Healthy eating: truths and myths (Can apples kill cold sores?)

From The Times [London]
December 24, 2007


Healthy eating: truths and myths


Is gelatine good for nails? Can apples kill cold sores? Try our
Christmas quiz

Amanda Ursell

Chillies can be addictive

True.

Chillies contain “capsaici-noids”, which attach to receptors in your
mouth and fire messages to your brain – which registers pain from heat,
hence the burning feeling. But this pain triggers the release of
endorphins, your body’s natural painkillers, which give a feeling of
pleasure. Some people get hooked on this “happy high” and find
themselves eating hotter and hotter chillies to get the rush.

Copper in your diet will stop you turning grey

False.

But it is true that a lack of copper may speed up the greying process.
Foods such as crab, oysters, sunflower seeds, cashew nuts and almonds
give us the trace mineral copper, which is needed for your body to make
pigments in your hair. It is lack of pigment that causes hair to grow
without colour and hence “turn you grey”. Tuck into copper-rich foods
regularly to help to maintain your hair in good condition.

Sugar is good for a sore throat

True.

Sugar, honey and molasses can help to soothe a sore throat. This is
because all sugars are “demulcents’” – in other words, they coat and
soothe the irritated mucous membranes of your throat. Mustard, freshly
grated horseradish and strong onions contain irritants that help to
displace mucous and make it easier to cough or blow your nose.

Cooking destroys minerals

False.

Virtually all minerals are unaffected by cooking. Cooked or raw, food
has about the same amount of all the important minerals such as iron,
zinc, iodine and selenium. The only exception is potassium, which,
although not directly affected by the heating process, does leach into
the cooking liquid. If this is not used, it is lost.

Grasshoppers are much more nutritious than lobsters

True.

A large grilled grasshopper may not sound as appealing as a steamed
lobster, but nutritionally it wins hands down. While two grasshoppers
would give you 28g of protein (half a man’s and almost 75 per cent of a
woman’s daily needs), and 6mg of mood and energy-boosting iron (about
half our daily requirements), a whole lobster would give you 22g of
protein and 0.8mg of iron.

Women are programmed to like fatty, sweet foods more than fatty, savoury
foods

True.

Several studies indicate that while women tend to like fats to be mixed
with sugar in foods such as biscuits and cakes, men seem to prefer fats
mixed with salt. This could help to explain why more women head for the
biscuit tin while men opt for crisps, burgers and chips.

Takeaway pizzas are junk

False.

Choose a margherita from Pizza Hut, eat half with a salad (minus the
house dressing but drizzled with balsamic vinegar) and you tot up just
360 calories and 12g of fat, as well as getting one portion of your
daily fruit and vegetable target.

Apples may beat cold sores

True.

One apple gives you at least 150 “supernutrients”, not to mention
vitamins, minerals and pectin, which helps to lower blood sugar and
cholesterol. Apples are particularly good for quercetin, a plant
compound which, laboratory studies suggest, is capable of killing
viruses, including the herpes simplex virus – the one that triggers cold
sores. Always eat apples with their skins, as most of the quercetin lies
just beneath the skin.

It is inevitable that you will gain weight as you age

False.

While it is true that we naturally lose muscle mass as we age, and that
this in turn lowers the speed at which we burn calories, this process
can be largely halted by doing regular strength exercises. This does not
mean that you have to join a gym and push weights all day. Simple
versions can be done at home: visit www.strongwomen.com to see how.

Eating gelatine makes your nails strong

False.

You grow a completely new nail every 5-7 months, but eating gelatine
will not speed the process. Nails and hair both grow faster in summer
than in winter, possibly because people’s circulation is better.