Skye Gould/Tech Insider
Who hasn’t shared an amazing science fact only to feel embarrassed later on, when you find out the information was wrong?
No more.
It’s time to put an end to the most alluring science myths, misconceptions, and inaccuracies passed down through the ages.
To help the cause we’ve rounded up and corrected dozens of the most shocking science “facts” that are bizarrely wrong about food, animals, the Earth, biology, space, alcohol, and health. (Click a link to skip to that section.)
Have any favorites we missed? Send them to science@techinsider.io.
Kevin Loria, Lauren Friedman, and Kelly Dickerson contributed to this post. Robert Ferris contributed to a previous version.
MYTH: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Apples are packed with vitamin C and fiber, both of which are important to long-term health, but they aren’t all you need.
And if certain viruses or bacteria get into your system, an apple will unfortunately do nothing to protect you.
Go ahead and get that flu shot, even if you eat apples.
Source: Business Insider
MYTH: The chemical tryptophan in turkey makes you sleepy.
Who doesn’t love the post-Thanksgiving nap? After all, turkey contains tryptophan — an amino acid that is a component of some of the brain chemicals that help you relax.
But plenty of foods contain tryptophan. Cheddar cheese has even more than turkey, yet cheddar is never pointed out as a sleep inducing food.
Experts say that instead, the carbs, alcohol, and general size of the turkey-day feast are the cause of those delicious holiday siestas.
Sources: Business Insider, LiveScience
MYTH: Milk does a body good!
This is an incredibly successful bit of advertising that has wormed its way into our brains and policies to make milk seem magical.
The US Department of Agriculture tells us that adults should drink three cups of milk a day, mostly for calcium and vitamin D.
However, multiple studies show that there isn’t an association between drinking more milk (or taking calcium and vitamin D supplements) and having fewer bone fractures.
Some studies have even shown an association with higher overall mortality, and while that doesn’t mean that milk consumption itself was responsible, it’s certainly not an endorsement.
Sources: Business Insider, NYTimes, Journal of Bone Mineral Research, JAMA Pediatrics, The Lancet, British Medical Journal
MYTH: There are bugs in your strawberry Frappuccino.
This one is no longer true.
Before April 2012, Starbucks’ strawberry Frappucino contained a dye made from the ground-up bodies of thousands of tiny insects, called cochineal bugs (or Dactylopius coccus).
Farmers in South and Central America make a living harvesting — and smashing — the bugs that go into the dye. Their crushed bodies produce a deep red ink that is used as a natural food coloring, which was “called cochineal” red but is now called “carmine color.”
Starbucks stopped using carmine color in their strawberry Frappucinos in 2012. But the dye is still used in thousands of other food products — from Nerds candies to grapefruit juice. Not to mention cosmetics, like lovely shades of red lipstick.
Sources: Business Insider, CHR Hansen, AmericanSweets.co.uk, FoodFacts.com, LA Times
MYTH: Eating chocolate gives you acne.
False.
For one month, scientists fed dozens of people candy bars containing 10 times the usual amount of chocolate, and dozens of others fake chocolate bars.
When they counted the zits before and after each diet, there was “no difference” between the two groups. Neither the chocolate nor the fat seemed to have any effect on acne.
Source: JAMA
MYTH: There’s beaver butt secretions in your vanilla ice cream.
You’ve probably heard that a secretion called castoreum, isolated from the anal gland of a beaver, is used in flavorings and perfumes.
But castoreum is so expensive, at up to $70 per pound of anal gland (the cost to humanely milk castoreum from a beaver is likely even higher), that it’s unlikely to show up in anything you eat.
In 2011, the Vegetarian Resource Group wrote to five major companies that produce vanilla flavoring and asked if they use castoreum. The answer: According to the Federal Code of Regulations, they can’t. (The FDA highly regulates what goes into vanilla flavoring and extracts.)
It’s equally unlikely you’ll find castoreum in mass-marketed goods, either.
Sources: Business Insider, Vegetarian Resource Group, FDA, NY Trappers Forum
MYTH: Organic food is pesticide-free and more nutritious.
Organic food isn’t free of pesticides and it isn’t necessarily better for you.
Farmers who grow organic produce are permitted to use chemicals that are naturally derived — and in some cases are actually worse for the environment than their synthetic counterparts. However, pesticide levels on both organic and non-organic foods are so low that they aren’t of concern for consumption, according to the USDA.
Eating organic food also doesn’t come with any nutritional benefits over non-organic food, according to a review of 98,727 potentially relevant studies.
