Tag: body

Pseudoscience, folklore, and old wives’ tales abound regarding how to predict or control important life events.

Guess how many children you’ll have by swinging a necklace in front of your face! Make someone propose to you by eating a hard-boiled egg filled with salt! Predict whether you’ll live in a mansion, an apartment, a shack, or a house by scribbling spirals on your paper tablecloth at a steakhouse chain with peanut shells on the floor!

You know, typical ancient wisdom.

Some of the most popular rituals are to test or influence babies’ genders, and boy are there some weird ideas about that. But is there proof that any of these is effective? Read on to learn eight ways to predict or control your baby’s gender, and whether they stand a scientific chance.

Peeing Into Stuff

Peeing into stuff, theory one: If a pregnant woman pees into Drano, the color will determine whether she’s having a boy or a girl. (There are multiple combinations of which colors supposedly correlate to which sex.)

Peeing into stuff, theory two: If a pregnant woman pees into baking soda and it fizzes like soda it means the baby’s a boy, and if it’s flat it means the baby’s a girl.

Peeing into stuff, theory three: If a pregnant woman pees into the water drained off of boiled, chopped-up red cabbage, the color determines an unborn baby’s sex. (Red or pink means boy; violet means girl.)

Does it work? We’ll quote here the fact-checking site Snopes regarding the Drano Test, and we feel confident it applies to the others as well: “Mixing Drano with urine will not predict the sex of an unborn child any better than will hanging a dead chicken from the flagpole and watching to see which way the wind riffles it.”

How It Gets Done

Some believe that the way you conceive can determine the baby’s sex, and this notion goes back pretty far.

The ancient Greeks thought a man who was lying on his right side during the deed would increase their chances of having a male baby. Similarly, it was believed that if a pregnant woman’s right side of her chest swelled, it meant she was carrying a boy. And so on and so forth with the “right means boy” and “left means girl” anatomical preoccupations.

(This makes sense because the Greeks attributed symbolic significance to right and left, with right being superior; they weren’t really known for their high opinions of women.)

More recent iterations of this idea, according to health writer Jeremy Laurance in The Independent, are based on the theory that “male” sperm die sooner and are “small and fragile but quick” and “female” sperm live longer and are “larger and tougher but slow.”

So, conceiving in certain positions will bring you a girl because because the sperm will be farther from the cervix, meaning that it will have to tough it out through acidic secretions to get to the womb. On the other hand, baby making in other positions will bring you a boy because the agile male sperm will be more adept at swimming against gravity.

The theory was apparently popularized by Dr. Landrum B. Shettles in the 1960s, who published his findings in medical journals and in the book How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby .

Does it work? Nah. As Drs. Yvonne Bohn, Allison Hill, and Alane Park, authors of The Mommy Docs’ Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy and Birth tell NPR, “There is no [position] that will guarantee a desired gender. The gender of the baby is determined by […] either an X chromosome, producing a girl — or a Y chromosome, producing a boy.”

Anyway, cue the unsettling opening credits of Look Who’s Talking that will remain seared into our memory forever.

The Mother’s Diet

Plenty of theories make claims about a mother’s diet and the gender of baby she will produce or is carrying. For example, a woman who craves sweets is having a boy and a woman who craves sour foods is having a girl. Or a woman who eats a lot of spicy foods is carrying a boy.

Laurance in The Independent writes about the Victorians’ suggestion “that would-be parents who wanted boys should go on a strict diet because the male was the ‘starved sex.'” And today there are websites devoted to altering your diet to influence your child’s gender.

Does it work? Surprisingly, it can—but not in the ways we’ve imagined. According to research from the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter published in 2008, women who don’t skip breakfast and who consume more calories around the time of conception, particularly bananas and breakfast cereal, are more likely to have boys.

This may be because, as Tara Parker-Pope points out in The New York Times, “male embryos are less viable in women who regularly limit food intake, such as skipping breakfast, which is known to depress glucose levels,” and “low glucose level may be interpreted by the body as indicating poor environmental conditions and low food availability.”

Position Of The Baby Bump

You know the deal! If you’re “carrying low” you’re having a boy, and if you’re “carrying high” you’re having a girl. Or is it the other way around?

Many swear that if a woman carries her baby high in the uterus and her stomach has a round appearance, the chances are excellent she is expecting a girl, Snopes reports. “Likewise, a boy is carried low and relatively more sideways. However, many swear by the exact opposite and believe boys are always carried high. Go figure.”

