# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/141 "2013-10-25T02:50:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Also on this very board, I’ve heard that citrus fruit have enzymes that will tenderize any meat … Not citrus, but papaya. [Papain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papain) is even commercially extracted from the fruit and sold as a meat tenderizer. I remembered a stupid one today: mix olive oil with butter to fry stuff, since olive oil can get hotter without burning, so you get the best of both worlds. Not true, as it’s the butter solids that burn, which are still present, and will still burn at the same temperature, no matter what other oils you add. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/142 "2013-10-25T03:05:33Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > I remembered a stupid one today: mix olive oil with butter to fry stuff, since olive oil can get hotter without burning, so you get the best of both worlds. Not true, as it’s the butter solids that burn, which are still present, and will still burn at the same temperature, no matter what other oils you add. Also, a lot of people assume that you should only buy Extra Virgin, because the rest is for poor people (I haven’t looked hard, but I think it’s a lot harder to find lower grades as well). While the EV might taste better, that doesn’t mean the other ones are useless, having a higher smoke point for one. It’s a fact that hippies love hemp as well as it’s more potent friend. The supposed benefits you can read about are quite amusing and self-deluding. Not a food myth, but: the idea that hemp can replace many products like wood pulp paper is overblown. ---
**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 25, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/143 "2013-10-25T03:15:08Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [The Master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1245/will-sleeping-in-a-closed-room-with-an-electric-fan-cause-death) Cecil mentions in that article, “But whereas the Mountain Dew/shrinking testicles rumor was confined largely to teenage boys …”, and that reminded me it was a Korean woman who was always warning me about Mountain Dew. (Well, she was _ethnically_ Korean. She was adopted at birth and raised in the USA.) > [@aruvqan](#): > > Somehow I really do not see paleo humans taking the time and effort to do something like that to a food that can be eaten as is. Olives I can see being turned into oil as without processing they are inedible. [either brine or lye - I can see the lye one happening by someone processing ashes to lye leaving the dugout tub under an olive tree, and olives falling into it. You dump the resulting leftover ashes with ‘stupid olives fell in and look nasty’ onto the ground where rainfall washes off the lye, then some toddler wanders by and eats one and finds it edible.] That sounds … satisfyingly plausible. The olive thing was something I always wondered about: “Who figured out that soaking these inedible fruits in poison would make them edible?” (Kind of like when I read the process for turning coca leaves into cocaine - “Who figured that out?” ---
**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 25, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/144 "2013-10-25T03:27:15Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Also, a lot of people assume that you should only buy Extra Virgin, because the rest is for poor people (I haven’t looked hard, but I think it’s a lot harder to find lower grades as well). While the EV might taste better, that doesn’t mean the other ones are useless, having a higher smoke point for one. “Sexy Italian Chef” Alfredo Caldo Freddo explains the differences: (Erm, sorta NSFW - visible male buttocks) ---
**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 25, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/145 "2013-10-25T05:23:09Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Who figured out that soaking these inedible fruits in poison would make them edible? It’s not necessary to soak olives in lye to make them edible. The simplest process for treating olives is [oil curing](http://honest-food.net/2012/05/03/how-to-make-oil-cured-olives/). All you do is mix ripe olives with salt. Over time the salt draws out the water, and a lot of the bitter compounds with it. I suspect this process was developed as a way to preserve olives until the oil could be extracted, and that the first edible olives were oil-cured. ---
**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 25, 2013, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/146 "2013-10-25T06:30:19Z")
I went on a tour of the Winchester Mystery House near San Jose, CA. Sarah Winchester, whose father-in-law had invented the Winchester repeating rifle, built the weird house that now has over 1000 rooms. She lived on the royalties of the rifle, but she also had an olive-processing business. The guide said that olives are soaked in brine for _five months!_ ---
**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 25, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/147 "2013-10-25T07:53:42Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > The people I saw were more like, “it has a shell and legs! Into the pot!” So not experience. But I guess most crabs are edible. There are a few poisonous species of crustaceans, but by and large, anything common and with enough meat on it to be worthwhile, is edible. Not all of them taste great, as I understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/148 "2013-10-25T09:04:11Z")
Huh. I had no idea that olives off the branch were inedible. Ignorance fought! ---
