Time to debunk some health related myths, some of which are ingrained in people’s minds (especially in older generations) but find little basis in reality.

MYTH: Eating a lot of carrots gives you great night vision. Vitamin A is a major nutrient found in carrots, and it is good for the health of your eyes ‒ especially for those with poor vision. But eating a bunch of the vegetables will not give you all-seeing superpowers.  The idea that carrots can give you supervision has been traced back to war time propaganda that the British made up to fool the Germans into thinking their pilots had developed so-called ‘night sight’ from all the carrots they were eating. In fact, the British were using the first iterations of radar technology to see enemy planes that approached in the dark, not root veggies.

MYTH: Chocolate causes acne. For one month, scientists fed dozens of people candy bars containing ten times the usual amount of chocolate, and dozens of others fake chocolate bars. When they counted the pimples before and after each diet, there was “no difference” between the two groups. Neither the chocolate nor the fat seemed to have any effect on acne.

MYTH: Cracking Joints Causes Arthritis. The sound might annoy people around you, but that is about all the harm it does. You may think bones or joints rub together to cause the noise but that is not so. It results from a gas bubble that forms between the bones and ‘pops’. Studies show it does not cause or play a role in arthritis. If you feel regular or severe pain when you do it, see your doctor.

MYTH: Cooking robs food of its nutrients. Raw food enthusiasts claim that cooking veggies kills all the goodness they contain but studies have found that while this may destroy some Vitamin C, it actually boosts your uptake of the disease-fighting nutrients known as antioxidants.