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38 Myths About Healthy Living That People Cannot Believe Are Still So Popular
We’re living in the era of wellness. The industry is expected to reach $7 trillion this year. But with its explosive growth comes a flood of questionable products and widespread misinformation.
Worried about getting lost in the noise, Reddit user Urasianbella asked the community to share which popular claims about healthy living they believe no longer hold up. The responses came pouring in, revealing that sometimes, "advice" might be doing more harm than good.
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#1
Autism isn't more prevalent these days due to vaccines its because we learned more about it and are actually diagnosing people rather than burning them or throwing them into an asylum 🫡.
RELATED:
#2
That you need to do a cleanse to get rid of toxins.
Our liver and kidney clear out what’s not necessary. Cleanses are a scam.
If we look at the big picture, most think they're able to to take care of their lifestyle. A survey assessing Americans' health-related behaviors and attitudes found that 71% rate their overall health and wellness as good (54%) or excellent (17%).
However, that was true for only 60% of those with a household income of less than $50k, and 81% of those with a household income of $100k or more.
#3
Potatoes are actually nutrient dense, not just starch.
Edit: the myth is that taters are just starch.
#4
Natural means nothing. It’s a logical fallacy. Arsenic is natural, mercury is natural, lots of natural things are toxic. Stop trying to convince me that something is good because it’s natural. Oh and that goes triple for chemicals that are used. Natural doesn’t mean it’s better. I recently read how a winery was using a natural herbicide. It’s a lot more toxic than the artificial ones. They were poisoning people.
When asked what areas in their lives are most in need of improvement, the top two choices were physical health (42%) and financial stability (41%).
Mental health came in third (29%), however, its need for improvement was higher among younger age groups: 18-34 (44%), 35-44 (37%), 45-54 (29%), 55-64 (20%), and 65 and older (10%).
#6
That you can target fat by doing specific workouts.
You can't. You can build muscle by doing specific workouts but your body will burn fat from where it wants, not in that one area.
Luckily, it's made weeding out the workout frauds much easier!
#7
Eggs raise cholesterol. They are actually packed with nutrients and healthy fats that are good for overall health.
Americans were also asked what health services they would like to have better access to (i.e., geographically close and/or more affordable), and more than a third (39%) said dental care, while (33%) said primary care or a family physician.
Nearly a quarter (24%) want better access to emergency care, while 21% said psychology/psychiatry, and 19% said specialty care (e.g., oncology, gastroenterology, cardiology).
#8
That universal healthcare in the US would cost taxpayers more than they pay now for healthcare.
#9
British dental health is significantly better than American, they're just less interested in cosmetic dentistry.
#10
That heart disease is essentially a one-way trip. You can absolutely reverse arterial plaque buildup with the right diet and a bit of exercise.
#12
I thought black people (me) didn’t need sunscreen because melanin protects us against the sun. Evidently that’s not entirely true.
#14
That fitness influencers look like that because they work hard.
The majority of them are on steroids.
#16
Artificial chemicals aren't inherently bad for you. If you can't pronounce it, it's a skill issue.
#17
Women just need cardio.
Wrong. Women need resistance/strength training even more than men because of bone density issues at menopause and resistance training is the primary means of increasing bone density.
#18
Myth: dieting is temporary.
Truth: losing weight is a whole lifestyle change.
If you temporarily change your diet to lose X-lbs and then change back to your normal diet, you’re also going back to your normal weight.
To lose weight and keep it off, you need to change your relationship with food. Maybe you do need to change what you eat, maybe you only need to eat less of it, maybe you need to modify when you eat, maybe you need to change macros.
If you don’t change your lifestyle, you’ll go back to it.
#19
KETO is awful, especially for people prone to high cholesterol or heart disease. people are still pushing low carb high fat diets…that c**p almost messed me up permanently! I will never try a fad diet again. Eating balanced like they taught us in school, with lots of fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and moderation on red meat is best for me!
#20
Walking is pretty close to jogging in terms of calories burnt
Edit: I phrased this terribly. The myth is that jogging burns more calories than walking when in reality they burn very similar amounts when measuring by distance covered.
#21
Expensive equipment won't make you see results faster. A 10lb dumbbell made from obsidian rock and blessed by a monk does the same job of a 10lb bag of dirt.
#23
When you shave your hair DOESN'T grow back faster, longer or darker!!! It's just all growing back at the same time so it can LOOK more full. If it did work like that every bald man ever would shave their hard every day...
#24
**Being cold gives you a cold** – Viruses cause colds, not chilly weather. In fact, some studies suggest that exposure to cold may even boost immune function.
#26
Semi-related, that you only need 21 days to develop a habit. I see so many people giving up on exercise routines because they didn't develop it within a month so they just assumed that it wasn't right for them.
this is one of those pop psychology things where someone misinterpreted and completely simplified a study that was not even related to habits, then made a whole bunch of money off of it and now everyone thinks that you should be able to develop habits in 21 days or something is wrong with you.
#27
Ask your doctor how to properly take vitamins and supplements. Some do nothing others need to be taken with foods to get absorbed.
#28
This goes out to all my fellow Balkan people:
1. Going out with your hair wet = you'll get sick
2. Walking barefoot around the house during the winter = you'll get sick
3. A breeze in the winter (if you open a lot of windows) = stiff neck and u get sick
4. Cold drinks = soar throat
5. If stem 4 happens --> a shot of rakija will fix u right up
6. When you are sick, you need to be covered with all the blankets in your house to sweat the illness out.
#30
Sugar is evil
Seed oils are evil
Fat is evil
Processed foods are evil
Carbs are evil
Meat is evil (from a health perspective)
You can easily be healthy while eating normal portions of all these. The problem is eating too many calories which is really easy to do through overconsumption of any one of these over demonized foods.
#31
Alcohol in moderation... it's a feel good mantra for society. The fact is that any amount of Alcohol damages the liver.
#33
That you should get at least 10k steps a day.
The myth comes from the number 10,000. When the first pedometers got popular they maxed out at 10k steps, so eventually that number just morphed into the ideal number you should supposedly get every day.
That being said 10k steps is a good reasonable goal that your average person can achieve.
#34
That you need to constantly hustle and grind with no days off if you want to make progress.
It took me WAY too long to figure out that "push yourself" did not mean "push yourself to the point where you're beyond physically and mentally burned out". And I ended up with a permanently damaged shoulder because of it.
#35
That only eating ice cream, or cake/ j*** food ect. will make you fat. It doesnt matter what you eat, in order to gain weight you must eat more calories than you burn, or your matinence calories.
#36
Idk about a myth, but consider this about male body dysmorphia: athletes and bodybuilders get d**g tested for steroid use.
Actors don’t.
#37
Lifting weights to get bigger and stronger doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact the most effective workout plans and routines are quite boring after a while. This idea that every session needs to be different or changed up for variety or target a very specific area of muscle growth is ultimately more trouble than it’s worth.
There’s a reason 5x5 as a routine has been around forever. It’s simple, boring but effective. The hardest part is making it a consistent activity.
Edit to add: well this blew up. Okay, “boring” may not have been the best word for all you people hung up on semantics. REPETITIVE is the better word. And doing the same workout, and working toward progressive overload, can feel REPETITIVE and at times, when you don’t feel like working out, it can get BORING.
Moral of the story: Simplicity and consistency are your friends. The end. Have fun!
#38
This one is still somehow pervasive, but people believe that targeted fat loss exists when it does not. You can not sit-up and crunch your way to a flatter stomach. Exercising those muscles without reducing the fat will actually increase your size there.
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