Beware fake (food) news

I read an article in a food magazine recently about an indigenous tribe in South America that only eats fish with chiles because they believe it is toxic without the cleansing properties of said chiles.

That made me think of other food myths I’ve encountered over the years. Have you ever been duped by one of these?

There are plenty of old adages that have a basis in fact. Sadly, they do not present any real advantages.

• “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is logical when you think of healthy foods keeping your body strong. But studies show eating apples regularly does not reduce your chances of getting sick.
• “Feed a cold, starve a fever” comes from the idea of centuries ago that a cold came from a drop in your body’s temperature and eating would raise it again. Conversely, if you already had a fever you shouldn’t be doing anything to make it worse – including eating. Neither is true.
• “Coca-Cola can rot your teeth, just like it dissolves the penny in a glass (or nail or other examples).”The acids in Coke will indeed dissolve things over time, just as the acid in other things will do the same. Orange juice has more acid than Coke. Unless you walk around for days with a mouthful of Coke, your teeth are safe.

Cultural myths are even more pervasive. I remember hearing that chewing gum takes seven years to digest, a rather unpleasant thought. When I was a kid, gum chewing was a popular pastime.

Although the gum base in most chewing gum is indigestible in our system, it simply passes through intact. I think this myth was made popular by parents trying to deter us from swallowing our gum.

You may also have heard of another variation… The same good intention exists with that tale about potatoes growing out of your ears if you didn’t wash behind them.

When I first started working in the restaurant industry, I was told the rule of when one should eat shellfish – only in months with an R in their name.

This stemmed from the first days of red tides and eating oysters in spawning season, but nowadays with more monitoring of red tides and controlled farmed seafoods these traditions no longer apply.

As our food production has evolved, many of our guidelines have evolved as well.

One myth that I thoroughly enjoy is of Scottish origin. It’s about haggis, a traditional dish made of sheep’s “pluck” (organ meat) minced with oats and spices and cooked in a sheep’s stomach, or in some cases today an artificial casing.

Here’s the story of the “wild haggis” myth, as told by a local:

“Haggis, Scotland’s national dish, is actually a small animal that lives on hillsides in the Scottish Highlands. According to the myth, the wild haggis has two legs of uneven length, allowing the haggis to easily run around the hillside and retain balance. I had a summer job at university working in a kilt shop in Edinburgh. The shop was packed with tourists through the summer months due to the Edinburgh Festival.

We stocked all kinds of souvenirs, including stuffed ‘wild haggis’ toys for children and other merchandise featuring the wild haggis. My colleagues and I would occasionally relay the myth to customers, some of whom left the store still unaware of the truth.” 

This week’s column does offer a word to the wise: don’t believe everything you see and read on the internet, even for something as simple as food.

Food myths today are another example of fake news.

If we take the stories in good fun and check our sources of information just like we check our sources of food products, then I believe that can be due diligence.

Having a stuffed wild haggis on a shelf can’t do any harm, and helping kids learn the value of staying clean and not swallowing gum is part of being a role model, as long as they know the truth and not just the story.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.