Thursday, September 1, 2011

8 Popular Myths Busted

 
Myth: Muscles Turn Into Fat When We Quit Exercising

This is impossible simply because muscle and fat are composed of totally different cells. While exercising you do not produce more cells (hyperplasia) but only increase the volume of the existing ones (hypertrophy). When you quit exercising your muscle cells just relax. Muscle mass maintaining requires very small amount of energy, 13 calories per kilogram daily. The persons who exercise have more needs for food so they can maintain and increase their muscles. When they suddenly quit doing exercises their need for food decrease and their muscles stop increasing as well. In other words, it is true that the food they eat after they quit exercising turns into fat because they are not active anymore, but it is not true that the same thing happens with their muscle cells. It will be more like… a magic.


Myth: Red Liquid in Raw Meat is Blood
The truth is that there is almost no blood in the meat we buy, except in the steak and similar meat, but those are very small amounts of blood in them. When you buy chicken or so-called “white meat,” you can never see any blood because it has already been removed during slaughter. Red meat, especially beef, contain quite a bit of water. In combination with a protein called myoglobin, this water ends up comprising most of that red liquid.

Myth: Ostriches Bury Their Heads in Sand
Contrary to popular belief, not one ostrich bury their heads in the sand. You’ve probably heard that ostriches do such a thing when they are in danger. Well, let’s think logically! With their acute eyesight and hearing, ostriches can sense predators from far away. Since the ostriches can run at over 70 kilometers per hour (43 mph) for up to 30 minutes, it will be very foolish of them to just bury they heads in the sand in order to protect theirself. However, when threatened the ostrich will lay its head to the ground, so that its body will resemble a bush to passing predators. To an observer it may look like the ostriches bury their heads in the sand, but they actually never do that.

Myth: Shaving Increases Hair Growth
Researches that have been led since 1920 show that shaving neither increases hair growth nor causes the hair to become thicker or darker. Skin organs that produce hair are follicles and they are located beneath the surface of the skin, which means that there is no possibility you can touch them with your razor. To make it even clearer, let’s think logically again. For example, if shaving really increase the hair growth then why it is not used as a cure for male patterned baldness. All what the men suffering from baldness would have to do is to shave their heads periodically. It just doesn’t happen. If you still are asking yourself “Than why my hairs are thicker and darker than few years ago,” the answer is simple… the aging process.

Myth: Sushi is Raw Fish
Wrong! Sashimi is thinly sliced raw seafood that is usually served in restaurants along with sushi, but sushi itself is not raw fish! Sushi is vinegared rice that is most often, but not always, paired with raw seafood. For example, the Seattle roll sushi typically consists cucumber, avocado, and raw or smoked salmon.

Myth: The Sun is Yellow
Yes, it is surprising! Even though it appears yellow in the sky, the color of the sun is actually white. For you computer geeks out there, the exact color of the sun is #fff5f2. The reason the Sun appears yellow on Earth is that our atmosphere scatters light from the Sun – so the apparent color of the sun changes. This same scattering effect is why the sky looks blue during the day instead of black, like during the night.

Myth: We Use Only 10% of Our Brain
This myth has been misattributed to many people, including Albert Einstein. However, there is no scientific data which support this statement. The truth is that every part of the brain has its function. Our brain is active even when we sleep, it is just in a different active state. If 90% of brain is “inactive” or “unused,” then how it is possible that damage to these areas impair performance? There is almost no part of the brain that can be damaged without loss of abilities.

Myth: Tongue Has Different Taste Zones

This myth has begun when Edwin G. Boring, a Harvard psychologist, mistranslated a German paper written by German scientist D.P. Hanig, in 1901. The truth is there isn’t any ‘tongue map.’ Everybody can sense (more or less) every taste everywhere on the tongue where there are taste bud, with slight variations that are random from person to person.

Source : badcontrol.net

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