S
H
E
D
T
T
Y
S
U
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OLD WIVES’
TALES
Eating just before you go
to bed will make you fat
Pick up You shouldn’t take
your food
The idea goes – eating at night
within fi ve
antibiotics when
makes you fat because you
seconds of
don’t have time to burn-off dropping it
you drink alcohol
extra calories before sleep
and it’ll be
or because your metabolism
safe to eat
There are some antibiotics that can’t be mixed with
slows down. However, a
alcohol, but Donald Singer, a professor of clinical
Microbiologists
Swedish study found that
pharmacology at the University of Warwick says this
at Clemson
obese women who ate at night
applies to “just a handful” of antibiotics, possibly no more
University,
South Carolina,
than one per cent. “The idea that you can’t drink alcohol
got fatter not because it was
tested this.
with most common antibiotics really is a myth,” he says.
night-time when they ate, but
They found that
He suggests the myth was bandied around about a
because they were eating more
bacteria, like
century ago by moralistic doctors treating patients with
meals than their slimmer
salmonella, can
sexually transmitted diseases – one of the earliest uses
friends. The problem wasn’t
survive for
for antibiotics. The idea was that if you could keep people
the time they ate, but the weeks on off the booze, you’d cut back
volume of food being eaten. carpet, wood
on their promiscuity.
and tiles, and In the few cases
contaminates where you shouldn’t
CHOCOLATE AND
food within mix the two, there
seconds of
are good reasons –
contact.
including the risk of
FRIED FOOD GIVE
liver damage.
Reading in So it really is a good
YOU ACNE
the dark
idea to check with
ruins your
your doctor before
eyesight
you start drinking with
It’s a commonly held belief that junk food and any antibiotics you’ve
chocolate stimulates the skin to produce too much
Reading in the
been prescribed.
oil, causing spots.
dark can make
While it is true that spots happen when you get a
your eyes tired,
build-up of natural oil (called sebum) under the skin,
but won’t
this has nothing to do with eating greasy foods. In
damage them
reality, it’s hormonal changes – like those that take
as it causes no
place during puberty – that cause excess oil
permanent
changes to
to be produced.
your eyes’
But an Australian study by researchers from the
structure. You
Royal Melbourne Hospital’s dermatology department
might get
did fi nd a link between food and spots. They divided
eye-strain, but
men into two groups, giving one healthy foods such
this goes away
as whole grain breads and vegetables, and the other
when you turn
a more typical ‘teenage diet’ of white bread and
up the lights.
You lose most of your body
sugary snacks. After 12 weeks the healthy group
showed a 50 per cent reduction in acne. The results
Men with
heat through your head
suggest not that greasy food causes acne, but that a
big feet
healthy diet helps skin stay healthy.
An idea based on
have big
the sloppiest of
penises logic – in the 1950s
A study the US military
published in the
exposed volunteers
British Journal
in survival suits to
of Urology
bitter conditions.
International in
2002 showed
The men lost most
that this is not
heat through their
the case.
heads, but only
Urologists because this was
measured the
the only exposed part of their bodies.
penises of 104
The head is no more vulnerable than the rest of the body.
men and
related this to
That said, you still lose heat through it, so it makes sense to
their shoe size.
wear a hat on a chilly day.
There was
The truth is, you lose the same amount of heat through every
no correlation. part of your body. Anything that’s exposed will cause a drop in
your core body temperature.
www.bbcfocusmagazine.com March 2010 35
Focus_213_mythbusters_10RB_col.indd 35 25/1/10 10:39:23
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