10 Stubborn Food Myths That Just Won’t Die, Debunked by Science

[snopes]

Every other week, new research claims one food is better than another, or that some ingredient yields incredible new health benefits. Couple that with a few old wives' tales passed down from your parents, and each time you fire up your stove or sit down to eat a healthy meal, it can be difficult separating food fact from fiction. We talked to a group of nutritionists and asked them to share the food myths they find most irritating and explain why people cling to them. Here's what they said.

http://lifehacker.com/5847591/10-stu...-just-wont-die

[snopes]

We asked our nutritionists back to debunk some more common misconceptions about food, health, and nutrition that are still widely believed, even though there's overwhelming evidence to the contrary. We also asked them some of your questions. Here's what they said.

http://lifehacker.com/5856345/10-mor...ked-by-science

[VeebleFetzer]

More a linguistic point than a nutritional one (though I suppose it's both), but I'm sure he doesn't really mean what he says in this sentence from the first article:

My old nutritionist explained to me that I should try to drink my body weight in ounces of water, divided in half.

Well, I suppose he could try. For a 180 lb man, that would mean drinking 90 pints of water a day.

I'm no expert, of course, but that seems a bit much.

[UEL]

I've been told this one before.

If you are a 200 pound man, drink 100 ounces of water. (not pints)

I don't convert ounces to pints very well, but I don't think it is that much. I did this a few years ago and I was drinking about 3.5 litres of water per day.

It was quite a bit.

[VeebleFetzer]

Originally Posted by UEL

I've been told this one before.

If you are a 200 pound man, drink 100 ounces of water. (not pints)

I don't convert ounces to pints very well, but I don't think it is that much. I did this a few years ago and I was drinking about 3.5 litres of water per day.

It was quite a bit.

Yes, that's much more reasonable (if not actually medically necessary) and I'm sure that's what the writer meant. It's just not what he actually wrote.

[Lainie]

Yes, actually, it is what he wrote. The sentence you quoted mentions ounces, not pints:

My old nutritionist explained to me that I should try to drink my body weight in ounces of water, divided in half.

[VeebleFetzer]

Originally Posted by Lainie

Yes, actually, it is what he wrote. The sentence you quoted mentions ounces, not pints:

Fine then: 1,440 fluid ounces. I converted it to pints, since that seemed to be an easier unit to visualize, at that volume.

Look again at what he wrote, and think about it this way: what is the body weight of a 180 lb man?

Obviously, his weight in pounds is 180; his weight in ounces is 2,880 – but what's his body weight in ounces of water?

Even if you divide it half, that's a lot of the old H2O to chug down in a day.

[Chloe]

It refers to body weight in ounces. Without reference to a different unit of body weight (pounds, I assume, because it wouldn't work for stone or kilos) it is saying that people should drink half their body weight in water every day.

[Lainie]

I see what you're saying now, but I would never have interpreted that to mean anything but 90 ounces of water. I just assumed that "body weight" meant "body weight in pounds".

How would you re-write the sentence to make that clear?

[GenYus234]

Drink water equivilent to 1/32 of your body weight every day.

[damian]

Perhaps: Your body weight in pounds divided by 2 = the number of floz of water you should drink each day.

200 pound person should drink 12.5 cups of water per day (just under 3 litres). Still seems like a lot.

[Lainie]

That was a rule of thumb provided by the author's "old nutritionist."

From the OP article:

While it's important to hydrate, it's not important to stick to an arbitrary rule defining how you hydrate, or how much you drink, or even where you get it, although water is obviously the best source of, well, water. "Nutrition is an individual science, and there will be days when your body and mind require less than the average recommendation," DiBona explains. "Remember that water is available to you through all liquids, fruits, and vegetables, and that the mark of proper hydration is very light yellow-colored urine."

[Foxy Lady]

I, too, initially interpreted this "my body weight in ounces of water, divided in half" as taking my weight, multiplying it by the number of ounces in a pound, then dividing it in half.

After seeing how ridiculous that amount was, I went back and re-read that as taking my body weight, represented as ounces of water.

Made more sense then.

[Beejtronic]

Poorly constructed sentence, I suppose, but I took it to mean you take your body weight (in pounds), divide it in half and drink that many ounces of water per day. So a 180 pound man should drink 90oz of water per day, or about 5.5 pints.

[quink]

Yeah, the water recommendations get a bit ridiculous (I'd heard the body weight formula before), especially for someone who's trying to wean themselves off of more sugary drinks. And I say this as a complete water junkie.

I don't think it's bad to have a solid number to aim for if you're trying to increase your water intake or cut down on other drinks, but I like loose guidelines better. I basically make sure I always have water available, because if it's there I'll drink it when I'm hungry/thirsty. I just refill my glass at work all day and keep a couple water bottles around at night. I don't count how much I consume, but it's usually a couple litres per day. The urine colour guideline is a good one, too. Not that I'm analyzing my pee every time I go, but if you're worried about hydration you can usually tell when you're not getting enough.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by UEL

I've been told this one before.

If you are a 200 pound man, drink 100 ounces of water. (not pints)

That is what I read the quote to mean. Divide the numbers. Then change pints to ounces.