We should indeed be drinking enough water every day for good overall health. What this amount is, differ from person to person. There is no scientific evidence that backs up drinking 8 glasses of water for overall health. The 8 glasses of water have been traced back to a single paragraph in a government report from 1945.

Eight glasses of water

You can't catch a cold from being cold.  A virus is responsible for contracting a cold. We become infected with viruses when we are in close quarters with other people infected with a virus.

Catch a cold by being cold

Cracking joints do not cause arthritis. Research done found people who crack their joints are at the same risk of getting arthritis than those who don't.

Cracking your joints can lead to arthritis

Nearly all of the studies that have tested the link between deodorant and breast cancer found no evidence to support the claim.

Deodorant can cause breast cancer

Research suggests there is no link between eating eggs and a cholesterol imbalance.Eggs are rich in nutrients and a good source of a nutritious food.

Eggs are bad for the heart

Throughout the centuries, many health myths have arisen. Some are tried, tested, and taken as fact, but others are nothing more than fantasy. In this article, we debunk some of the latter. Health-related myths are common and arise for a variety of reasons.

food

Food

health

Health

Top 5 common health myths debunked

The process of stopping bad habits is fundamentally different from forming new ones.
<ul>
<li>Creating a habit requires encoding a new set of automatic behaviors: the brain learns causal relationships between triggers that prompt action and the associated outcome.</li>
<li>The popular belief is that the key to breaking a bad habit is replacing it with another habit. But this doesn't always work.</li>
</ul>

Starting vs breaking bad habits

The process of “progressive extremism” utilizes what we know about the psychology of identity to help stop behaviors we don’t want. It works particularly well in situations in which substituting one habit for another just won’t do. Identity helps us make otherwise difficult choices by offloading willpower. Our choices become what we do because of who we are.

Progressive extremism

By classifying specific behaviors as things you will never do again, you put certain actions into the realm of “I don’t” versus “I can’t.”Saying “I don’t” rather than “I can’t” provides greater “psychological empowerment.”

"Don’t" vs "Can’t"

<ul><li>Identify the behavior you want to stop: e.g, not eating processed sugar. </li><li>Choose one specific food to cut from your diet. It needs to be something you wouldn’t miss.</li><li>Diets don’t work because they are temporary fixes. To become part of your identity, the commitment needs to be forever.</li><li>Write down what you no longer eat and the date you gave it up. Writing this down marks the shift from a temporary “can’t” to a permanent “don’t.” </li><li>If the commitment feels like too much, you’re doing too much. </li></ul>

Kicking a bad habit

Bad habits are not easy to break, especially if you find them satisfying. But it is possible. Read here how.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

communication

Communication

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

How To Break Bad Habits

Read this if you're struggling to break bad habits.

What to do when you just can't quit--no matter how many times you've tried. Progressive extremism can help change behavior by changing our sense of self.

habits

Habits

Can't Kick Bad Habits? You're Probably Doing It Wrong

Can't Kick a Bad Habit? You're Probably Doing It Wrong

Everyone has a different requirement for water. Temperature, humidity, size, age, gender and activity have an influence on your fluid needs.Instead, drink when you are thirsty.

Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day

Eggs have a lot of cholesterol compared to other foods. Although cholesterol in the blood is strongly related to heart disease, eating cholesterol is weakly associated with raising the cholesterol levels in your blood.Eggs have other heart-protecting properties and eating it probably won't harm your heart.

Eggs Harm Your Heart

<ul><li>A chain email in the 1990s was responsible for the false belief that antiperspirant was raising the risk of breast cancer. </li><li>When researchers found higher ratios of aluminum in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, aluminum in antiperspirant was suspect. But it seems aluminum in antiperspirant is hardly absorbed by your skin. </li></ul>

Cancer or Alzheimer’s From Antiperspirant

Colds do not come from going outside with wet clothes or hair. Colds come from viruses and may spread at any time.Colds and flu spread easier in winter because people are spending their time together in close proximity.

Cold Air Causes Colds

The healthiest way to get vitamins to your body is through fruits and vegetables.The general population get all the vitamins they need from their diets. Taking added supplements won't necessarily be beneficial. It may even be harmful.

Everyone Needs Multivitamins

It does not matter when you eat. Your body treats a calorie like a calorie, regardless of when it was ingested.

Eating Breakfast Helps You Lose Weight

Antibiotics are prescribed only for bacterial infections. It is futile against viruses.The color of your mucus does not indicate a bacterial infection. Viruses can produce a green mucus, too.

