You don't eat spiders in your sleep.... we think?!
According to a nutritionist called Dr Daryl Gioffre, bananas are one of the worst things you can eat for breakfast because they are secret “sugar bombs” that are ruining our diets. This is reported in today’s Irish Daily Mirror, and the article also states that bananas clog up your digestive system. As someone who finds the quickest, healthiest thing to grab on the way out the door every day is a banana, I am choosing to ignore this in favour of all the studies that show that bananas are full of potassium which can help lower blood pressure. And they’re tasty! They’re also good for arthritis: have you ever seen a monkey with a limp? (thanks to Shaun in Roscommon for that little gem.)
There are so many myths out there, and so much misinformation that it’s hard to know what to believe. We tried (and failed in some cases) to debunk some common myths:
- “Paula, I bet that person who said bananas are bad for you believes in juice detox diets diets. We have organs for that!”
- “I once went out with a girl who thought that sleeping with plants in your room will consume all the oxygen in the room and suffocate you. Funny that, because I, a living and breathing person sleeping by her side posed no threat. But a spider plant will consume all the oxygen. I mean, come on!”
- “Cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis. Joint "cracking" can result from a negative pressure pulling nitrogen gas temporarily into the joint, such as when knuckles are "cracked." This is not harmful!”
- “People still believe they eat spiders in their sleep.”
- “Waking sleepwalkers harms them. No evidence to support this although the sleepwalker may get such a fright, the person who woke them might get a punch in the face.”
- “Speaking of spiders: it’s been said that daddy-longlegs are extremely venomous but they have really short fangs and can't bite you so you're safe. There's no evidence that their venom is toxic to humans, but there's also no evidence that their fangs can't penetrate human skin… so I’ll leave that one with you!”
- “After death your hair and finger nails still grow. No it doesn’t, it’s your skin tightening due to the lack of fluid which gives the effect your hair and nails carry on growing!”
- “The guy who took the Loch Ness photo apparently years ago told people to their faces that it was a fake, and yet people still believe in it apparently!”
- “My friend’s yoga instructor recently informed the class that they would be working on grounding techniques because the earth started spinning faster than it used to which is causing a lot of stress for everyone.” (Actually: Atomic clocks show that a modern-day is longer by about 1.7 milliseconds than a century ago.)
- “The myth that makes me roll my eyes Paula, is that Marilyn Monroe was plus-sized. I mean PLEASE!”
- “I used to keep tarantulas as pets and occasionally helped out in reptile corner in Trabolgan. It’s surprising the amount of people who believed if you put a dead spider in water, they come back to life!”
- “That trimming your hair will make it grow faster. I don't know why people think hair can communicate with the body. If you cut your hair, it’s shorter. Simple!”
