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.

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Does a high protein diet increase your risk for cancer?

The Daily Telegraph claimed that "High-protein diet 'as bad for health as smoking'": The risk is nearly as high as the danger of developing cancer by smoking 20 cigarettes each day. [...] They recommend consuming about 0.8g (0.03oz) of protein per…
Kristoffer Nolgren
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Does red meat increase the risk of heart disease?

Conventional common wisdom has been that red meat consumption increases the risk of developing heart disease. There are a lot of studies indicating this may be true, but there are also a lot of studies indicating this may not. A report from the…
CircleSquared
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Does popped popcorn have less calories than unpopped?

If you look at the nutrition facts on a bag of popcorn, they sometimes list "popped" and "unpopped" separately: (images above shamelessly stolen from the current answers :) Unfortunately, when you calculate the total calories in the entire bag, the…
BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
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Is drinking a cold drink and drinking hot soup unhealthy in any way?

At least around here, in Costa Rica, it is common practice to avoid drinking cold drinks while drinking hot soup. I never questioned this (but didn't really care about it). Apparently it is, well, bad to mix two different-temperature drinks. Is…
Saturn
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Does putting warm food in the refrigerator make it more likely to give you food poisoning than letting it cool off first and then refrigerating it?

My boss was arguing that this is true and that it's a well known fact amongst culinary professionals that you should never put hot food in the refrigerator (he used to be a baker and had restaurants and such.) A quick Google search seems to suggest…
Kit Sunde
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Are there any proven benefits to ingesting wheatgrass?

I have read statements such as "Fifteen pounds of wheatgrass is equivalent to 350 pounds of the choicest vegetables", of which I am obviously skeptical. Are there any independent studies from reputable sources about the benefits / risks of…
tofarr
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Do antioxidants have health benefits?

I recently read an article on Yahoo (but have seen them other places) that claim antioxidants are very important and have health benefits. One article even talked about antioxidants ability to prevent strokes (which I find hard to believe). I've…
Tony Abrams
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Does eating slower make you lose weight?

It is commonly said that eating slower will reduce your appetite. This site, for example, claims: Portion control & Overeating prevention. When you eat slowly it is definitely hard to overeat. Slow eating little by little decreases the desire to…
picakhu
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Is brown sugar healthier than white sugar?

I've heard that before. The reasoning is, "White sugar is more 'processed' than brown sugar, so it's not as healthy." Is this true?
Mateen Ulhaq
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Are most humans infected with parasites that water fasting can eliminate?

So this is a new one for me... I came across a jaw dropping niche of health-woo today. Apparently tens of thousands of people (if not more) believe that almost all humans are infected with parasites that cause us all to crave sugary foods, and a…
WakeDemons3
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Have edible jars of honey been found in thousand-year-old Egyptian tombs?

A recent xkcd contains the claim that honey has a shelf life that's so long that edible jars of honey have been found in Egyptian tombs several thousand years old. Image taken from http://www.xkcd.com/1717/, licensed under a CC BY-NC 2.5…
E. P.
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Is it possible to influence the sex of a baby by controlling the mothers' diet?

Can a mother decide whether a baby will be born male or female through careful control of her diet?
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Is it unhealthy to lick the lid of a yogurt cup?

I've heard that it's unhealthy to eat the yogurt that sticks to the lid because it contains aluminium. Scraping it off with a spoon is even worse than licking it. Is there any evidence that this is true? What about food that sticks to aluminium…
Cephalopod
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Is brown rice healthier than white rice?

Vegkitchen.com say: Brown rice is better for you than white On the other side: ancestral-nutrition.com say: White Rice Is Healthier Than Brown Rice My wife tells me that there is a very large, quantifiable difference between the the two. But…
Chicken
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Is it healthy to "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper"?

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper! or Eat like a king in the morning, a prince at noon, and a peasant at dinner The abovementioned proverb doesn't mention how, for example, eating like a king is defined nor…
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