Does it work? Nope. Professor Steve Robson, Vice President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, tells The Huffington Post:

“It’s clear to say that a child’s genitals has nothing to do with how the woman’s body looks when she is pregnant. The way a woman carries a baby has more to do with the size of the baby — then the belly tends to pivot forward. If the baby is smaller, it is more likely to be lower in the pelvis. So a baby that is larger than average is more likely to be higher, a smaller baby will be lower. It has nothing to do with their genitals and everything to do with the way the baby is lying in the uterus.”

Numbers Games

Two popular ways to try and guess your baby’s gender involve crunching numbers. According to one method, using the Chinese Lunar Calendar, the baby’s sex is determined by the mother’s age at the time of conception and the month she conceived.

Another method is based on the Mayan (Maya?) system. It says that, if you take the age of the mother at the time of conception and the number representing the month of conception and both numbers are even, or if both numbers are odd, the baby is a girl; if one number is odd and the other is even, the baby is a boy.

Does it work? There’s a 50 percent chance. (Hint: there’s a 50 percent chance with all the others too, though.) As far as we know, no major scientific studies have evaluated the likelihood that either of these methods will predict the correct sex every time, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say that it’s not any more effective than peeing into Drano.

(That said, the whole using-your-fingers thing to determine multiples of nine absolutely blows our mind, so anything’s possible, right? Right?)

Weight Gain During Pregnancy

Some people claim that women who gain the least weight during pregnancy are more likely to have a girl.

Does it work? As a correlation, not a cause.

By our analysis (we aren’t scientists), this theory would seem to fall in line with the research out of the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter, suggesting that women who consume high-calorie diets around the time of conception are more likely to give birth to boys.

However, it doesn’t seem to take into consideration that eating more calories around the time of conception doesn’t mean they continued to eat more calories throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. (Besides, eating more calories doesn’t necessarily mean weight gain, since different women have different basal metabolic rates.)

Cosmopolitan reports:

In a massive new [2014] observational study published in PLOS ONE that accounts for more than 68 million births over 23 years, researchers found that women who gained the least weight during pregnancy were more likely to give birth to girls. Fifty-one percent of babies born to moms who gained less than 20 pounds during pregnancy ended up being girls. … Researchers still can’t entirely explain the relationship between your weight gain and the likelihood that you’ll give birth to a boy or girl. But they did find that mothers who gained low amounts of weight and miscarried were more likely to lose a male fetus than a female fetus.”

Morning Sickness Means Girl

Another well-worn idea is that women who have morning sickness are having a girl, and women who have no morning sickness are having a boy. One different version is that all moms-to-be have morning sickness, but moms-to-be carrying a girl have worse morning sickness than those carrying a boy.

And another says that only morning sickness during the first trimester is a determinant, with bad morning sickness indicating “girl” and no morning sickness indicating “boy.”

Does it work? Probably not…but maybe? “Morning sickness has nothing to do with gender. It just means some people are very prone to morning sickness the same way some people are prone to motion sickness,” Professor Robson tells The Huffington Post. “Also, morning sickness can be worse in one pregnancy than in another. But, again, it has no relationship to the gender of the baby and everything to do with hormones in pregnancy. Sometimes different hormone levels promote different levels of morning sickness.”

However, some studies have shown a connection between moms who suffer from a severe form of morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum and female births. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, reportedly suffered from the condition during both of pregnancies—her first child a boy, George, but her second is a girl, Charlotte.

Dangling Metal Things Over Pregnant Women

This is a fun one. If you’re a woman, you’ve likely been instructed at some point in your life to loop a ring through with a piece of your hair or a necklace chain, and then dangle the ring over your stomach to determine the number of children you will one day have and their genders (because of course you will have children).

Another version is specifically for women who are already with child. They’re instructed to use their wedding rings (because of course they are married) and, if the suspended ring rotates counterclockwise, the baby is a boy, while a clockwise rotation indicates that the baby’s a girl.

Then there’s this one, described in Snopes : “A pin or needle affixed to a piece of thread is dangled over the expectant woman’s wrist. If the pin swings back and forth, it’s a boy. If it twirls in circles, it’s a girl. Some suggest using a nail instead of a pin. Some say the pin or nail should dangle over the mother’s stomach instead of her wrist.”

Does it work? We can’t imagine a reason why it would…unless, like, magnetic fields? But yeah, common sense points to “clearly not.”