Green Mucus Needs Antibiotics

Sugar does not seem to have any hyperactive effect on children.This myth was popularized with the Feingold Diet in the 1970s, where parents were advised to remove sugar to help calm their children.

Sugar Makes Kids Hyper

Disease-causing microbes are everywhere, not just in public toilets. However, toilets are cleaned more often. Compared to other objects like keyboards, cellphones or money, the toilet is not a major source of disease-carrying microbes.

Diseases From a Toilet Seat

Cracking knuckles can cause swollen hands and loss of some grip strength. The popping noise comes from bubbles bursting in your joint fluid. It, however, does not cause arthiritis.

Cracking Knuckles Cause Arthritis

Eating fruit, vegetables and whole grains are healthier than eating processed foods. However, food with organic or natural ingredients can be full of saturated fat, sugar or other empty calories that can make it a less healthy choice.

Natural Foods Are Best

Vaccines can cause side effects that may have potential problems for some children.The upside is that it may provide protection from diseases like polio, measles or whooping cough.

Vaccines Are Harmful

Radiation can be either high-energy or low-energy. High-energy radiation like x-rays and gamma rays can damage your DNA.Low-energy radiation from smartphones or microwaves is not strong enough to damage DNA.

Microwaves and Smartphones Cause Cancer

Most bacteria we come into contact with are either neutral or beneficial to us.However, there are harmful bacteria that can cause diseases like tuberculosis or cholera.

Bacteria Are Always Harmful

Homoeopathy is the practice of mixing a tiny amount of a drug or herb into water in an attempt to reverse the drug or herb's effects.Studies have revealed that there is no strong evidence in favor of homoeopathy.

Homoeopathy Treats or Cures Disease

A diet book was released in 1996 claiming that diets depended on a person's GBO genotype, but a large study involving 1455 people debunked the theory.

Blood Type Diets

The word "detox" is used as an advertising buzzword. Fifteen products that claim to detoxify, were reviewed by scientists. When the investigators inquired what toxins were targeted and how these toxins were removed, the companies were unable to provide answers.

You Can Detoxify Your Body

Your immune system is a complex series of processes involving antibodies, certain proteins, parts of your blood, and more. When a product claims to boost your immune system but does not specify which part of the immune system, you should question it.(For example, activating your inflammatory response is a way to boost your immune system, but would also put you at risk of a stroke or other health problems.)

Special Products Boost Your Immune system

Your brain is active regardless of what activity you do. Some parts of the brain are used fro certain activities more than others, but there aren't areas that aren't used.

You Only Use 10% of Your Brain

Swimming right after eating does not give you cramps.If you do cramp while you swim, tighten and relax the muscle until the cramp works its way out.

Cramping while swimming

Can vitamin C cure colds? Read as we dispel the half-truths and common myths of health, from X-rays to eggs, from the 8-glasses-of-water idea to the one about cracked knuckles causing arthritis. Learn how soon you can swim after eating and what green mucus indicates for colds.

Healthy Living: 20 Common Health Myths Exposed

Water is necessary to life and a healthy beverage, but not in excessive quantities.Your body can give you an indication of how much water it needs. It is better to drink to your thirst.

The more water you drink, the better

Tanning can increase your risk of cancer. Sun damage is the primary cause of wrinkles.

Getting a base tan can prevent sunburns

Your body can detoxify itself, provided you have a healthy liver and kidneys.Detox diets may even harm you. Juices high in sugar can increase your blood sugar level. A juice fast may also lead to malnourishment.

“Detoxes” work

You can get STDs through any type of sexual contact, even just skin-to-skin contact if one partner has open sores.

STD through sex

Eliminating gluten from your diet does not offer health benefits. Whole grains are a great source of fiber and vitamins. Only a handful of people should consider avoiding gluten. These are people with Celiac disease and the small number of people who have gluten intolerance.

Gluten is bad for you

Everyone has abs, they're just hiding under layers of fat.Great abs are the result of diet and exercise.

You can exercise your way to a six-pack

We should think of food in terms of quality, not just quantity. Food high in sugar is associated with cancer and should be eaten in limited amounts.

You can eat whatever you want

Breast cancer is not the leading cause of death in women.<a href="https://www.rd.com/health/conditions/heart-disease-different-for-women/1">Heart disease</a> is still the primary cause of death. <a href="https://www.unitypoint.org/desmoines/services-cancer-article.aspx?id=c9f17977-9947-4b66-9c0f-15076e987a5d">Lung cancer</a> is killing nearly twice as many women as breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the #1 killer

A hypoallergenic dog is a myth. Dog allergies are caused by microscopic proteins derived from the pet's skin dander and saliva.

