Questions tagged [nutrition]
Use this tag for claims regarding the way we eat, and the effects eating has on our bodies.
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Can Elderberries "beat the flu, prevent colds, and strengthen your immunity"?
According to http://realfarmacy.com/diy-flu-syrup/, "Elderberry Beats the Flu, Prevents Colds, and Strengthens Your Immunity." As with all dietary advice I find on the internet, I'm hesitant to ...
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Can canning tomatoes while menstruating spoil the tomatoes?
My wife was recently canning tomatoes, and her aunt asked if she was on her period because supposedly that will ruin the batch. Her grandmother is the one that taught her aunt, but neither of us had ...
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Are fish oil capsules beneficial?
Page 28 of the February 2018 edition of Which? magazine says,
(You don't need...)
Fish oils such as Omega 3 capsules
Unless you are advised to take these, you don't need to. Studies show that ...
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Were modern wheat varieties specifically selected because it was less nutritious?
I don't know if posting Twitter threads counts as a source, but this morning I saw this one on modern agriculture:
https://twitter.com/wrathofgnon/status/955647499120726016
During the thread, it ...
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Is stevia detrimental to reproductive function?
Stevia is an artificial sweetener.
Becky Plotner, ND, of the blog Nourishing Plot, writes:
stevia shows to be detrimental on reproduction function and is used in South America as birth control.
...
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Do these foods affect healing after getting a tattoo?
Where I live it is common knowledge that after getting a tattoo you should not eat certain types of food, e.g. seafood, chocolate, burgers. Apparently eating those foods will slow down the healing ...
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Do colder temperatures increase our hunger?
I've heard this multiple times as an explanation to eating more in relation to being exposed to colder temperatures (restaurants that are colder, during the winter, etc.) but I have yet to be able to ...
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Did a ketogenic diet successfully treat epileptic seizures of a young girl?
This recent CBC News article: How a high-fat diet helped curb a Laval child's daily seizures claims a neurologist, Dr. Bradley Osterman changed the diet of a really young girl to treat her epileptic ...
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Was slipping on a banana peel an actual danger in the early 20th century?
A common slapstick trope is slipping on a banana peel, however the Mythbusters and others have shown that banana peels aren't as slippery as comedy would have you believe.
On the other hand, there ...
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Are cornflakes more toxic to rats than cardboard?
I've seen articles on different sites which describe experiment on rats. One group of rats was fed corn flakes, another one - cardboard box of those flakes. The corn flakes group died first.
E.g. ...
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Is the Hindu deity Ganesha considered vegetarian by Hindus?
In Meat and Livestock Australia criticised for advert of vegetarian Hindu God Ganesha, it's claimed that the Hindu deity Ganesha is regarded as vegetarian:
Indian Society of Western Australia ...
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Are cheap scallops made from flounders or stingrays?
Jaws the book (1974) claimed that if you use a cookie cutter to punch holes from flounder wings, you can create fake scallops and that these are commonly sold in restaurants:
'I was just looking at ...
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Is it true that desert animals can drink seawater? [closed]
In physiology books (Medical Physiology - Guyton and Hall) one studies that according to renal capacity features, some desert animals are capable of drinking seawater. Is this also true in practice? ...
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Does consuming bone broth reduce or eliminate allergies?
A friend encouraged me to read Nourishing Broth: An Old-Fashioned Remedy for the Modern World (2014) by Sally Fallon Morell and Kaayla T. Daniel.
She (my friend) said that over the last year, since ...
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Does significant consumption of French fries double your chance of death?
A report on an Australian news site claims that:
Eight-year study finds heavy French fry eaters have ‘double’ the chance of death
The report quotes some of the details of the research:
On average, ...
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Is mustard oil dangerous for human consumption?
I see warnings of the erucic acid contained in mustard oil, e.g.
15 amazing facts and uses of mustard oil (Times of India):
According to celebrity nutritionist Sandhya Gugnani, "There was a myth
...
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Did almost all tilapia sold in US undergo sex change?
Taken from this report: How Tilapia is a More Unhealthy Food Than Bacon.
They've Had a Sex Change
Virtually all tilapia sold in American supermarkets has undergone a sex change–the result of being ...
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Does Tilapia have a greater inflammatory potential than bacon?
From: http://www.eatthis.com/tilapia-is-worse-than-bacon
While most health experts agree we should be eating more fish (for all the reasons listed above), this Eat This, Not That! research has ...
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Is olive oil sold in supermarkets largely made from other oils?
This website claims to reveal 6 lies that the food industry supposedly tells. The last one (after scrolling down to the bottom of the page) states
As crazy as it sounds, olive oil piracy is one of ...
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Do 7% of adults in the United States believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows?
I found a recent post in 9gag that states:
Did you know?
7% of American adults (17.3 million people) believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
There's no source to their claim. Is there ...
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Does drinking matcha tea reduce LDL cholesterol in humans?
Matcha is a "stone-ground Japanese-style green tea". There have been many health claims associated with it. In particular, it is said to be good for cholesterol levels:
For example:
Noble ...
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Do hot peppers kill cancer?
While browsing Health.SE, I came across an answer that makes the following claim:
A 2007 study by Nottingham University2 found that spicy foods can help kill cancer cells. Capsaicin, which is what ...
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Do the seeds from 20 apples contain a fatal dose of cyanide?
This Healthline article claims:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1-2 mg/kg is a fatal oral dose of cyanide for a 154 lbs. (70 kg) man. You would need to finely chew and ...
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Is it healthier to heat your tea in the microwave?
The Independent has an article titled Heating cups of tea in microwave makes it healthier, says scientist.
Does the research support this headline?
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Does eating burnt toast neutralize ingested poison?