Sources: University of California – Berkeley, Annals of Internal Medicine, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
MYTH: Natural sugar like honey is better for you than processed sugar.
A granola bar made with honey instead of high-fructose corn syrup is not better for you.
That’s because sugar in natural products like fruit and synthetic products like candy is the same: “Scientists would be surprised to hear about the ‘clear superiority’ of honey, since there is a near unanimous consensus that the biological effect of high-fructose corn syrup are essentially the same as those of honey,” professor Alan Levinovitz told Business Insider.
The problem is that candy and other related products typically contain more sugar per serving, which means more calories — a difference you should actually be watching out for.
Sources: Business Insider, SciShow, Dr. Joy Dubost/Huffington Post
MYTH: Eating food within 5 seconds of dropping it on the floor is safe.
It’s the worst when something you really wanted to eat falls on the floor. But if you grab it in five seconds, it’s ok, right?
The five-second-rule isn’t a real thing. Bacteria can contaminate a food within milliseconds.
Mythbusting tests show that moist foods attract more bacteria than dry foods, but there’s no “safe duration.” Instead, safety depends on how clean the surface you dropped the food on is.
Whether you eat it or not after that is up to you, but if the people that walk on that floor are also walking around New York City, for example, we wouldn’t recommend it.
Sources: Business Insider, Discovery.com
MYTH: Coffee stunts your growth.
Most research finds no correlation between caffeine consumption and bone growth in kids.
In adults, researchers have seen that increased caffeine consumption can very slightly limit calcium absorption, but the impact is so small that a tablespoon of milk will more than adequately offset the effects of a cup of coffee.
Advertising seems to be largely responsible for this myth: Cereal manufacturer named C.W. Post was trying to market a morning beverage called “Postum” as an alternative to coffee, so he ran ads on the “evils” of Americans’ favorite hot beverage, calling it a “nerve poison” that should never be served to children.
Sources: Business Insider (1, 2), Smithsonian Magazine
MYTH: Eating ice cream will make your cold worse.
If you’re home sick with a cold, you can totally go ahead and comfort yourself with some ice cream.
The idea that dairy increases mucous production is very fortunately not true, according to researchers and a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, who says “in fact, frozen dairy products can soothe a sore throat and provide calories when you otherwise may not eat.”
Bless him.
Sources: Business Insider, American Review of Respiratory Disease, Mayo Clinic
MYTH: Sugar is as addictive as heroin.
In the 2009 book “Fat Chance,” the author, Dr. Robert Lustig, claims that sugar stimulates the brain’s reward system the same way that tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, and even heroin does, and therefore must be equally addictive. Lustig even cites studies that show parts of our brain that light-up from a sugary reward are the same parts that get excited for many types of enjoyable activities, from drinking alcohol to having sex.
The problem, however, with these types of scientific studies of the brain is that “In neuroimaging, there is no clear-cut sign of addiction,” Hisham Ziaudden, an eating behavioral specialist, told Levinovitz.
So, scientists don’t know what addiction in the brain looks like, yet, and until that mystery is solved we should not be living in fear from something as fanciful as sugar addiction.
Source: Business Insider (1, 2), “Fat Chance“
MYTH: Sugar and chocolates are aphrodisiacs.
In the mid 19th century — before sugar purportedly caused diabetes or hyperactivity — sugar was thought to ignite sexual desire in women, children, and, more controversially, the poor.
One vintage Kellogg advertisement even claimed “Candies, spices, cinnamon, cloves, peppermint, and all strong essences powerfully excited the genital organs and lead to the [solitary vice].”
So don’t get worked up over sugar. There’s little to no evidence to support the notion that it — or any food, including chocolates — stimulates sexual desire.
Sources: Business Insider, Mayo Clinic
MYTH: Sugar causes hyperactivity in children.
Numerous scientific studies have tried and failed to find any evidence that supports this off-the-wall notion.
The myth probably emerged in 1974, when Dr. William Crook wrote a letter to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which published it. “Only in the past three years have I become aware that sugar … is a leading cause of hyperactivity,” the letter stated.
A letter does not include the rigorous scientific research that a paper does, and according to the National Institute of Mental Health: “The idea that refined sugar causes ADHD or makes symptoms worse is popular, but more research discounts this theory than supports it.”
Sources: University of Arkansas for Medial Sciences, Business Insider, NIH
MYTH: Twinkies and McDonald’s burgers last forever.
They don’t.
