your new weight, you now burn 1500 calories per day. If you increase your caloric intake to 1500 calories per day…. contrary to your model, you will not maintain your current weight- you will gain weight. The body’s mechanism for storing and releasing fat is far more complex than most people choose to believe. While I don’t agree with everything in this book, I recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Gary-Taubes/dp/1400040787
I guess I’m one of the people who has bought into the teething fever myth. My current baby always seems to get a fever right around the time his teeth break though. I can see the point that someone else brought up, though- he tend to put more things in his mouth at those time too… Could cause more exposure to bad stuff.
Thanks for the entertainment JFrater!
“Fat and food is mostly about metabolism, but my understanding was that metabolism in general slows down when sleeping therefore food is more likely to be stored/converted inefficiently.”
No, no, no. It’s all about math. Imagine a person burns 1,500 calories during the day and 500 while they sleep at night. Obviously, they burn less calories at night, but that still doesn’t matter. If they eat only 200 calorie snack during the day, they still burn off 1800 more calories.
Imagine the person instead eats a 200 calorie snack right before going to bed. That means they burned 1500 calories during the day, then ate 200 calories, then burned 500 calories while asleep. They still burned off 1800 more calories than they consumed.
MW is totally right. Eating a snickers bar at 9 pm or 2 pm makes ZERO difference on weight gain/loss. The idea is that eating after dinner is probably extra calories you dont need… but it would be no better to consume those extra calories before dinner.
I’m glad to see some of these myths dispelled. I was always leery of #10, even when my children were all quite small and the prevailing wisdom was not to allow children any sugar at all. While I kept it aside as a treat, I never denied it, but I did want them to have a balanced diet first and foremost.
Funnily enough, I did find something that turned them into raving maniacs for a few hours – chocolate covered espresso beans. Of course, they weren’t supposes to get into them, but they did, and for a couple of hours they were bouncing off the walls! Of course, they were 9 months, 18 months, and 26 months, so I could just bounce them back, out of my way, but it way funny.
“Of course, they were 9 months, 18 months, and 26 months, so I could just bounce them back, out of my way, but it way funny.”
How exactly is it possible to have children at those ages? Adoption?