**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 25, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/149 "2013-10-25T14:56:24Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Cecil mentions in that article, “But whereas the Mountain Dew/shrinking testicles rumor was confined largely to teenage boys …”, and that reminded me it was a Korean woman who was always warning me about Mountain Dew. (Well, she was _ethnically_ Korean. She was adopted at birth and raised in the USA.) Mountain Dew was just reintroduced to Thailand after an absence of decades. So far, I don’t notice a difference, but maybe I’ve not drank enough. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/150 "2013-10-25T15:50:00Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > It’s not necessary to soak olives in lye to make them edible. The simplest process for treating olives is [oil curing](http://honest-food.net/2012/05/03/how-to-make-oil-cured-olives/). All you do is mix ripe olives with salt. Over time the salt draws out the water, and a lot of the bitter compounds with it. I suspect this process was developed as a way to preserve olives until the oil could be extracted, and that the first edible olives were oil-cured. I wonder if that came before or after the concept of salting meat to cure and preserve it? I can’t help but think one inspired the other, but I don’t know which would have been first. ---
**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 25, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/151 "2013-10-25T16:00:53Z")
Maybe that’s why Ms. Winchester’s operation used brine instead of lye. ---
**Author:** ![jayrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jayrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayrey)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/152 "2013-10-25T17:19:07Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Organic = healthy. > > Vegetarian/vegan = healthy. This! I have an aquaintance who claims to be a vegetarian (he’s really a pescetarian but doesn’t like to admit it) and is horrifed that I use real butter to cook eggs and on my toast. He claims that he will only eat “clean” food – partly defined as containing no animal fat. His preferred diet consists of – wait for it – popcorn, organic apples with peanut butter, brown rice and Wheat Thins crackers, all washed down with lots of coffee. And he wonders why he’s overweight and feels like crap most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/153 "2013-10-25T20:25:57Z")
Obviously he’s just not drinking enough coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/154 "2013-10-25T20:50:44Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > That sounds … satisfyingly plausible. The olive thing was something I always wondered about: “Who figured out that soaking these inedible fruits in poison would make them edible?” (Kind of like when I read the process for turning coca leaves into cocaine - “Who figured that out?” I’ve read that people used to chew on the coca leaves for their buzz. I assume they figured out how to process them from there. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/155 "2013-10-25T21:32:41Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I’ve read that people used to chew on the coca leaves for their buzz. I assume they figured out how to process them from there. Still do. It’s apparently a very low high. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/156 "2013-10-26T02:45:12Z")
> [@Satan's Spawn](#): > > 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. I’ve been doing some unrelated reading. From what I can tell, vegetarianism isn’t that big in Theravada (the sect followed by the vast majority of Thai people), compared to other forms. It forbids only a few types of meat that most of us don’t eat anyway, so an orc converting to Buddhism would have to give up manflesh. Other meat is supposed to be not killed on your behalf (I’m not sure how that works). Of course, that doesn’t explain meat eating in Mahayana countries. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/157 "2013-10-26T02:50:04Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Ctt (Kind of like when I read the process for turning coca leaves into cocaine - “Who figured that out?” If you find out who it was, give him a call. You can assume he’ll be awake. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/158 "2013-10-26T03:27:11Z")
Moving from IMHO to Cafe Society, ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/159 "2013-10-26T04:25:35Z")
Wheat flour always has to be sifted so that the measurement will be correct. (Taught in middle school.) Cheese wrapped in wax paper won’t get moldy as fast as if you wrap it in plastic. There’s no difference between organic and “conventionally farmed” veggies. While this may be true for some veggies, my lips only touch organic celery - the flavor is noticeably better to me. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967/160 "2013-10-26T04:36:51Z")
Eating miso protects you from radiation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absurd-food-myths-and-rumors/671967.md?page=9)