Drink 8 glasses of water every day – Don’t sit too close to the TV screen or you’ll ruin your eyes – we’ve had these snippets of advice doled out to us with such regularity that we never ever thought to question it. But fortunately (or unfortunately), many of these beliefs have now been disproved by science. Read on to get a new perspective.
Drink 8 glasses of water every day
Let’s start with the most common one – while this may be an average measure, it is anything but exact. A better rule of thumb? Drink when you’re thirsty.
In fact, as a doctor from Mayo Clinic explains, the amount of water each individual needs depends on a variety of factors, including how much exercise you’re putting in each day, where you live and your overall health condition. If you rarely feel thirsty and your urine is colourless or light yellow, then you’re probably getting enough water. Check with a doctor or qualified dietician in case you want to be absolutely sure.
MRI scans are harmful and may cause cancer
Many people regard MRI machines with suspicious eyes because they think MRI scans are harmful – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, an MRI (which stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging) works on magnetic fields and thus has zero radiation exposure. Plus, MRI scans are extremely useful in detecting diseases like cancer and are often life-saving – quite the opposite of causing cancer!
Sitting close to the TV will harm your eyes
We’ve all had our parents hammer this into our heads – but there’s no grain of truth here. The most this will do is give us a headache from eye-strain. This popular warning was probably born in a time when TVs used to emit low-energy X-rays – however this is all (thankfully) in the past now – today’s TVs produce no harmful X-rays.
Brown sugar is better than white sugar
Are you trading in that packet of white sugar for brown and patting yourself on the back?
We’ve got some tough news – apparently there’s hardly any difference between brown and white sugar. Brown sugar is just unprocessed white sugar that contains molasses (which gives it the brown colour). The molasses contains very (very) small amounts of minerals – however, these are not significant enough to offer any real health benefits.
The 5-second rule - If you drop something on the floor, it’s safe to eat if picked up within 5 seconds.
Who came up with this gem? Probably somebody who dropped the last of piece of cake and needed a justification to eat it. The rule may sound believable, but it’s not fail-safe – in fact, bacteria can contaminate food within milliseconds. So instead of checking your watch when you drop a piece of food, check the surface you’ve dropped it on. If you’re sure the surface is squeaky clean, then consider eating the dropped snack!
So the next time you hear any such commonly touted counsel, take it with a big grain of salt!