Any food that has moisture and isn’t frozen can grow microbes that break the food down, packaging or not.
Twinkies are less than optimal to eat after about 25 days on a shelf, and burgers go bad within a day. However, cooked meat patties (McDonald’s or otherwise) are less likely to rot outright if conditions are abnormally dry or cold. But who would eat a weeks-old burger?
Sources: Business Insider, Tech Insider, Washington Post
MYTH: Dogs and cats are colorblind.
Dogs and cats have much better color vision than we thought.
Both dogs and cats can see in blue and green, and they also have more rods — the light-sensing cells in the eye — than humans do, so they can see better in low-light situations.
This myth probably comes about because each animal sees colors differently than humans.
Reds and pinks may appear more green to cats, while purple may look like another shade of blue. Dogs, meanwhile, have fewer cones — the color-sensing cells in the eye — so scientists estimated that their color vision is only about 1/7th as vibrant as ours.
Sources: Today I Found Out, Business Insider
MYTH: Lemmings jump off cliffs in mass suicides.
Lemmings do not commit mass suicide.
During their migrations they sometimes do fall off cliffs, or if they wander into an area they are unfamiliar with.
Source: Alaska Department Of Fish And Game
MYTH: Sharks don’t get cancer.
Back in 2013, researchers reported a huge tumor growing out of the mouth of a great white shark, and another on the head of a bronze whaler shark.
And those aren’t the only cases of shark cancers. Other scientists have reported tumors in dozens of different shark species.
The myth that sharks don’t get cancer was created by I. William Lane to sell shark cartilage as a cancer treatment.
Sources: Journal Of Cancer Research, LiveScience
MYTH: Ostriches hide by putting their heads in the sand.
Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand when threatened. In fact, they don’t bury their heads at all.
When threatened, ostriches sometimes flop on the ground and play dead.
Source: San Diego Zoo
MYTH: People get warts from frogs and toads.
Frogs or toads won’t give you warts, but shaking hands with someone who has warts can.
The human papillomavirus is what gives people warts, and it is unique to humans.
Source: WebMD
MYTH: This dinosaur is called a Brontosaurus.
Many people would call this dinosaur a Brontosaurus — even Michael Crichton did in “Jurassic Park.”
It is actually called the Apatosaurus. The myth emerged some 130 years ago during a feud between two paleontologists.
Source: NPR
MYTH: Sharks can smell a drop of blood from miles away.
This one is a big exaggeration. Jaws is not coming for you from across the ocean if you bleed in the water.
Shark have a highly enlarged brain region for smelling odors, allowing some of the fish to detect as little as 1 part blood per 10 billion parts water — roughly a drop in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
But it the ocean is much, much, much bigger and it takes awhile for odor molecules to drift. On a very good day when the currents are favorable, a shark can smell its prey from a few football fields away — not miles.
Source: American Museum of Natural History
MYTH: Bats are blind.
Being “blind as a bat” means not being blind at all.
While many use echolocation to navigate, all of them can see.
Source: USA Today
MYTH: Goldfish can’t remember anything for longer than a second.
Goldfish actually have pretty good memories.
They can remember things for months, not seconds like many people say.
Source: ABC News
MYTH: Giraffes sleep for only 30 minutes a day.
Giraffes have fairly typical sleeping patterns.
To debunk this one, researchers closely monitored a herd of five adult and three young giraffes for 152 days, counting all of their naps and deep sleeps.
The animals typically slept overnight and napped in the afternoon (sound familiar?).
In total, each giraffe slept about 4.6 hours every day.
Source: European Sleep Research Society
MYTH: Sharks die if they stop swimming.
You often hear sharks can breathe only when swimming pushes water over their gills.
That’s true of some sharks, but many others — like bottom-dwelling nurse sharks — can pump oxygen-rich water over their gills without swimming.
All sharks lack swim bladders, however, so if they stop swimming they will sink to the bottom. Luckily a shark’s body is incompressible and rapid descents or ascents don’t harm them.
Source: American Museum of Natural History
MYTH: Poinsettias contain deadly poison.
Poinsettias won’t kill you or your pets, though you still shouldn’t eat them.
The flowers might make you a bit sick with some gastrointestinal issues.
Source: The New York Botanical Garden
MYTH: Humans got HIV because someone had sex with a monkey.
HIV probably didn’t jump to humans through human-monkey sex.
It probably jumped to humans through hunting of monkeys for bushmeat food, which led to blood-to-blood contact.
Source: Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives In Medicine
MYTH: Humans evolved from chimpanzees.
