True Or False: 7 Common Food Myths

August 27, 2018 6:00 AM

This article is more than six years old.

Carrots make you see in the dark, skipping meals helps you lose weight, and apples clean your teeth are among the food tips people swear by in their daily lives, a survey has found. Despite many food facts being proven to be incorrect, 39% admit to living by the "recommendations."

FALSE: Gum Takes Seven Years To Digest

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The poll of 2,000 adults revealed a huge amount of confusion about the advice and old wives tales the nation follows with a third mistakenly believing that chewing gum really does take seven years to digest.

FALSE: You Shouldn't Eat After 8pm

A clock underground at Drakelow Tunnels.

Others stick to the belief that not eating food after 8pm helps you to lose weight. No link has ever been found between eating post 8pm and weight gain.

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FALSE: Sugar Gives You Energy

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Sugar is a great source of energy, despite the boost it gives you often being followed by a drop in energy levels. Almost four in ten worry they don't always get the energy they need from the food they consume to get them through the day. And half of the population went as far as to say they sometimes feel they are running on empty.

FALSE: Eggs Are Bad For You

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One in five Brits also believe eggs are bad for you due to their high cholesterol levels, a ‘fact’ which has been debunked in recent years.

FALSE: Carrots Make You See In The Dark

We were all told this as kids to encourage us to eat more vegetables but it turns out that there's no truth in this tale at all, it actually comes from some WWII propaganda. The Brits didn't wanted the Germans to know about their newly developed and high secretive radar technology so started a rumour that pilots were able to spot the Luftwaffe due to a diet of vitamin A rich carrots which help them see in the the dark.

FALSE: Skipping Meals Helps You Lose Weight

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A quarter of the population have been "shocked" to find out a piece of food advice they'd been following for years has turned out to be wrong. But swearing by tips and advice over the years they believed to be true has left some adults struggling with their diet.

TRUE: Eating Apples Cleans Your Teeth

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But apples really can help clean your teeth, with the fibrous content of the fruit acting as a toothbrush, scrubbing plaque and food debris from the teeth.

Anna Lioni, brand manager for Spatone, which commissioned the survey, said "there are loads of myths and old wives' tales about food and rarely a day goes by without it being reported that certain things which were once deemed healthy are now a risk, and vice versa."

She added, "sometimes, what works for one may not work for another. But there are plenty of food myths that have been proven conclusively to be untrue.”

"Our survey results found some worrying statistics about the lack of knowledge around energy sources."

Anna Lioni

Less than one in 10 describe their daily energy level as "excellent', with more describing their general level of energy as "poor". During an average day, people spend more than three and a half hours feeling low on energy, turning to bananas, coffee and chocolate to give them a boost.

Some will even wake up seven times each month and feel like they don’t have enough energy for the day ahead, before they’ve even got out of bed.

Unsurprisingly, a weekend's excess means Monday is the day we’re most likely to feel lethargic, followed by the midweek hump of Wednesday and Thursday.

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