It seems that these myths would be pretty easy to check. Has anyone ever used one of those flexi-scopes to look for old chewing gum? Was any ever found?
Nope. The USDArequires that Whipping Cream (which they call Light Whipping Cream) have no less than 30% and no more than 36% fat, and it may have carageenan (a thickener) in it. Heavy Cream must have more than 36% fat, and doesn’t have carageenan (I’m not sure if this is because it’s forbidden, or because it just doesn’t need it.)
Nope. I mean, yes, I’m sure that’s what you’ve always heard, but it’s not true. Kosher certification is based on rabbinical certification of the slaughterhouse and the kosher method of killing, and the same for Halal. The raising of the animal is not relevant. Of course you can find humanely raised and/or grass fed and/or free range and/or organic kosher meat, but it’s not a given. Kosher and Halal meat animals come from the same kinds of farms - sometimes the same exact farms - as non-Kosher and non-Halal meat.
I had a great uncle who raised calves for kosher veal. He said that an animal with visible blemishes couldn’t be sold as kosher meat, so there’s that. Not that visible blemishes necessarily have anything to do with the quality of the meat.
Organic = healthy.
Vegetarian/vegan = healthy.
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!
When we were kids we all knew that a little girl had poured pop rocks in her ears and then poured soda in and her head had exploded. It took us a while to realize how absurd the story was.
It’s widely believed in Thailand that consuming durian and whiskey together can cause death. Even some local doctors will insist on this, saying it harks back to the Chinese concept of “hot” and “cold” foods, as both of those are “hot” and should not be consumed together.
Then there’s the vitamin-C/shrimp taboo.
As for formaldehyde in beer that the OP mentions, there have long been Urban Legends about Thailand’s national brew, Singha, containing it, and the company comes out from time to time to deny it.
No need for a flexi-scope. Doctors have had ample opportunity to poke around inside people’s bellies. Abdominal surgery isn’t exactly rare, and unfortunately, abdominal wounds aren’t either, especially in wartime. If people had chewing gum hanging around in there, you’d think some doctor would have noticed by now.
Wishful thinking, perhaps?
As an issue near and dear to me, this one may brush by the truth to a degree. I am continually shocked more research has not been done to precisely ascertain what causes hangover and most importantly how to create a magic pill I could take that would prevent it with 100% certainty.
That being said, very small amount of methanol is almost always created by fermentation. This is true for everything from beer to corn alcohol. What you are fermenting and how is actually more of a determinant of how much methanol is created. There is a persistent rumor/myth that for example traditional differential freezing distillation of apple cider into apple jack (popular in Colonial America) resulted in dangerous concentrations of methanol or that moonshine regularly will blind you due to methanol.
The truth is the fermentation process that proceeds the distillation of these liquids does create methanol. More than what would be typical of the fermentation during beer making, for example. The subsequent distillation process cannot add more methanol itself, but it could create a solution rich enough in methanol that it reaches toxic concentrations per serving volume. [Even that would be quite rare.] For this reason there are certain techniques used to make the solution less methanol rich. [There’s another myth out there it can be easily boiled out of the solution since it has a lower boiling point than ethanol, but actually a solution of alcohols and water has a different boiling point than any of the alcohols/water by itself and when it does come to a boil a mixture of everything.] But by and large most people that were injured/killed due to methanol from moonshine can blame unscrupulous moonshiners in the past who would spike the finished product with methanol in a belief it made the moonshine more potent.
So anyway, there is typically small parts methanol in most alcohol. More in things like red wine and liquor than in beer. Methanol does metabolize into formaldehyde, and it is believed that among the many contributing things that go into a hangover that could be a small part of it.
It is believed that acetaldehyde, which is metabolized from ethanol, probably plays a much bigger role in hangovers than formaldehyde metabolized from trace amounts of methanol.
I think this could have some rational basis in that a closely related thing is often true: that Kosher and halal meal or processed food options often are better in many contexts in terms of taste. The biggest example is in the prison system, where inmates are known to fake being Muslim or Jewish to get the halal/Kosher meals respectively. [I think this was mentioned in a thread here by either a former guard or prison doctor.] Now, that has nothing to do with halal or Kosher meat being any “better”, but probably has to do with the preparation of food to meet some religious dietary guideline tends to lead to stuff that tastes a bit better in situations like that.
I’ve also found it true of hot dogs, Kosher hot dogs to me typically taste better than most alternatives, but that’s probably because they typically seem to be all beef. So I find Hebrew National to be a lot better than the classic Ballpark Frank which is an amalgam of several different meat products. But I don’t really prefer Hebrew National over a non-Kosher all-beef hot dog like say, Nathan’s. So what’s most important is the fact the Kosher dogs are all-beef vs other hot dogs that are not.
Breast milk is a magical wonder elixir. Your breast fed child will never get sick, will maintain an ideal body weight forever and will go to Harvard and become a rich doctor.
Formula is poison. Your formula fed child will be a morbidly obese cretin with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, get every disease ever, and will be lucky to graduate 8th grade and get a minimum wage job with his name on his shirt.
Nope. They’re both just food.
“Protein cannot be converted into bodyfat”. This is sometimes heard in dieting advice on strategies aimed at losing fat. Supposedly we can eat as much protein as we want and any excess protein not used for the various bodily functions it provides will simply be burned for energy or excreted. :dubious:
Baby carrots are soaked in bleach! That’s what the white stuff on them is. Always wash them. Eye roll.
And then there’s the peppers with three bumps or four at the bottom. One being better raw or sweeter or something.
Avocado pits do not magically somehow keep your guacamole from turning brown. Use lime juice for that.
MSG certainly seems to cause some unpleasant reactions for some people, this poster included, at least in large doses (as allegedly used in some Chinese restaurants). I don’t know if those reactions are technically “allergic”, depending on just what “allergic” means technically.
When I was a child, we ate often at a certain Chinese restaurant, and I always had bad reactions there. It certainly wasn’t a psychosomatic thing because, at the time, I knew nothing about it. (I don’t remember if I had ever even heard of MSG at the time, but I certainly had never heard of it being a problem for anyone.) I always thought the problem was something else, but I never knew what.
The symptoms I get typically include rapid-onset digestive upset (cramps and diarrhea), and lightheadedness.
Well, my first restaurant job was at Arby’s, and I can cheerfully debunk that “powdered” claim. When I worked there, 30 years ago, the roasts arrived frozen, in cases of four. We’d thaw them, unwrap them, and stick them in the oven for 3-4 hours.
Granted, they’re not “genuine” beef roasts - they’re a “conglomerate” meat. But they’re certainly not powdered.
I was taught MSG naturally occurs in your brain and that you cannot be allergic to something that’s already in you anyway. Feel free to debunk that if it turns out not to be the case.
“Conglomerate” meaning “Chihuahua.”
Eating an orange is the same as eating a spoonful of sugar.
Whatever happened to fast food chicken that’s grown in aquarium tanks?