Chimps and humans share uncanny similarities, not the least of which is our DNA — about 98.8% is identical.
However, evolution works by incremental genetic changes adding up through many, many generations. Chimps and humans did share a common ancestor between 6 and 8 million years ago but a lot has changed since then.
Modern chimps evolved into a separate (though close) branch of the ape family tree.
Sources: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, American Museum of Natural History
MYTH: Dropping a penny from the Empire State building could kill someone.
Dropping a penny from the Empire State building is very unlikely to maim anyone.
A penny weighs roughly 1/11th of an ounce and tops out at 50 mph in freefall, which isn’t fast enough to kill. It’d hurt like heck, though.
Sources: Today I Found Out, US Mint
MYTH: The great wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from space.
The Great Wall of China isn’t the only man-made structure visible from space. It all depends on where you believe space begins above Earth.
From the International Space Station 250 miles up, you can see the wall and many other man-made structures. From the moon, you can’t see any structures at all — only a dim glow of city lights.
Source: NASA
MYTH: The moon’s gravity pulling on water causes the tides.
This is only half true.
On the side of Earth that’s facing the moon, the moon’s gravity does indeed pull water toward it to cause tides.
On the other side of Earth, however, gravity is weaker (from the moon’s pull on the other side) and it’s the inertia of water from the Earth’s rotation at work: spinning at about 1,040 mph flings ocean water into a slight bulge we recognize as the tide.
Sources: NOAA, NASA
MYTH: Lightning never strikes the same place twice.
Lightning does strike twice.
Some places, like the Empire State Building, get struck up to 100 times a year.
Source: WeatherBug
MYTH: The Earth is a perfect sphere.
The Earth rotates at about 1,040 mph. That’s about 60% the speed of your typical bullet after it shoots out of the muzzle.
This inertia slightly flattens the planet’s poles and causes a bulge of rock around the equator.
Due to global warming and the melting of glaciers (and less weight pushing down on the crust), scientists think that bulge is now growing.
Sources: StarrySkies.com, MythBusters the Exhibition
MYTH: Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth.
The world’s tallest mountain technically is not Mount Everest.
Mount Everest is the tallest mountain above sea level, but if we’re talking mountain base-to-summit height, then the tallest is the island of Hawaii that peaks as Mauna Kea.
Everest stands 29,035 feet above sea level. Mauna Kea only stands 13,796 feet above seal level, but the mountain extends about 19,700 feet below the Pacific Ocean. Over half of it is submerged.
That puts the total height of Mauna Kea at about 33,500 feet — nearly a mile taller than Everest.
Source: Tech Insider
MYTH: Water conducts electricity.
Pure or distilled water doesn’t conduct electricity well at all.
The reason we can get shocked when standing in electrified water is because water we come across will be contaminated by minerals, dirt, and other things that will conduct electricity.
Source: USGS
MYTH: There was a global warming pause.
Earth’s average surface temperature hasn’t really budged since the start of the 21st century, but 70% of the planet is covered in water — and that’s where 90% of heat trapped by global warming ends up.
In fact, warming of the oceans has caused them to thermally expand, creating a huge share of the sea level rise that scientists see today.
Sources: Scientific American/Climate Wire, Tech Insider
MYTH: Tectonic plates move because volcanism pushes them apart.
Older edges of a tectonic plate are cooler and denser, causing them to sink into the mantle where they’re recycled. Where two plates are being yanked apart by this sinking, ocean ridges appear.
That’s where the tectonic plate is being built — by hot, buoyant rock that convects upward and emerges from the stretched-out weak point. The resulting volcanism isn’t what pulls two plates apart.
Source: USGS
MYTH: The Sahara is the biggest desert on Earth.
Not all deserts are hot and full of sand. They need only be dry and inhospitable.
Antarctica fits the bill, since it receives only two inches of precipitation a year and has few land animals.
At 5.4 million square miles compared to the Sahara’s 3.6 million square miles, the Bottom of the World is a vastly larger desert.
Sourcse: USGS (1, 2), NASA, Encyclopedia of Earth (1, 2)
MYTH: Diamonds come from coal.
Most diamonds aren’t formed from compressed coal.
Instead, they’re carbon that is compressed and heated 90 miles below the surface of the Earth. Coal is found about 2 miles down.
Source: Geology.com
MYTH: People in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat.
During the early Middle Ages, almost every scholar thought the Earth was round, not flat.
This myth picked up steam in the 1800s, right around the same time the idea of evolution was rising in prominence — and religious and scientific interests clashed.