Sushi, granola, gluten free muffins…we often think that we’re eating healthfully when we consume these, but unfortunately we may be doing more harm than good.

Sure we know that apples, brown rice, and lean meats are good for us and that chocolate chip cookies, fried dough, and milkshakes are bad for us—but sometimes we get a little confused and end up choosing the wrong things for a healthy body. 

It’s not really our fault, though. There is so much misinformation, marketing hype, and conflicting content that it’s no wonder we’re confused.

Worried that you may be making the wrong choices? Let us help! Here are the most common foods that we choose for their healthy nutritional content but are actually bad for us.

Energy/Protein Bars

The marketing companies do a great job of boasting about the supposed benefits of energy and protein bars, but take a closer look at the nutrition labels and you’ll see that many of these products resemble candy bars and other unhealthy foods.

Many of these bars contain an exorbitant amount of sugar (as much as candy), fat (as much as a cheeseburger), and sodium (a full day’s worth!)

To make matters worse, manufacturers want the bars to taste great and last a long time, so they use artificial flavorings and processed ingredients to aid in that. It’s important to note that not all bars are created equal, so be sure to compare ingredients when you’re choosing the right one for you.

Instant Oatmeal

Your doctor says that oatmeal is good for you! It lowers cholesterol, it’s low in fat, and keeps your energy up all day. So why wouldn’t instant oatmeal be just as good as the regular kind? The answer is: because of the processing. The flavored, single-serving oatmeal packets options are packed with sugar (which adds too many unnecessary calories) and artificial flavors and colors.

Additionally the oats in instant oatmeal are processed to make them cook faster, so much of their fiber is stripped. This means you no longer benefit from traditional oatmeal’s blood sugar–stabilizing abilities.

Love oatmeal? It’s best to stick with the traditional kind (it only takes 5 minutes longer to cook) and add your own ingredients like fruit, honey, or spices. Got 20 minutes on your hands? Steel-cut oats are the best for you because they have a lower glycemic index.

Bran Muffins

You hear the word “bran” and you automatically think to yourself, “Bran is so boring and tasteless…any food that contains it must be healthy!” On its own, bran is a power food. It contains lots of fiber, protein and vitamins—and is also a super low-glycemic food. The problem with bran is that nobody really likes the taste of it on its own, so they add things to make it more appealing.

Take bran muffins as an example. The store-bought varieties are typically overfilled with sodium, sugar, and fat to make them moist and yummy. Don’t believe us? Let’s do a comparison.

A honey bran raisin muffin from Dunkin’ Donuts has 40 grams of sugar, 410 milligrams of sodium, and 120 calories. A chocolate frosted cake donut has 20 grams of sugar, 340 milligrams of sodium, and 170 calories. Which would you prefer?

Wraps

The tortillas used for wraps are thinner than
bread and buns, and they’re made out of vegetables like spinach and sun-dried tomato so they’ve got to be a nutritious lunch option, right? Unfortunately, they’re not. Most restaurants pack the wrap fixings into a 12-inch tortilla, which can have up to twice the amount of calories as plain bread.

Furthermore, the vegetable ingredients in the tortilla aren’t as plentiful as you think—most companies try to make them look like they contain vegetables by adding coloring and flavoring.

Additionally, less nutritious ingredients can be hidden within the wrap, making it an even worse choice than you might think. Things like bacon, blue cheese, and creamy dressings covertly increase the calories and fat content of the entire meal.

Dried Fruit

Dried fruit seems nutritious and benign because it’s fruit. But what appears to be an innocent snack is actually quite unhealthy. Dried fruit manufacturers use chemicals like sulfur dioxide to preserve freshness and add sugar to sweeten the fruit even more.

Cranberries and pineapple are among the worst offenders, with nutritional contents looking more like candy than fruit.

Sports Drinks

Sports drinks sound good on paper (or on the label) but the truth is they’re much more like a sugary fruit punch drink than sports replenishment aid. They claim to refuel the body with electrolytes and micronutrients, but natural foods such as coconut water and bananas do a much better job—with fewer calories, less sugar, and no artificial additives.

Interestingly, a study published in the Journal of Obesity found that people who drink one or more sports drinks daily gained more weight over a three-year span than those who didn’t.

Skim/Low-fat Milk

“Whole milk has too much fat! Drink skim milk for your health!” Although skim milk has less fat than whole milk, during processing unfortunately some essential vitamins (along with texture and flavor) get stripped away too.

