Apple a day
True: An apple a day keeps the doctor away
While eating an apple a day probably won’t keep you from catching that nasty cold going around the office, a number of studies suggest that it could provide even greater health benefits. Researchers from the University of Oxford estimate that if every adult over 50 ate an apple a day, it could prevent or delay approximately 8,500 vascular deaths from heart attacks and strokes every year in the U.K. Scientists at Cornell also found that eating apples – thanks to their healthy substances like flavonoids and antioxidants – could inhibit the development of breast cancer. How ’bout them apples?
Catching up on sleep
True: You can catch up on sleep on the weekend
The negative effects of not getting enough sleep on a regular basis have been well documented – from impaired performance and concentration to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even early death – and for a long time, scientists insisted that you couldn’t “make up” missed sleep. But Swedish researchers are challenging that idea. They found that people who slept for five hours or less each night had a 65 percent higher chance of dying before those who regularly got six or seven hours; however, people who slept five hours a night on weekdays, but longer on weekends, lived just as long as those who slept longer every night. Meanwhile, we debunk eight myths about sleep.
Eating late
True: Eating late will make you gain weight
Research tends to support this point, showing that late-night eaters tend to weigh more and have a higher BMI than those who eat earlier in the day, but not because food somehow triples in calories after 10pm. One issue seems to lie in the choices people make late at night, according to a number of studies cited by U.S. News & World Report. For example, late-night eaters tend to binge-eat more frequently and consume more calories. Some researchers also theorise that eating at night can disrupt your circadian rhythms and your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels, and yet still others have found that daytime eating better regulates the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin, making you more likely to feel full at the end of the day and less likely to overindulge. Here’s how changing WHEN you eat can produce immediate results.