Sources: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Patheos
MYTH: Summer is warm because you are closer to the sun.
The northern hemisphere of the Earth is not closer to the sun when it is summer, nor is the southern hemisphere during its summer.
It is always warmer during the summer because Earth is tilted; during its year-long orbit, our home planet’s tilt allows the sun’s energy to hit us more directly.
Source: NASA
MYTH: Lightning causes thunder.
A scientific and philosophical nitpick here, but lightning is just a stream of electrons zapping from cloud to cloud or ground to cloud. This in turn heats air into a tube of plasma that’s three times hotter than the surface of our sun.
That tube violently expands and contracts nearby air, creating an unmistakable crack and rumble — not the flow of electrons itself.
Source: Scientific American
MYTH: Your blood turns blue when it’s out of oxygen.
Your blood is never blue: It turns dark red when it’s not carrying oxygen.
Blood only looks blue because you are seeing it through several layers of tissue, which filters the color.
Source: UCSB ScienceLine
MYTH: Every gene in your DNA codes for exactly one protein.
One gene does not equal one protein.
Many genes make multiple different proteins, depending on how the mRNA from the gene is sequenced and cut up in the cell. And many other genes don’t make proteins at all.
Source: Annual Reviews Of Biochemistry
MYTH: Humans have five senses.
Sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch are just the beginning.
Don’t forget about balance, temperature, and time, as well as proprioception — the body awareness that helps us not walk into things all the time — and nociception, our sense of pain.
Source: Business Insider
MYTH: The hymen is a sheet of tissue that blocks a women’s vagina.
Wrong.
Guys, the hymen is a thin membrane that only partially blocks the vaginal opening — if a woman is born with one at all.
Also, plenty of activities other than sex can stretch or damage the hymen, including exercise or inserting a tampon.
Sources: Columbia University, College Humor
MYTH: Eating a lot of carrots gives you great night vision.
Vitamin A is a major nutrient found in carrots, and it is good for the health of your eyes — especially those with poor vision. But eating a bunch of the vegetables won’t give your all-seeing superpowers.
The myth is thought to have started during as a piece of British propaganda during World War II. That government wanted to secret the existence of a radar technology that allowed its bomber pilots to attack in the night.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
MYTH: Blonde and red hair colors are going extinct.
Blondes and redheads are not “going extinct.”
Genes rarely die out, and recessive genes, like those that lead to red or blonde hair color, can be carried from generation to generation without creating the hair color. (As much as 40% of some populations, for example, carry a gene that leads to red hair color.)
When two people with the correct recessive genes have a baby, there’s a good chance the kid will have red or blonde hair color — even if the parents don’t have red or blonde hair themselves.
Sources: John McDonald/University of Delaware, BritainsDNA
MYTH: Pregnancy gives you “baby brain” and makes you dumb.
Studies on this turn up mixed results, at best.
Some studies on changes to working memory during pregnancy do show a small effect on the brain, though other studies show no negative impacts whatsoever.
There’s actually growing evidence that being pregnant makes women more organized and smarter, at least, according to a study on rats.
It makes sense, though, since pregnant women and new mothers have a lot more to worry about and think about — for their brains to keep up they may even be getting a boost.
Sources: Dr. Myra Wick/Mayo Clinic, New Scientist
MYTH: Hair and nails keep growing after death.
Hair and fingernails do not keep growing once someone dies.
Instead, the skin dries out and shrinks, giving the appearance of further growth.
Sources: Lecture Notes: Dermatology, Tech Insider
MYTH: Humans can’t grow new brain cells.
You are not born with all of the brain cells you will ever have.
There is plenty of evidence that the brain continues to produce new cells in at least a few brain regions well into adulthood, through a process called neurogenesis.
Source: The Scientist
MYTH: Some people have photographic memories.
There’s actually no such thing as a “photographic” memory — only very good memories.
Even people with exceptional or autobiographic memories don’t recall events with visual details precise enough to mimic the fidelity of film or a camera sensor.
Source: Moments of Science
MYTH: People only use 10% of their brain.
This myth has been debunked over and over again, but it just won’t die.
Just because you’re not doing math equations and juggling while you write a sonnet doesn’t mean you aren’t using all the parts of your brain at once.
You can use your entire brain, and you do — the brain is 3% of the body’s mass but uses 20% of its energy.
Source: Scientific American
MYTH: “Left-brained” people are creative. “Right-brained” people are analytical.