To compensate for this, the dairy industry fortifies the milk with synthetic vitamins and calcium, but this is a case of too little too late. When it comes to dairy products, the less processed product is best.

Margarine

“Butter is bad and margarine is good!” was the cry of doctors and healthcare advocates in the 1960s. Margarine is made from vegetable oil (not animal fat) and has less saturated fat than butter, so it seemed to be a good substitute.

However, the processing of margarine ultimately makes it a less healthful product. During the process, vegetable oil is extracted from corn, soybeans, or safflower seeds; steamed to remove impurities (vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are removed as well); hydrogenated into a semi-solid state; emulsified to remove lumps; bleached to brighten it; steamed again to remove odors; and finally synthetic vitamins and artificial colors are added.

Still thinking that it’s better for you than butter?

Fruit Juice

We want fruit juice to be good for us, because what’s better than slurping a whole day’s supply of fruits and vegetables in a single glass? Alas, that’s not how it works.

When juice is made, fruit is processed so that all of the healthy fiber in the flesh is removed along with the vitamins and nutrients from the skin. What you’re left with is basically a glass of sugar water that often gets even more sugar to improve the taste.

Flavored Yogurt

Even though yogurt packs a healthy dose of calcium, vitamin D, and probiotics, conventional yogurt is normally laden with sugar—with most brands containing as much as 15 grams per 6 ounce serving!

This sugar, without fiber and ample protein, skyrockets your blood sugar levels, leaving you hungry and irritable after an hour. Want to enjoy yogurt in a healthy way? Opt for plain Greek yogurt and add your own fruits, nuts, and honey.

Canned Soup

Soup heals the heart and the soul, right? Homemade soup may do that well, but easy-to-eat and easy-to-make canned soup is a completely different beast.

Manufacturers load canned soup with sodium (some have as much as 400 milligrams per cup) and often store the soup in cans that are lined with BPA plastic (which some research shows could affect the functioning of your body).

Want to enjoy a healthy cup of soup? It’s better to set aside time to make a big batch at home and freeze some for later use.

Think you’re getting enough water? Chances are that you’re not. Studies show that three-quarters of Americans don’t drink enough fluids to keep their bodies healthy and running well.

Your body is made up of 60 percent water, and being properly hydrated helps your muscles, liver, and kidneys function. It’s also important for the general health of your hair, skin, nails, and immune system. If you don’t get enough water, your body becomes dehydrated.

People who work out hard, very young kids, older adults, people on certain medications like diuretics and blood pressure medications, and those who have been ill from a stomach virus or fever are more vulnerable to becoming dehydrated. Additionally, as the summer months roll in, the increasing heat and humidity compound any underlying hydration complications.

Dehydration can be treated quickly and effectively, but the key is to know the signs. Mild dehydration can start as a dull and benign headache, but if you let it go too far, things can become super serious—and even life threatening—fast.

Here are the ways that you can tell if you’re dehydrated—and at what point you should be concerned.

Your urine is dark yellow.

The color of your urine is a good way to judge your hydration levels. If you’re well hydrated, it should look watered down and slightly yellow.

The darker it appears, the more dehydrated you are. If it starts looking like the color of apple juice (with a little brownish tint), that’s not a good sign. 

You feel dizzy.

Dark urine is a sure sign of mild to moderate dehydration, but if you also start feeling faint or dizzy (like you can’t stand or walk properly) you probably have passed the mild stage and are moving toward a more serious issue.

Low blood pressure and increased heart rate combined with decreased blood flow to the brain can make you feel woozy. It can also make you feel foggy headed and unable to concentrate.

It’s been a long time since you’ve urinated.

Can you think back and remember the last time that you went to the bathroom? If you can’t recall or if it’s been several hours, that’s a sign that your body is trying to retain as much water as possible in fear that it won’t be getting more any time soon.

That’s your body’s natural defenses kicking in, and it will continue to hold on to that water until you start drinking.

You’re mouth is pasty and you’re thirsty.

When your body is dehydrated, your mouth can’t make enough saliva, which results in a dry, parched mouth and intense thirst.

This is usually one of the first indicators of dehydration, but it can’t be totally relied on because some people—especially older adults—don’t feel thirsty until they’re already well into being dehydrated.

You have bad breath.

If you aren’t making enough saliva, it’s going to be problematic for your mouth. Saliva has antibacterial properties that keep bacteria, viruses, and other nasties from invading your oral space.

