Very often we hear superstitions such as number 13 is unlucky for a person or to sight a black cat before going to somewhere may bring failure to objective. There are many superstitious beliefs also found in relation to food. Superstitions, prejudices, myths and limited personal experiences leads to food fads and fallacies which may tend to be dangerous.
Some of these fads are handed down by our ancestors who did not cling to these beliefs without any reasoning. Most of the people, when asked to reason regarding their beliefs they usually say, “Our adults knew better, they were healthier than us and lived longer than us.” The real reasons could be many as they ate unadulterated, natural, less processed or un-refined food, their life style is not as sedentary as ours etc.
There is a large list of food fads and fallacies showing that there is a lot of ignorance and when linked with religion or family pattern of living it becomes more difficult to change them. Some common food fallacies are given below, the sole purpose is to create and spread the awareness.
· Rice should be avoided during fever.
· Peas, potatoes and beans cause constipation.
· Eating watermelon & rice at the same time causes indigestion.
· Yogurt should not be taken with pickles, it causes skin pigmentation.
· Radish causes stomachache.
· Milk should not be taken with fish.
· Water should not be taken after water-melon.
· Bananas are for reducing diets.
· Lemon aids digestion.
· During heart disease weight reduction is dangerous.
· Weight is increased after surgical operations.
· Toasted bread is less fattening than fresh bread.
· Omitting meal reduces the weight.
· Fruit juice is better than whole fruit in promoting health.
· Raw onion should be eaten on very hot day to avoid sun-stroke.
· Raw carrot improves night vision drastically.
· Milk is fattening.
· Honey after meal causes colic.
· Meat is constipating
· Chicken and radish should not be eaten together.
· Eggs are more digestible raw than cooked.
· Hard cooked egg has less nutritive value than a soft cooked egg.
· Spices are useful for hot climate.
· Mutton is better as a food than fish, chicken or beef.
· Beef is more difficult to digest than any other meat.
· Raw onions are good as a cure of colds.
· Meat makes people fierce.
· Orange causes cold, especially if eaten after sunset.
· Onion is bad to eat at night. (NOTE: there is not a single hadith saying onions are good at day and bad at night. The hadith is regarding prohibition of entry in mosque after eating onion and garlic till their bad smell vanished.)
· In villages people believe that more fat keep their children healthy.
· Drinks (coffee, soda, tea, syrups, juices etc.) do not contribute to weight gain.
· You have to starve yourself to lose weight.
· Foods like celery and carrot help you burn more calories during chewing and digestion than they give after digestion.
· Eating a body part from meat help strengthen the same part our body. Like eating brain make us intelligent, eating heart strengthen our heart or eating liver improves our liver functioning.
