Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [nutrition]

Use this tag for claims regarding the way we eat, and the effects eating has on our bodies.

Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthful diet.

683 questions
160
votes
4 answers

Is bread bad for ducks?

This image has being going around (e.g. Facebook with a message attributed to The Friends of Bushy and Home Parks: Transcript: Please don't kill us with bread! Bread is actually a danger to us ducks and other water birds It causes Angel Wing,…
user48565
  • 861
  • 2
  • 6
  • 5
95
votes
2 answers

Is a vegetarian (vegan) diet more healthy?

According to Wikipedia, Vegetarians tend to have lower body mass index, lower levels of cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and less incidence of heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, renal disease, osteoporosis, dementias, [and lower risks…
BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
  • 8,567
  • 3
  • 29
  • 44
79
votes
1 answer

Does milk make your bones stronger?

It's a common notion that milk makes bones stronger; milk contains calcium and bones contain calcium. But obviously it's not the case that calcium ingested is immediately deposited into bones. In fact, there seem to be no studies suggesting this at…
Dapianoman
  • 918
  • 1
  • 6
  • 15
79
votes
2 answers

Is drinking water during a meal bad for you?

I have heard that it will "wash away the nutrients", that it dilutes stomach acid and all kinds of things. Is this just an old-wives tale?
MSpeed
  • 4,818
  • 3
  • 29
  • 38
75
votes
3 answers

Does microwaving food create particles that are not created when warming food by conventional means?

I was reading "Szlachetne Zdrowie" (No 7/2019) which is a Polish health magazine released by "Nasz Dziennik", which is a Catholic, very conservative newspaper of questionable quality. I read the chapter about microwaving written by Barbara Zielonka.…
Learner
  • 1,363
  • 1
  • 11
  • 22
69
votes
1 answer

Is food cooked in a microwave oven harmful for the health?

A colleague of mine just made a comment about cooking food in a microwave oven. According to him it is considered to be harmful to one's health. Is it true?
Boris Pavlović
  • 1,119
  • 1
  • 8
  • 10
67
votes
1 answer

Does having late or heavy dinner make you fat?

Of course, taking calories in general tends to make one fat. My question is whether, relatively speaking, having heavy dinner has more probability of making you fat than, say, heavy lunch. And whether late dinner (closer to your sleep, like 9pm)…
Louis Rhys
  • 1,280
  • 1
  • 10
  • 12
61
votes
1 answer

Does the cardboard box cost more than the corn in cornflakes?

In today's edition of CNN Student News (transcript), devoted to the topic "breakfast cereal", the following claim was made: Let`s start with the cereal itself. At its core, cereal is actually the grain, like corn, oats or wheat. These energy dense…
Log
  • 521
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
60
votes
4 answers

Do you eat a certain number of spiders whilst you sleep?

Over the course of your life time, the average person eats X spider/insects/whatever whilst they are sleeping. X tends to vary according to who you ask. Is this just an urban legend?
MSpeed
  • 4,818
  • 3
  • 29
  • 38
59
votes
5 answers

Does Condensed Milk Contain Milk?

This may seem like an idiotic question, but Indonesians officials say that condensed milk does not contain milk. With no milk at all, sweetened condensed milk has managed to cheat those people who often serve it to children, as an alternative to…
user4951
58
votes
3 answers

Does burning your food increase your risk of getting cancer?

About a year ago I heard that burning your food can lead to an increased risk of getting cancer. The explanation was that the burned portion of the food was carcinogenic. The Carbon that would be produced in burning of the food was also involved in…
jon_brockman
  • 683
  • 5
  • 7
57
votes
1 answer

Do hot peppers kill cancer?

While browsing Health.SE, I came across an answer that makes the following claim: A 2007 study by Nottingham University2 found that spicy foods can help kill cancer cells. Capsaicin, which is what makes many foods spicy, attacks the mitochondria of…
Mithical
  • 699
  • 1
  • 5
  • 15
54
votes
6 answers

Do "probiotics" have health benefits?

One of the only things that natural-food aficionados and food products mega-corporations agree on is that "probiotics" are good for you. I'm wondering if there is any reliable evidence to support the claims that consuming food or supplements with…
Jonathan
  • 643
  • 5
  • 5
54
votes
4 answers

How bitter is Robert Lustig's "Bitter Truth" about sugar?

A couple of months ago I watched the talk "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" by endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig on YouTube. The overall tone of the talk raised a couple of red flags; it sounded a little too much like conspiracy mongering for my taste, but…
flitzwald
  • 835
  • 1
  • 6
  • 10
52
votes
2 answers

Are human fetal cells used to produce Pepsi?

A friend just came over and apparently Pepsi is made from people. Or, more specifically: The aborted human fetal cell line is known as “HEK-293,” and it is used to see how the human palate will react to synthetic flavors. Since most of today’s…
Wayne Werner
  • 1,851
  • 5
  • 19
  • 26
1
2 3
…
45 46