This can cause bad breath and a host of other mouth concerns, including sores and excessive wear and tear on tooth enamel.

Your skin is dry.

Many people think that it’s the sweaty ones who get dehydrated (because they’ve lost so much fluid), but the opposite is actually true. As you become increasingly more dehydrated there’s not enough water in your body to hydrate your skin so it becomes dry and parched—much like your mouth.

If it’s hot out and your skin is dry and not evaporating sweat to keep you cool, you can become pink and flushed, especially in the face. It’s important also to note that if your skin’s elasticity has changed (when you pinch your skin it takes a weirdly long time to go back to its original position), it’s time to be concerned.

Your heart is racing.

Water adds to the fluid in the blood and keeps your circulation normal. When there’s not enough fluid in your blood, your heart rate will speed up to compensate for the lack of blood getting to your brain.

Your blood pressure will usually return to normal when you rehydrate.

Your head hurts.

Your brain is housed within a sac called the dura mater that helps to hold in fluid to keep your brain cushioned and prevent it from bumping into your skull. But these protective functions are dependent on hydration levels to stay normal. 

If your body’s water levels are running low because you’re dehydrated, your brain can become less cushioned, which can cause it to push up against your skull and give you a headache. Additionally, low levels of water can also decrease the amount of serotonin in your body, leading your head to ache even more.

You have fever and chills.

As your body becomes increasingly more dehydrated, it starts to conserve the water for the most important bodily functions and limits blood flow to the skin—causing you to get the chills. Additionally, the water in your body also holds the heat in your body.

If you’re not holding on to heat properly, your body will have trouble regulating its temperature. You may experience not only chills but also fever in response. Fever can be dangerous, so it’s important to seek medical attention if you have the other signs of dehydration along with a fever of 101 degrees or more.

Your muscles start cramping.

As you get hotter, your muscles work harder and require more blood. If you’re dehydrated, your body sends the important fluids to vital organs—and away from muscles (which are not as important in this case).

This can cause them to cramp. Additionally, as you sweat more it causes a change in sodium and potassium levels. If you’re not replacing these micronutrients through proper fluid intake, your muscles can cramp even more.

You’re feeling low in energy.

When your heart rate rises and your blood pressure lowers, your body starts protecting itself by forcing you to rest. The way it does this is by making you tired. Studies show that even mild dehydration can affect your energy level.

Researchers tested athletic performance in people who were just 2 percent dehydrated and found a surprising 10 percent decrease in athletic performance. They also found that the more dehydrated a person became, the worse they performed athletic
ally.

You’re craving sweet foods.

When you don’t have enough water in your system it is hard for nutrients and your liver to release glycogens and other components that give you energy. This can cause your body to seek other sources of energy and make you crave food—mostly in the form of sweets.

When you exercise even in a mildly dehydrated state, you use more stored carbohydrates and at a faster rate. This will cause you to crave carbs after your workout to replace the stores. So what you’re essentially doing is eating more calories when really all you needed was water.

You’re having seizures and confusion and you can’t remember when you last urinated.

If this is happening to you, this is a medical emergency, and you must find a way to get to the emergency room as soon as possible. These are symptoms of critically serious dehydration and they can be life threatening.

Under no circumstances should you drive yourself in this condition. If you don’t have a friend or family member available to drive you, call 911.

There are certain things about the [linkbuilder id=”6709″ text=”human body”] that we all think of as fact—but have we ever questioned them? It’s time we do, because it turns out they’re not actually true at all.
We often hear people say that they know their own bodies, mostly when it comes to how something makes them feel.

It’s true, for the most part—we all know what makes us feel good, what makes us feel bad, and everything in between. However, although you might know your body’s preferences, you might not know that much about how the body works in general.
For a long time, we’ve heard many “facts” about the human body that we’ve accepted and stored away somewhere in the 10 percent of our brain that we actually use (more on that later). Here are some of the most common myths about the human body that you might still think are true.

Eat late and you’ll gain weight.

Anyone who’s ever tried to lose weight has probably repeated this myth to themselves at some point, especially at night as they hunt for a snack before bed. It’s not entirely untrue—studies do show that people who tend to eat more at night often weigh more than those who have consistent meals throughout the day. But the trouble lies not with when they’re eating—the problem is what they tend to eat.

