Chris Blattman

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Medical mythbusters

BMJ busts some medical myths here and here. Among them:

1. You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day,

2. Sugar causes hyperactivity in children,

3. We use only 10% of our brains,

4. Eating turkey makes you drowsy,

4. You lose most of your body heat through your head, and

5. Eating at night makes you fat

It ain’t the things you don’t know that hurt you, it’s the things you know that just ain’t so.

Via Nathan.

3 Responses

  1. I think the head/heat loss “myth” concerned itself with having an exposed portion of your body while experiencing cold. I don’t believe that anyone said the head has special heat loss properties, just that an exposed area will loss heat more rapidly than an unexposed area. Don’t write Mom off just yet.

  2. It takes time to convert the food to energy. It is not instantaneous. The gland shift from alertness to digestion (drowsiness) is natures way of getting us ready to use the energy. I agree people in general eat too large a portion and would be better served have more meals of smaller quantity.

    Thus is my opus :-)

  3. I remain a skeptic to the conclusions about eating at night. I think it makes no sense to add a lot of energy to your system at the point in the day where you need it the least. (BMR falls down to it lowest during sustained periods of rest)

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