A doctor told me today that eating burnt toast along with tea is a remedy for poison. Apparently the burnt part of the toast acts like activated charcoal and adsorbs the poison you've ingested, and ...
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Does Marmite improve the brain?
The British food spread Marmite is well known to polarise opinion (people either love or hate the taste with few people showing indifference). Wikipedia describes it as:
... the product is a sticky, ...
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How true are the claims about the dairy industry in this poster? [closed]
I came across the following image via social media. It depicts a poster placed in the window of a British cafe. The text of the poster reads:
This Is Why We're Ditching Dairy...
In celebration ...
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Do smaller albacore contain less mercury (by weight)?
I have a can of Wild Planet tuna, that says on the label:
Research shows that smaller albacore, such as used by Wild Planet, contains less mercury than larger albacore.
Their web-site has a FAQ ...
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Are GMOs a threat to bee populations? [closed]
An image is making the rounds on some Facebook groups:
It appears to have originated from an anti-GMO website.
Although the image is making multiple claims, there is an implied claim that GMOs are ...
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Does US governmental advocacy of drinking milk harm African-Americans?
According to a California State University article Milk new symbol of hate?:
...
The federal endorsement of milk in American diets contributes to the problem by uncritically pushing people to drink ...
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Did the Dalai Lama cause Mongolians to significantly reduce their alcohol consumption?
In an interview with John Oliver in S04E04 of Last Week Tonight there's the exchange:
Dalai Lama: One of my previous visits in Mongolia, they drank a lot of Vodka [...] I suggested: Drink much less ...
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Should you chew your food 50 times?
I have heard my entire life you should focus on chewing your food at least 50 times. The saliva in your mouth supposedly sends signals to the brain that prepare acids in your stomach in advance, and ...
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Are milk and butter from grass-fed cows better for you?
Is there any evidence that grass fed milk and butter are better for you as claimed broadly in this Lacross Tribune article:
New study shows evidence milk from grass-fed cows is healthier
Cows that ...
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Did Elvis consume 100,000 calories a day at the end of his life?
This ABC Science article by Dr Karl S. Kruszelnicki claims
Before he died, Elvis was eating about 100,000 calories per day!
...
The basic element of Elvis' daily food intake was a 30-cm long ...
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Do people who swap sugary sodas for diet sodas lose weight?
A recent article in The Guardian, "No evidence sugar-free soft drinks aid weight loss – study", challenges the effectiveness of diet drinks and argues:
Soft drinks made with artificial ...
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Does eating pork increase promiscuity?
According to the book Pork (alternative pdf version):
People who use pork are gradually influenced by its inherent sensuality; and when this trend influences the minds, shamelessness becomes the norm ...
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Is MSG excitotoxic?
Popular YouTuber Alex Jones claims (in a YouTube video with nearly 1M views) that MSG is an excitotoxin and harms the brain and liver.
I haven't even had time to get into MSG. I mean, I've ...
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Are human fetal cells used to produce Pepsi?
A friend just came over and apparently Pepsi is made from people.
Or, more specifically:
The aborted human fetal cell line is known as “HEK-293,” and it is used to see how the human palate will react ...
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Is tequila a probiotic?
This viral video on Facebook, with 31 million views, claims that tequila is a probiotic, enhances insulin production, and helps potentiate certain medications.
Is there any truth to this?
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Do the vitamins in a smoothie degrade when put in the fridge?
I was discussing with a friend about my smoothies consumption and he argued that putting them in the fridge to consume them the next day was not good as the vitamin level/effect drops quickly.
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Does artificial sweetener consumption by women reduce IVF effectiveness?
A recent news story in the media picked up a meme that seems to be already common in "natural food" circles.
Diet fizzy drinks ‘could slash chances of getting pregnant during IVF’
The study ...
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Are cheap tea bags dangerous to your health due to high fluoride levels?
In: "Cheap tea bags contain frighteningly high fluoride levels: Study"
on 'Natural News', it says:
A new study published in the journal, Food Research International, has revealed that ...
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Is a highly variable diet better than a steady one for human health?
Nicholas Nassem Taleb has argued that many systems become more robust when subjected to random shocks (a property he calls Antifragile in his book of that name).
One of the systems he applies his ...
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Does it take time for the brain to realize that you have eaten too much?
A doctor told me to eat my meal only until I feel 3/4th full. The logic being that the stomach takes time to absorb the food and the brain takes time to register that fact and the signal that I have ...
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Does consuming foods rich in phytic acid prevent mineral absorption?
I've seen a lot of articles warning that consuming phytic acid can prevent the body from absorbing minerals. They recommend soaking beans, chickpeas, lentils and other phytic acid foods before cooking ...
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Should 20-35% of calories come from fats in a healthful diet?
In 2002, the National Academies' Institute of Medicine released a report that recommended:
Adults should get 45 percent to 65 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, 20 percent to 35 percent ...
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Does eating Diatomaceous earth have these benefits?
I came across this "food grade" diatomaceous earth (for killing insects), and found that people eat it. This website says,
Food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) is a gentle abrasive that's ...
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Does eating food cooked with a microwave reduce the haemoglobin count of the blood?
HealthyHolisticLiving writes in Facts About Microwave Ovens That Will Make You Never Want To Use One Again
The blood samples from test subjects who had consumed microwaved foods demonstrated ...
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Have edible jars of honey been found in thousand-year-old Egyptian tombs?
A recent xkcd contains the claim that honey has a shelf life that's so long that edible jars of honey have been found in Egyptian tombs several thousand years old.
Image taken from http://www.xkcd....
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Is a vegan diet nutritionally complete and suitable for babies?
We have a related question of a more general nature, but there has been a lot of talk in Italy on whether to disallow or otherwise restrict vegan diets to people who are below a certain age.
This has ...
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