Can an Apple a Day Really Keep the Doctor Away...

 It's one of the most recognizable expressions around: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." But besides the fact that it rhymes, which makes it fun to say and easy to recall, does it really have any value? Could the common apple honestly help a person to maintain perfect health? "Eat an apple on going to bed, and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread." Nearly 150 years later, variations of this adage are still quoted. It's unlikely that the saying would have maintained such popularity if there wasn't some truth to it, right

If all fruits are nutritional powerhouses, why are apples the only one to be included in the folklore? At the time the adage emerged, apples were easy to grow (and still are). Once harvested, they could remain in storage for nearly a year. Recent studies have shown that, unlike many fruits and vegetables, the nutritional benefits of apples remain relatively stable as long as 200 days after harvest [source: Boyer and Liu].

An apple a day can reduce the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and many types of cancer. But would you be able to avoid the doctor entirely just by eating a bunch of the forbidden fruit? Not likely. Various studies show health benefits when participants eat an apple between three and five times a week, but all ailments cannot be cured by diet alone.

While an apple a day will go a long way toward keeping the doctor away, most nutritionists recommend a varied diet. In addition to apples, fill your shopping cart with citrus fruits, tropical treats like mangos, and a variety of berries, which pack a nutritional punch. Eating several servings of a varied selection of fruits each day is truly the best way to keep the doctor away.

DON'T SWALLOW THAT GUM!!

Your mom told you a million times not to do it. You did it anyway. Did it really sit in your stomach for seven years? Could it possibly have wrapped around your intestines and strangled them? Is a gum tree still growing inside you? What really happens if you swallow your gum?

We've all heard the old wives tale warning of such disaster, but to our knowledge there's been no serious health issues related to swallowing it (choking on gum is another matter, though.)

Though your stomach can't break down a piece of gum the same way it breaks down other food, your digestive system can move it along through normal intestinal activity (in other words, it comes out the other end.)

Wrigley, one of today's top leading gum manufacturer's, explains, "Chewing gum has five basic ingredients - sweeteners, corn syrup, softeners, flavors and gum base (the part that puts the "chew" in chewing gum). The first four ingredients are soluble, meaning they dissolve in your mouth as you chew. Gum base doesn't. And although it isn't meant to be swallowed, if it is, it simply passes through your system, just like popcorn or any other form of roughage." It starts traveling down your esophagus, into your stomach, enters the small intestine, and makes its way to the large intestine. This normally takes only a few days.

I know I’ve always swallowed my Gum anyway, but it is good to know I don’t have a great wall of Gum building in my stomach.

Knock On Wood...

People often knock on wood when they make a statement which seems to tempt fate. The idea is that knocking on wood will ward off evil spirits. Superstitions surrounding evil spirits are ancient, and the idea of touching wood to avoid them is also quite old. Many people in Northern Europe and North America knock on wood so reflexively that they do not even realize that they are doing it, showing how ingrained the tradition is in these cultures.

In most cases, it is believed that one must literally knock on wood to deflect bad luck.Usually, people rap on wood with a closed fist, creating a rapping noise like knocking on a door. In other cases, people may say “knock on wood” or “touch wood” after making a potentially risky statement such as “it doesn't look like rain today.”

The exact origins of the tradition are unclear. In many pagan traditions, fairies and other creatures were said to live in the trees. In these instances, people might knock on wood to request good luck, or to distract spirits with evil intentions. This idea may have been adapted by Christians, as many early pagan beliefs were, and certainly some people associate knocking on wood with the Cross. Pieces of wood or the true cross may be carried around for good luck by some people as well. It is also believed that evil spirits can not enter churches and so most churches having wood, people would knock before entering, thus warding off the evil spirit.

All I know is that it wards off bad luck and so far it has Worked so warding off bad omens or not, I m still gonna do it, because lets face it as a college student….I need all the Luck I can get!!!

 1800s, the, and British. "What Does it Mean to "Knock On Wood"?."wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-it-mean-to-knock-on-wood.htm>.

7 Years Bad Luck

We’ve all heard that if you break a mirror you get 7 years bad luck…here’s why:

Myths regarding mirrors have been around since the ancient times of civilizations. Mirrors were once believed to show a soul’s reflection. A baby seeing its own reflection would mean that it would see its own death. This is because a baby’s soul was not fully developed. In popular legend, a vampire would not be able to see its own reflection. That was because vampires were already dead and so a soul would never show itself.

The beginning origins of the "broken mirror" superstition can be traced during the time of the ancient Roman and Greek societies when the art of catoptromancy (reading the future using mirrors) was quite popular. The skill behind catoptromancy was the taking of human perception as seen in a mirror and predicting a person's future. It was related to another future - seeing pseudo-science known as palmistry, which is the reading of the human hand in order to predict that person’s future.

Additionally, at one point in the glorious history of the ancient city - state of Rome, making mirrors was a work of art like that of the buildings and statutes that represented the gods and goddesses. So breaking mirrors would be a huge offense.

Ancient European attitudes were passed on to other cultures and countless generations. For example, during the 17th century in European Society, it was said that if a person drops and breaks a mirror, that is a representation of seven years bad luck onto that person. The ancient Greeks believed something which can be added to the mystic surrounding the broken mirror superstition. And that was whenever a person’s future was being gazed upon, if it was bad, a shattered mirror would represent the gods or goddesses way of not allowing a person to see into a terrible fate which waits.

What's more, seven years bad luck is attributed to the ancient Roman religious belief in the changes of the human health cycles via seven years. Thus, when a person breaks a mirror, one of the health cycles is left undone. The consequence is bad health for at least seven years. In addition to that, the health cycles all combine to form the human soul. So it can be stated that this person has a damaged soul.

But have no fear there is a cure! There is a way to break the bad luck spell. To break it, you must wait several hours before picking up the broken pieces. Each of these pieces of broken glass represents one bad luck year. Next, bury the pieces outside in the moonlight to finish the bad luck-riding task.

I believe that this is another myth…Busted!