# Absurd Food Myths and Rumors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967 "2013-10-22T20:14:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/81 "2013-10-23T20:51:55Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > No. “Organic” means “full of bugs.” Explaining where the vegetarian gets the nutrients that normally come from meat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/82 "2013-10-23T21:01:00Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Organic = healthy. > > Vegetarian/vegan = healthy. Or, organic is always worth the 40% price increase, and organic food doesn’t contain any added chemicals or [any pesticide](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur). And stuff like “organic salt,” are you f’ing kidding me!? On that note, kosher salt is better than table salt, always. No, both have their purpose but it has nothing to do with quality (kosher grains are bigger). Also that kosher salt is kosher (all salt is kosher. It should be called “koshering salt”). Natural flavors are better than artificial flavors, always, and also no trickery is involved in [labeling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum) something natural. That gluten is bad, and that everyone should not eat it. If I had celiac disease, I’d like the increased options, but roll my eyes around all those claiming that it affects them. MSG is bad, and anecdotes about its effects are greater than or equal to actual data. When boiling pasta, you should always add a pinch of salt and a splash of olive oil. Salt’s been mentioned, but the pasta is made to soak up sauce. Oil interferes with that. Italian grandmothers: cherries + milk = DEATH ETA: > [@Yllaria](#): > > The claim I always heard was that gum and fingernails would collect in your appendix. Appendix is new, but [bezoars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezoar) exist. Usually they require a chronic level of ingestion, like eating a pound of gum a day. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/83 "2013-10-23T21:15:51Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > Not food-related, but still…“Don’t fall asleep with the (oscillating) fan on! It sucks all the good air out! **People die! All the time!** ” Yes, they do. But not from letting the oscillating fan run at night. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > And stuff like “organic salt,” are you f’ing kidding me!? Personally, I like my salt with a little added carbon. 😃 > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That gluten is bad, and that everyone should not eat it. If I had celiac disease, I’d like the increased options, but roll my eyes around all those claiming that it affects them. This gluten-free craze is getting out of control. Today I bought some apple cider vinegar that had a gluten-free notation on the label. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/84 "2013-10-23T21:33:16Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > This gluten-free craze is getting out of control. Today I bought some apple cider vinegar that had a gluten-free notation on the label. :rolleyes: Dude, a few years ago, I bought a bottle of _water_ labelled ‘gluten free’. I’ve encountered the bizarre belief that ‘organic’= low fat/low sugar far too many times. As well as the belief that home grown/wild food is somehow dangerous, and not as clean as shop bought. I’ve done commercial fruit picking, I _know_ that one’s backwards… ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/85 "2013-10-23T21:35:32Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Dude, a few years ago, I bought a bottle of _water_ labelled ‘gluten free’. [This is my favorite bottle of water.](http://www.engrish.com/2006/04/no-carbs/) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/86 "2013-10-23T22:22:31Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Italian grandmothers: cherries + milk = DEATH Hey, it [killed Zachary Taylor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor#Death); why chance it? Other than it’s delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/87 "2013-10-24T01:52:43Z")
A lot of food myths and weird diet schemes are riffs on the theme of “all human ‘progress’ actually makes things worse.” That aside, has someone mentioned “celery is negative calories” yet? > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Wheat certainly does cause problems in some people. And milk. “Causes problems in some people” =/= “is a horrible toxin no human would eat if Big Food and their handmaidens in the media didn’t brainwash us into it” > [@Ambivalid](#): > > Vegetarian/vegan = healthy. I do most of the cooking, and my girlfriend wanted me to make more vegetarian meals. I agreed. A few months later, she complained that I said I would make more vegetarian meals but I wasn’t. I demonstrated the increase in the number of meals I had cooked that had no meat in them. She countered that my cooking hadn’t gotten any healthier. You can’t argue with logic like that. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > On that note, kosher salt is better than table salt, always. No, both have their purpose but it has nothing to do with quality (kosher grains are bigger). Also that kosher salt is kosher (all salt is kosher. It should be called “koshering salt”). Not long ago, someone whose name escapes me but who was tired of the religious persecution that dogged his every trip to the grocery store, brought out Christian salt, because if Those People get their own salt, normal decent people should too. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That gluten is bad, and that everyone should not eat it. If I had celiac disease, I’d like the increased options, but roll my eyes around all those claiming that it affects them. I actually have a hypothesis about the “thought” “process” there: “Whatever this ‘glootan’ stuff is, it’s obviously bad for you, or they wouldn’t brag about not having it on the label. And something’s clearly harming my kid psychologically, because my toddler sometimes doesn’t want to do what I tell him.” ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/88 "2013-10-24T02:07:46Z")