A hypoallergenic dog

Failing to bring up gross symptoms with your doctor can make it harder to get the right diagnosis and treatment.Doctors have to continually remind their patients to talk about these icky topics.

Taboo topics with your doctor

You have a greater risk that a doctor might miss something important because you declined an X-ray than the small risk posed by the machines.An hour in the sun exposes you to more radiation than a full set of dental X-rays.

Medical X-rays and cancer

Your body makes vitamin D when exposed to the sun. While sunscreen blocks the sun's rays, new studies revealed wearing sunscreen does not cause vitamin D deficiency.Vitamin D is gained through food, supplements and small doses of sunshine.

Sunscreen interferes with vitamin D

In spite of the validity of reputable sites, Dr. Google is not the best doctor. A lot of information is irrelevant, incomplete of plain false.

You can diagnose yourself

Many people believe a woman has the best chance of conceiving the day of ovulating or shortly thereafter.The best time to conceive is just before ovulation.

The best time to make a baby

Sixty to ninety minutes of daily cardiovascular exercise is not an effective method to lose weight.To lose weight, you need to build more muscle, because the more muscle you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate.Strength training is an essential part of your exercise routine.

Cardio to lose weight

Do you believe in "base tans"? Have you sworn off bread forever? Are you logging endless miles on the treadmill? Read this. Now.

15 Health Myths That Make Doctors Cringe

Stress-induced emotions consume huge amounts of energy.Talk with a friend or relative, join a support group, or see a psychotherapist to help diffuse stress.

Control stress

Overwork is one of the main reasons for fatigue. It can include professional, family and social obligations.Try to streamline your list of "must-do" activities. Set your priorities and pare down the less important tasks. Consider asking for extra help.

Lighten your load

Exercise gives your cells more energy to burn and circulates oxygen. Exercising causes your body to release stress hormones that in modest amounts can make you feel energized.

Exercise

Smoking siphons off your energy by causing insomnia.The nicotine in tobacco is a stimulant, so it speeds the heart rate, raises blood pressure, and stimulates brain-wave activity associated with wakefulness, making it harder to fall asleep.

Avoid smoking

<ul><li>Avoid napping during the day.</li><li>The first night, go to bed later than normal and get just four hours of sleep.</li><li>If you feel that you slept well during that four-hour period, add another 15–30 minutes of sleep the next night.</li><li>As long as you're sleeping soundly the entire time you're in bed, slowly keep adding sleep on successive nights.</li></ul>

Restrict your sleep

Eating small meals and snacks every few hours can reduce your perception of fatigue because your brain needs a steady supply of nutrients.Eat foods with a low glycemic index to help you avoid the lag in energy that typically occurs after eating quickly absorbed sugars or refined starches. Foods include whole grains, high-fiber vegetables, nuts, and healthy oils such as olive oil. Proteins and fats have glycemic indexes that are close to zero.

Eat for energy

Having a cup of coffee can help sharpen your mind, but you have to use it judiciously.Coffee can cause insomnia, especially when consumed in large amounts or after 2 p.m.

Use caffeine to your advantage

Avoid drinking alcohol at lunch. The sedative effect of alcohol is especially strong at midday. Avoid a five o'clock cocktail if you want to have energy in the evening.If you're going to drink, do so when you don't mind having your energy wind down.

Limit alcohol

If your body is short of fluids, one of the first signs is a feeling of fatigue.

Drink water

Go to the store, and you'll see a multitude of vitamins, herbs, and other supplements touted as energy boosters. Some are even added to soft drinks and other foods. But there's little or no scientific evidence that energy boosters like ginseng, guara...

9 tips to boost your energy - naturally - Harvard Health

Eating lots of protein is essential for staving off fatigue, especially early in the day when your cortisol levels are high.<ul><li>Breakfast: eat eggs, a slice of ham or add protein powder to your oatmeal. Otherwise, you eat only carbohydrates and you'll crash early.</li><li>Eat every three to four hours. Snacks like fruit and nuts, string cheese, a couple of scoops of cottage cheese or even beef jerky will satiate your hunger and boost energy levels.</li></ul>
<div>
	<div>
		</div></div>

Change Your Diet

If you're frequently tired or feel bloated, you may want to get your gut in shape:<ul><li>Avoid aspirin. </li><li>Cut out alcohol for a month. </li><li>Avoid aspartame. This artificial sweetener is a pro-inflammatory. It acts like "a film inside your colon."</li><li>Drink about eight glasses of water daily.</li></ul>

Clean Out Your Gut

To get better sleep, improve your bedroom hygiene.<ul><li>Get the television out of the bedroom. </li><li>Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.</li><li>Keep the bedroom cool to help you fall asleep.</li><li>If you have trouble falling asleep, get up and leave the room until you feel tired.</li><li>Never exercise after 4 pm.</li></ul>

Get Better Sleep

Studies show that the more you move, the more energy you’ll have.Try burst training, where you work at nearly 100% capacity for 45 seconds, rest for 90 seconds, and then repeat for 20 minutes. It helps burn fat for the next 36 hours and increases metabolism.

