Every day we get advice about our health. It comes from a never-ending number of sources: television, newspapers, the family doctor, the neighbour who’s aunt “used to be a nurse,” your aunt Ethel…. There comes a point when we have to ask ourselves which of these “valuable” tidbits is a “health fact” and which is “health fiction?” The challenge in finding the truth behind these bits of advice can be difficult because so many have come to us through the generations. Though they are usually based on emotion or instinct, not all are folk tales.

The idea for this topic comes from an article in the magazine Healthy Woman (Oct/Nov 2002) written by Ann Douglas, a writer with many book and article credits who mostly writes about pregnancy and birth. We include a few of the items on her list, but also many that came up after a Google search using the keyword phrase “health myth.” Enjoy.

Eating too much sugar can cause diabetes. This one has been around for a very long time, but most people will know that how many sweets you eat has little to do with the body’s ability to produce insulin.

Eating chocolate causes acne. And the good news is: it’s a myth! No study has ever proven that chocolate causes acne. Better yet, a recent study suggested that chocolate may be rich in heart-friendly anti-oxidants! How is that for you chocoholics out there?

Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. While there is no proof that this is the case, pushing a knuckle beyond its natural range cannot be all that good for it. The old wives’ tale that this habit adds wear and tear to the joint, leads to enlarge knuckles and causes arthritis is just that, an old wives’ tale. Knuckle cracking may sound like a bone breaking or twig snapping, but it is actually cause by the popping of an air bubble in the fluid in your joints. When you pull on a finger, the bones separate, reducing pressure on the fluid allowing the gas to form bubbles that expand quickly and then collapse with a pop.

Feeling chilly can cause a cold. Nope. Colds are caused by a virus and unless the chilly breeze gives the virus a cold, there is no relationship between the two.

Cranberry juice helps ward off urinary tract infections. A truth at last. A recent study in Finland was able to link reductions in urinary tract infections among women who drank a glass of cranberry juice every day. Isn’t that good news!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Another health fact. Though not a miracle solution to health problems, apples do have many nutritional benefits. In fact, Japanese researchers recently discovered that people who ate three or more apples a day were less likely to develop high blood pressure as they became older. Apples not only contain fibre, which may help to lower cholesterol, they also contain boron, a trace mineral that increases calcium absorption and helps to prevent osteoporosis.

Fat can be turned into muscle, or vice versa. There is good news as well as bad here. Because muscle is a tissue, and fat a substance, one cannot turn into the other. Any such possibility is more akin to alchemy than biology. So what was the good news? Muscle cannot turn into fat. And the bad news? Fat cannot be turned into muscle. That said, working out and living an active lifestyle should result in the impossible: reducing fat, and increasing muscle. Just don’t think one turned into the other.

While there are many so-called “old wives’” tales, there can often be a grain of truth hidden inside the story. Just be careful of which ones you believe.

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Call-out:

“Knuckle cracking may sound like a bone breaking or twig snapping, but it is actually cause by the popping of an air bubble in the fluid in your joints.”