Think about it—what do you typically search for when making yourself a midnight snack? We can almost guarantee the answer isn’t going to be a tiny cup of yogurt. “I think this is the real crux of the issue,” says Dr. Caroline Cederquist, a bariatric physician.
“At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”

The bottom line? If you truly are hungry at night, go ahead and eat something. Just make sure it’s not junk. If you’re snacking for the sake of snacking, though, it’s best to fight the urge.

We use 10 percent of our brains.

This is an assertion that has baffled us all for years—that despite the intellectual capacity of humans, we can only gain access to a measly 10 percent of our brains. You’ll be pleased to hear that scientists find this “fact” laughable.

Sure, at certain moments we might only be using 10 percent of our brains, but that isn’t a constant. Most of the brain is still active all the time, but only certain portions of it may be actively used depending on what we’re doing. Brain damage can definitely take a toll on the brain’s ability to function properly, but it can often make do even then.

“There are people who have injured their brains or had parts of it removed who still live fairly normal lives, but that is because the brain has a way of compensating and making sure that what’s left takes over the activity,” says Mayo Clinic neurologist John Henley.

Urine is sterile.

Most of us have clung on to this myth for a time, particularly when we happen to be stuck in a desert with nothing else to drink or maybe when we’ve been stung by a jellyfish and we want a friend to pee on our leg (that doesn’t work, by the way).
There’s bad news, though, because your urine is definitely not sterile, even when it’s still inside your bladder.

A bacterial overgrowth anywhere within the urinary tract is undoubtedly bad, but there are low levels of bacteria within your bladder at all times, and that’s completely normal.

In fact, there really isn’t one place within your body that’s completely free from bacteria, but you have to remember that good bacteria also exist. Overgrowths and infections, though? Not okay.

Blood is really blue.

You might be looking down at your wrist right now proclaiming what idiots we must be because your veins are clearly blue. But they’re really not.

Your blood is actually red all the time, and you can thank light for the color change. Red and blue light sit at different wavelengths, and they penetrate your skin at different depths.

The colors that we end up seeing have to do with the wavelengths that are reflected back to us. Our veins look blue to us because that’s the wavelength color that is reflected instead of red.

Shaving causes thicker hair growth.

It’s a theory that’s the worst nightmare of women who shave their legs and maybe even parts of their face—that shaving hair makes it grow back much, much thicker.

You’ll be thankful to hear that this myth was actually debunked a long time ago, but it has somehow still persisted to this day. Why?
Although shaved hair won’t grow back thicker, it is often darker because it hasn’t yet been exposed to light. This darker hair makes it look thicker, which is likely why people still believe the hype.

Things like waxing will definitely help keep hair growth at bay longer than shaving does, but don’t worry about growing your own personal hair jungle if you pick up a razor now and then.

We all need eight cups of water daily.

For decades, the standard advice on water consumption has been that everyone needs a solid eight cups of the stuff each day. It’s a good goal to strive for—after all, water is super important for our health and way better for us than juices and sodas.

This really shouldn’t be considered a universal recommendation, though. How much water you actually need in a day depends on who you are and what you do each day. The person sitting at a desk for eight hours does not need as much water as the person working at a construction site in 90-degree heat.

For the average person, the current recommendation is about a liter each day to start with and then more as needed. One girl tried drinking a gallon of water, every day, for five days and finished with some very interesting results.

Gum takes seven years to digest.

We’d be willing to bet that at some point during your childhood, one of your parents told you that swallowing a piece of gum meant it would stay in your stomach for a full seven years. We all took it very seriously, of course, imagining that doing so must have pretty serious consequences if our parents warned us about it so much.

The myth isn’t entirely untrue, because there are certain ingredients in gum that our bodies can’t digest. But that doesn’t mean that they’ll stay in our bodies for long, especially not for years. Even the fiber from things like seeds and popcorn kernels can’t be fully digested in our stomachs.

Although gum isn’t exactly nutritious, it’ll be excreted just like anything else you eat if you accidentally swallow it.

Got oily Skin? Dry it out.

It makes sense in theory: If your skin is super oily, you’d want to do something that will dry it out, right? It’s true that you shouldn’t be adding products that contain oil to already oily skin, but using products that will actively dry your skin out isn’t the way to go, either.

When your skin is dry, your body thinks it needs to produce more oil to hydrate your skin. Yes, drying out your oily skin will only make it even more oily. Stop skipping the moisturizer and find one that has an oil-free formula instead.