Topic: 10 ‘Healthy’ Things That Aren't

[Scyphi]

Link

Thought somebody might take interest in this, and there are some interesting facts to be found too. Additionally, I myself already know some of them, but have met or know of plenty of people who do not, and I love having the chance to educate such people.

[VANGUARD]

Glad they brought up hand sanitizers and diet cola.
Some think it's all good for you. Um...no. Even what I drink, Vitamin Water, isn't all that great either.

thank you

[Bettina]

All good advice with the exception of hand sanitizers. That caution is mostly for children who have yet to build a strong immunity to everyday germs. Adults can safely use it without worry and should. I'm required to apply it before leaving each room and visitors are encouraged to do it before entering. The applicators are at every doorway.

Bee

[Kaiaatzl]

Diet cola... lol.  When I'm at Subway or A&W I always see somebody ordering something enormous with EVERYTHING and then... diet coke.  Like they're trying to compensate.  And failing horribly.  I always think, they should stop deluding themselves and just get a regular coke.
I usually go for the caffeine-free versions but that's really just because I think they taste better.  Most places don't have them anyway.  You all know how hyperactive I am, and you've never even seen me!

And energy drinks!  The only thing that surprises me is that anybody would think they were healthy in the first place.

As for hand-sanitizers, I agree in an environment like a hospital where a lot of people are vulnerable to additional infection it's important to use them.  In places that aren't like that, I don't think a little dirt is the end of the world.  I know I have a healthy immune system, one that's been developed over billions of years of evolution to be as effective as possible, and I don't mind using it.  But on the other fork of the tail I don't mind giving it a little help when it feels like it could use it.

I stopped reading after the hand sanitizer entry though.  It seems these days the common definition of "healthy" has become "not letting yourself go over a certain weight".  I've never quite managed to get up to that certain weight and my doctor and I both think (along with my psychiatrist actually ) that I'm just naturally a little bit underweight.  Some of these things are still relevant to me, but lots of them aren't.  I'm sick of hearing about "low calories".

[Scyphi]

Personally, I think most of that dieting stuff is bull anyway. The best way to be healthy and to have an ideal weight to have a balanced diet like the authorities have been saying for decades.  Nothing more, nothing less. If you have weight issues, then most likely you aren't eating a balanced diet, so further skewing it out of balance by dieting isn't going to help you much. And yeah, there shouldn't be a universal set weight everybody should aspire to, because no two bodies are alike. One weight that works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. For example, myself. According to all the authorities, I am seriously underweight, yet still as healthy as can be. Every nutrition doctor I visit has a bit of a panic attack when they see my near literal bean-pole physique, thinking there is no way in heck that could be healthy for me, but hey, somehow I am anyway.

Besides, I'm at that stage in life where my metabolism is like ultra effective, and so I couldn't gain weight even if I tried (and I have, for a couple of those doctors practically ordered me to gain weight...to no avail ).

As for hand sanitizers, they do indeed have their uses, but people seriously should be careful not to overuse them. There's two major reasons why:

• One is that the more one uses a germ-killer of any sort, the more likely that germ is going to develop a defense against it, and suddenly that germ-killer no longer works. Because of this, I believe regular ol' penicillin is no longer as effective as it once was when it was first discovered (but don't quote me on that). So naturally, the more you use a hand sanitizer, the less effective it'll become over time for everybody.
• Two is precisely what the entry in the list I posted says; it robs your body of the chance to develop the immunities naturally, and actually can hurt your immune system from being effective enough to fight disease when you DO get sick. Like a child learning to read, your immune system can't "learn" to fight disease without actually getting the chance to do it, and overuse of hand sanitizers can rob it of that chance. And then when you DO get sick, your immune system just gets rolled over by the disease it knows nothing about how to fight.

Not saying that hand sanitizers are bad or anything like that, and indeed, there are situations and locations where some overuse can have uses, but one should still be VERY careful not to overuse them for these reasons, and probably more. I personally show faith in my own immune system and use hand sanitizers of any sort very sparingly (mostly just when washing my hands after using the bathroom, etc.), and it's worked out well for me.

Besides, I've noticed the people that DO overuse hand sanitizers tend to be germaphobes, and they're no fun.

[Kaiaatzl]

...Every nutrition doctor I visit has a bit of a panic attack when they see my near literal bean-pole physique, thinking there is no way in heck that could be healthy for me, but hey, somehow I am anyway...

...and I have, for a couple of those doctors practically ordered me to gain weight...to no avail ...

Ya I know what you're talking about.  I still have to eat a lot of high-calorie foods.  Low-calorie foods would just make me lose the weight I have.

Because of this, I believe regular ol' penicillin is no longer as effective as it once was when it was first discovered...

Bwahahaha.

[TechPro]

Where I work, there are hand sanitizer dispensers in all the restrooms, and a lot of the front desks in the various offices have dispensers.  It's all good intentioned, but there are drawbacks.

For example, a person enters a restroom and does what they needed to do, then steps up to the sink/lavatory and washes their hands, drys them, then just before going out the door gets a squirt or two of sanitizer which they rub all over their hands, then turn and ... press those same hands on the metal plate of the restroom door to push the door open as they leave.

After a few people, what condition do you suspect is that metal plate of the restroom door?  Yep, you guessed it.  Slimy and gooey with left-over used sanitizer from who knows how many hands.   Think that sanitizer is still "clean"??

No, I don't touch the metal panels on the restrooms doors anymore.

[-<WillyP>-]

A good policy... sanitizer or not.

[VANGUARD]

I saw a video not too long ago that sort of reminds me of this stuff. It's sort of interesting how people survived years back without all of this *cough*b.s.*cough* information.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,116948.0.html