It’s a common old canard: Creative people are right-brained, while the logically-minded are left-brained. False.
It’s true that different hemispheres of your brain are more engaged in certain tasks (the left side is dominant in language, for example), but studies have never found overall left- or right-brain dominance in individuals.
Sources: Business Insider, Psychology Today
MYTH: The bigger your brain is, the smarter you are.
Sperm whales have the largest brain of all animals — significantly larger than a human’s — but they aren’t the smartest creature on Earth.
Humans don’t even have a particularly impressive brain-to-body-mass ratio.
The winner in that category among mammals is the humble tree shrew, though that’s largely because its body is so tiny.
Sources: Business Insider, Scientific American, Washington University
MYTH: It takes 7 years for gum to digest if you swallow it.
Nope.
Gum is mostly indigestible, but the occasional swallowed piece will pass through your intestines and exit the other side, just like anything else you eat that your body doesn’t need and can’t digest.
The only cases where swallowed gum has caused a problem is when that gum is swallowed along with other things that shouldn’t be in your stomach.
Scientific American cites a case where a 4-year-old girl suffered a gastrointestinal blockage — from a wad of gum with four coins inside of it.
Sources: Business Insider, Scientific American
MYTH: Your microwave can give you cancer and disrupt your pacemaker.
Microwave radiation won’t cause cancer, it just heats food up.
Only a few types of radiation cause cancer, and these depend on the dose. Radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer, for example, but just enough helps your body make Vitamin D, too.
Microwaves also won’t disrupt a pacemaker. However, things like anti-theft systems, metal detectors, powerful refrigerator magnets, mobile phones, and even headphones can mess with the heartbeat-keeping devices.
Sources: Cancer Research UK, American Heart Association
MYTH: Shaving makes your hair grow back thicker.
Shaving your hair doesn’t make it thicker, it just makes it feel coarser for a time.
That’s because the ends of the hairs are sharp and stubbly instead of smooth.
Source: Mayo Clinic
MYTH: Drugs make “holes” in your brain.
That doesn’t mean drugs are good for your brain.
Many drugs (illicit and otherwise) can significantly alter your brain’s structure and disrupt its function. But none will turn a healthy brain into a stack of Swiss cheese.
Sources: Business Insider, Scientific American
MYTH: Humans have 100 billion brain cells.
In 2009, scientists found that you actually have more like 86 billion brain cells.
It’s tempting to round up, but this difference is significant when you consider the fact that 14 billion neurons might represent the entire brain of another creature.
Sources: Business Insider, The Journal of Comparative Neurology
MYTH: You need to wait an hour after eating to swim or you can cramp and drown.
The theory behind this seems to be that digesting food will draw blood to your stomach, meaning that less blood is available for your muscles, making them more likely to cramp.
But there’s no evidence to support this claim.
In fact, many sources say there are no documented cases of anyone ever drowning because they’ve had a cramp related to swimming with a full stomach.
Cramps do happen frequently when swimming, but they aren’t caused by what’s in your stomach. If you do get one, the best policy is to float for a minute and let it pass.
Sources: Business Insider, Washington Post, TodayIFoundOut.com
MYTH: Taking your vitamins will keep you healthy.
Vitamins sound like a great idea: One pill that can provide you everything you need to be healthy!
If only they worked.
Decades of research on vitamins hasn’t found any justification for our multivitamin habit, and in some cases, vitamins have actually been associated with an increased risk of various cancers.
Sources: Business Insider, Scientific American
MYTH: Everyone should drink eight glasses of water a day.
Hydration is very important, but the idea that eight glasses of water is essential is a strange one.
In healthy people, researchers have not found any connection between fluid intake and kidney disease, heart disease, sodium levels, or skin quality.
But water is a calorie-free alternative to other beverages (especially sugary ones like soda or sports drinks), and people who drink water instead of those beverages consume fewer calories overall.
A good rule is to drink when you’re thirsty — you don’t need to count the glasses.
Source: Business Insider, FiveThirtyEight, Nutrition Reviews
MYTH: Carbonated water isn’t as hydrating as flat water.
Just because water is fizzy and refreshing doesn’t mean it’s bad for you.
In one of many studies that bust this myth, researchers made men bike on several occasions until they sweated off 4% of their body weight — then immediately handed them a drink.
One time the cyclists got flat water, another time carbonated water, yet another sugar water, and during a final trial everyone drank carbonated sugar water.
The results? Carbonation did not make any difference when it came to rehydrating.
Source: International Journal of Sports Medicine