Move More To Boost Metabolism

Hypothyroidism, the most common thyroid disorder, can cause nightmares, anxiety, mood swings, weight gain, impaired concentration and severe fatigue.If you experience any of these issues, get a simple blood test to check your TSH levels.

Get Your Thyroid Checked Out

Hormones greatly impact fatigue, and PMS can hijack your energy if you don't prepare for it.Fill up on fruits and veggies, eat more fiber and complex carbs, avoid salt and caffeine, exercise more. Natural remedies like Japanese krill oil, magnesium supplements, chasteberry herb, vitamin B6 and licorice may also provide relief.

Prepare For PMS

If you can't find relief through lifestyle changes and your general practitioner says everything’s normal, consider diagnostic testing to pinpoint exactly where the problem lies.

See A Specialist

"Fatigue is the No. 1 complaint I hear from my patients and from the general public," says Beverly Hills, Calif.-based endocrinologist and metabolic specialist Eva Cwynar, M.D., author of just released The Fatigue Solution: Increase Your Energy in Eight Easy Steps.

The Fatigue Solution: How To Increase Your Energy In Eight Easy Steps

Lack of sleep can result in you feeling lethargic, grumpy and tired. If you often feel this way, you may want to consider whether you’re getting enough sleep.Try and aim for around 7 hours of quality sleep per night. Wind down from your day with relaxing behaviors before bed.

Get More Sleep

Feelings of stress can mean that you struggle to concentrate, experience racing thoughts, difficulty switching off and tiredness.Strategies to improve your energy levels include taking some time for yourself to relax, reading or going for a walk.

Reduce Stress

One study found that sedentary people with persistent, unexplained fatigue decreased their tiredness by around 65% just by regularly participating in low-intensity cycling.Get up and move your body like brisk walking or cycling to boost your energy levels.

Move More

The smoke from cigarettes is extremely harmful. The toxins and tar in the smoke reduce the efficiency of your lungs. Over time, this can reduce the amount of oxygen transported around your body, making you feel tired. Quitting smoking is great for both your energy levels and your health.

Avoid Smoking

Regularly drinking alcohol before bed can interfere with the quality of your sleep. Alcohol can also act as a diuretic, meaning that if you drink it before bed it can make you get up at night, disturbing your sleep.If you drink regularly, limiting the amount of alcohol you consume could help improve your energy levels.

Limit Alcohol

If you’re eating a lot of processed foods high in sugar and fat, you may find that they affect your energy levels as well as your health. Choose whole, nutritious foods to provide your body with the nutrients it needs to function at its best.

Eat a Nutritious Diet

High-sugar foods cause your blood sugar to rise quickly, sometimes referred to as a blood sugar spike. This results in your body releasing large amounts of insulin to bring your blood sugar back down. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2768570/">This rise and fall</a> in blood sugar are what cause a rush of energy followed by a slump.Minimize your intake of sugar and focus on eating whole foods instead.

Avoid Added Sugar

Dehydration can affect your brain function, mood and energy levels.If you feel tired and don’t think you drink enough water, try drinking it regularly throughout the day to ensure you stay hydrated.

Stay Hydrated

Social isolation can cause low mood and tiredness, especially as you get older. If you feel tired and in low spirits, it can be helpful to get out socializing with friends, joining a social club or starting a new hobby that gets you out and about.

Be Social

With increasingly busy lives, many people regularly find themselves feeling tired and drained. However, if the tiredness you're experiencing is lifestyle-related, there are lots of things you can do to increase your energy levels. This article looks at 9 ways you can change your lifestyle and boost your energy levels naturally.

9 Natural Ways to Boost Your Energy Levels

Intuitive eating is an approach to health and food that emphasizes learning to give your body what it needs.
It doesn't involve rules related to how or what to eat, but it's based on a few principles.

Intuitive eating is not a diet

Recognize and silence your inner critic.
An example of your inner food police: if you're scanning a restaurant menu and you catch yourself saying "That’s not healthy. That’s too many servings. That’s too high fat, " that voice is not yours, although it feels like it. It's only fueled by external messaging.

