GMO-free Food, 2.5 Liters Of Water And 10,000 Steps Per Day - Nutrition Or Marketing

If you follow a healthy lifestyle , you probably have some habits on your list that you do automatically without thinking about their benefits or effectiveness. Some wellness facilities have been fixed in the general consciousness for so long that most people do not remember where they came from and why they are needed. And are they needed at all?

It often makes no sense either to those who promote them, or to those who adhere to them, to seriously investigate patterns that only at first glance have undeniable health benefits. This is such a closed circle: myths about proper nutrition and sports are transmitted as in a game about a broken phone. Today, let's remember the 3 most popular myths about HCV .

Non- GMO food

Most people believe that there is nothing more harmful in the world than GMOs . Well, GMO is second only to fast food.

Why is it that manufacturers of various foods - cookies with trans fats, sausages with stabilizers, yogurts with starch and sugar - indicate in large print on the packages " GMO -free ". And they sell supposedly healthy food . This is purely a marketing ploy. 

What is GMO ? Genetically modified organism. Usually we are talking about plants or animals whose genetic code has been changed (mutated) with the help of modern technologies. And there is no need to deceive yourself: this is not an invention of recent years. Mutation is a natural process, one of the elements of evolution.

For example, the beloved bald peach - nectarine - is a product of random mutation, not selection, as is commonly believed. Almost all modern cultivated plants are mutants. It's just that the mutations were random and chosen at random. And GMO is an identical process, only purposeful and fast.

But Greenpeace opposed artificial organisms. Activists not only talked everywhere about the harm of GMOs , but also destroyed experimental fields. Some countries have banned the sale of such products. 

However, do not forget that if you buy products with a bright inscription " GMO -free ", but forget to look at the label, checking whether the food does not contain harmful additives and preservatives, then you are unlikely to do the body a big favor.

2.5 liters of water per day

It cannot be said that this indicator was not justified by anything. It's just not universal. Let's start with the fact that the WHO recommendations are not about pure bottled water (as its manufacturers would like), but about any liquid : tea, coffee, milk, soups, juicy fruits and vegetables also count.

If you live in a temperate climate and do not plow the field, then you need to get 43 ml of liquid per kilogram of body weight per day. So, a girl weighing 60 kg needs 43 x 60 = 2,580 ml of liquid to replenish her balance . Here are the same 2.5 liters.

If you weigh 50 kg, you can drink less. And if 80, then, accordingly, more. There are separate recommendations for athletes, military personnel, and even for patients with a fever. They evaporate more water from the surface of the body and through the lungs (due to more frequent breathing) - because more fluid is needed to maintain the balance .

Most of us don't need special calculators to get enough fluid . A person has his own natural mechanism - the feeling of thirst. Adipsia (absence of thirst due to dehydration) is a very rare and usually congenital disease. After all, the most correct recommendation for healthy people is this: drink when you feel thirsty and as much as you want.

10 thousand steps per day

The most popular healthy lifestyle rule that does not apply to nutrition is the need to walk 10,000 steps a day. In 2006, two big brands, Nike and Apple, launched a joint product of Nike+iPod on the market - a device that measures the number of steps , walking speed and calorie consumption. It was fashionable, prestigious (like, in principle, all products from Nike and Apple), but expensive.

Because, in order to increase sales without lowering the price, it was necessary to convince people that this is not just a trend, but a necessity. And in all sports and glossy magazines, they began to publish information that, according to British scientists, the real heart rate is 10,000 steps per day at a fast pace. Journalists actively broadcast this information to the masses, and readers, of course, did not bother to check what kind of British scientists they were and how they calculated these steps .

The first large-scale study on the number of steps taken and years lived was started only in 2011. Postmenopausal women took part in the experiment. Most likely, the indicators would be different for young women and even more so for men. But even if someone undertook to study this situation in 2006, it would not be possible to estimate how much walking contributed to longevity. Elderly people are more informative in this respect.

At first, everything was quite predictable: the first to die were those who walked 3,000 steps a day. For those who walked 4,500 steps , the risk decreased by 41%. Then the risk of premature death from the most common health problems (cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes) decreased by 15% with each additional 1,000 steps . But only up to 7500 steps per day. And then there was no difference - even 7,600, even 10,000, even 15,000 - no additional bonuses were found.