Sugar makes kids hyper or gives them energy Sea salt is low in sodium ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/89 "2013-10-24T02:48:53Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > For sure, and I’ve probably participated in some doozies. > > I’m just laughing at the transition from: > > “Tell about some food myths.” > > to > > “Are you saying I’m not a Jew!!” This is where neo-Nazis come in handy. _They’ll_ tell you who’s a Jew and who’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/90 "2013-10-24T02:52:43Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > IMHO, “organic” means “consisting partly of carbon.” At least that’s what I understood from high-school chemistry. I’ve been wondering of late, with what do they irrigate “organically grown” crops? Because, c’mon, everybody know that water isn’t organic! ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/91 "2013-10-24T03:01:35Z")
The old “Buddhists are vegetarians” meme. Not in any Buddhist country I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few. Vegetarians do exist here, there is even a whole vegetarian Buddhist sect or two, but they’re fringe, and the other Thais look at them as weirdos. And anyway, when those vegetarian Western backpackers are traveling around and feeling good about themselves for ordering vegetarian, little do they know it’s being cooked in lard anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/92 "2013-10-24T03:13:28Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > not _exactly_ > > [http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/why-breastfeeding-is-important/](http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/why-breastfeeding-is-important/) No, exactly. Breast milk is slightly better for the kid than formula, generally, but this cult of the tit is going mad. Women are buying milk from strangers on the internet, un-screened, un-pasturized, and feeding it to their kids because they don’t want to chance their kid consuming the poison that is formula. Women are continuing to breast feed their school aged children, even while feeding another baby. It’s crazy town! If you can’t breast feed, or hell if you don’t want to, giving your kid formula won’t ruin them. They will be just fine. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/93 "2013-10-24T04:40:48Z")
Sorta related. I once saw a “man on the street” type interview clip from a supermarket asking consumers about their attitudes regarding genetically modified foods. One person stated he would never eat anything that had DNA in it. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/94 "2013-10-24T05:49:57Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > Most of the research showing the myth to be false was funded by the dairy industry. Who else would fund that research? ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/95 "2013-10-24T06:23:10Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > Who else would fund that research? I’m pretty sure the USDA funds dairy-related research. Sort of like the NIH funds biomedical related research, only the USDA’s research grants have a much smaller budget to be allocated from. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/96 "2013-10-24T07:09:39Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > For sure, and I’ve probably participated in some doozies. > > I’m just laughing at the transition from: > > “Tell about some food myths.” > > to > > “Are you saying I’m not a Jew!!” I, for one, welcome the novelty. The more usual destination is “Are you trying to tell me coconuts migrate?” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/97 "2013-10-24T07:18:06Z")
[quote=“Learjeff, post:74, topic:671967”] > [@WhyNot](#): > > I have no idea what a telson is, but I’ll keep that word in mind for Scrabble. Meanwhile, I always eat the whole thing except the hard flaky bits, head, and legs, and I’m still alive. My asthma and sinus conditions predate most of my shrimp consumption. There’s one data point for ya. That’s the best bit! Well, not really, but someone always says it, so why not? (Actually the heads of shrimps/lobsters etc are indeed tasty - containing most of the fat and lots of tasty flavour - but better used to make fish stock than simply eaten, IMO.) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/98 "2013-10-24T07:39:13Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > No. “Organic” means “full of bugs.” > > To the OP: > > My wife has a lot of beliefs that drive me crazy. > > If I’m grilling or broiling: “Don’t eat the seared part; you’ll get cancer!” _[I’ve eaten the seared parts of grillred/broiled meats for 60 years; I never got cancer.]_ > > If I put a tupperware in the dishwasher: “You’ll get cancer!” _[when we had a dishwasher we avoided putting plastic in it because it might melt on the heating element.]_ > > If I open up a can of Chunky soup or similar: “Don’t eat that! You’ll get cancer!” _[Chunky soup is a favorite of mine…]_ > > If I microwave anything in a plastic-based container, even frozen items with a plastic bowl or some sort of plastic seal designed specifically for the microwave: “You’ll get cancer!” _[We have used plastic food containers for over 50 years…]_ > > Not food-related, but still…“Don’t fall asleep with the (oscillating) fan on! It sucks all the good air out! People die! All the time!” > > I could go on…I’ve got a million of 'em. One in one will die. Period. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/99 "2013-10-24T08:39:46Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > My father thinks the opposite - that tomatoes have to be cooked to “unlock” the nutrients. However, somehow parsley has to be eaten raw within 20 seconds of being picked or it won’t have any nutrients left in it. The main nutrient in question in both cases is vitamin C! Raw tomatoes are a worthy source of vitamin C, but the special nutrient in tomatoes is [lycopene](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycopene), an antioxidant that is concentrated by cooking. So your father is right. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/100 "2013-10-24T08:44:45Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Myths: > > Cook your beans without salt or tomatoes, because salt and acid will prevent the beans from absorbing water and softening. It is a myth that salt will prevent beans from softening. That acid can prevent softening is not a myth. Here is what Christopher Kimball (of America’s Test Kitchen) [has to say about it](http://christopherkimball.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/cooking-beans-101/) (scroll down to “Troubleshooting Hard Beans”). The level of acidity has to be pretty high for this to happen, though. According to the article, beans cooked in liquid of pH 3 stayed hard. Tomatoes are acidic, but not acidic enough to keep beans from softening. Oh, and beans that are soaked in salt water will cook faster than those soaked in plain water. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967.md?page=6)