Quiet your inner food police

Food isn’t good or bad. Don't fall for this 'black or white' way of thinking.
Health and nutrition exist on a gradient. Keeping your health in mind when making food choices is totally in line with intuitive eating, but being rigid about healthy eating isn’t.

Intuitive eating: Stop moralizing

Among the principles of intuitive eating, there are 2 related to honoring hunger and respecting fullness. But you don't have to obsess over them. 
For example, you might have to eat lunch before you’re hungry because of a midday meeting, or you might not be able to eat what you really want because it isn’t available.

Invite nuance

Intuitive eating is a way to make sure your needs are being met.
What separates intuitive eating from traditional diets is that it’s 100 percent flexible—it can (and will) look different for everyone.

Make it personal

An introduction to intuitive eating and how it can help you develop a positive relationship with food.

longevity

Longevity

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

A Guide on Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating isn't a new thing. In 1995, dietitians Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole published a book on the topic, now in its third edition, presenting a nondiet approach to food that focuses on learning to give your body what it needs.

Intuitive Eating Is the Opposite of Dieting-That's Why We Love It

Intuitive Eating Is the Opposite of Dieting

The story goes that that Kaldi discovered coffee. He noticed his goats became energetic after eating the berries from a certain tree.
Kaldi shared his findings with the abbot of a monastery, who found a drink from the berries kept him alert. The abbot, in turn, shared his findings with other monks. Word moved east and coffee reached the Arabian peninsula.

Coffee: An Ethiopian Legend

Coffee cultivation and trade began on the Arabian Peninsula. Coffee was being grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia. By the 16th century, it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey.
Coffee was enjoyed in homes and also in the many public coffee houses. Coffee houses quickly became such an important center for the exchange of information that they were often referred to as “Schools of the Wise.”

Coffee In The Arabian Peninsula

By the 17th century, coffee had made its way to Europe and was becoming popular across the continent. Despite the controversy, coffee houses were quickly becoming centers of social activity and communication in the major cities of England, Austria, France, Germany, and Holland.
Coffee began to replace the common breakfast drink beverages of the time — beer and wine.

Coffee Comes to Europe

In the mid-1600s, coffee was brought to New Amsterdam, later called New York by the British.
When the colonists revolted against a heavy tax on tea imposed by King George III, known as the Boston Tea Party, it changed the American drinking preference to coffee.

Coffee In The New World

<ul>
<li>There was fierce competition to cultivate coffee outside of Arabia.</li>
<li>The Dutch finally got seedlings in the latter half of the 17th century. The plants thrived on the Island of Java, what is now Indonesia.</li>
<li>The Dutch had a productive and growing trade in coffee and expanded the cultivation to the islands of Sumatra and Celebes.</li>
</ul>

Coffee Plantations Around the World

<ul>
<li>In 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam presented a gift of a young coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France.</li>
<li>A young naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu obtained a seedling from the King's plant and transported it safely to Martinique.</li>
<li>This seedling was the parent of all coffee trees throughout the Caribbean, South and Central America. After crude oil, coffee became the most sought commodity in the world.</li>
</ul>

Coffee Comes to the Americas

Coffee Culture

No one knows exactly how or when coffee was discovered, though there are many legends about its origin.

No one knows exactly how or when coffee was discovered, though there are many legends about its origin. Coffee grown worldwide can trace its heritage back centuries to the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau. There, legend says the goat herder Kaldi first discovered the potential of these beloved beans.

The History of Coffee

Find 100+ Facts about Food - Curated by others from trusted sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!

Top 5 common health myths debunked

Can't Kick Bad Habits? You're Probably Doing It Wrong

Healthy Living: 20 Common Health Myths Exposed

15 Health Myths That Make Doctors Cringe

9 tips to boost your energy - naturally - Harvard Health

The Fatigue Solution: How To Increase Your Energy In Eight Easy Steps

9 Natural Ways to Boost Your Energy Levels

Intuitive Eating Is the Opposite of Dieting-That's Why We Love It

The History of Coffee

8 Simple Tips to Live Longer and Healthier

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

Top 5 common health myths debunked

Can't Kick Bad Habits? You're Probably Doing It Wrong

Healthy Living: 20 Common Health Myths Exposed

15 Health Myths That Make Doctors Cringe

9 tips to boost your energy - naturally - Harvard Health

The Fatigue Solution: How To Increase Your Energy In Eight Easy Steps

9 Natural Ways to Boost Your Energy Levels

Intuitive Eating Is the Opposite of Dieting-That's Why We Love It

The History of Coffee

8 Simple Tips to Live Longer and Healthier

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.