Colossal Questions.
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Is fast food bad for you?
We've all been there.
You grab a bag of your favorite snack
and you start chomping them down.
You chomp, and you chomp, and you chomp again, and suddenly,
what?
The bag is empty.
What gives?
As it turns out, junk food can be so completely addictive
because, well, it was designed that way.
That's right.
Food companies use some pretty sophisticated
science-based techniques to keep us chowing down.
Old junk foods are trying to hit what they call the "Bliss
Point" or a perfect flavor that isn't too much or too little,
and keeps you always wanting more.
The main way that companies manage
to keep that flavorful "Bliss Point"
is by adding one specific ingredient, sugar.
And they add it to all sorts of foods you might not expect.
White bread, salad dressing, ketchup, barbecue sauce,
orange juice, granola bars, and spaghetti
sauce, just to name a few.
Every year, people become more and more aware
how bad ingredients like sugar, salt, and fat
can be when you have too much of it.
As a result, junk food companies have
tried to use less of the bad ingredients people are looking
out for and replace them with other bad, but not quite as
bad options to make up for the taste.
That lets junk food companies sell their snacks
as low sugar or low sodium, making people
think that they might be choosing a healthier option.
So is junk food actually bad for you?
Well, if you're eating lots of it every day, yes, it is.
And remember, if a delicious salty or sugary snack
sells itself as low salt or low sugar, that
doesn't mean it's healthy.
What really happens when you swallow your gum?
Chewing gum has existed since at least the Stone Age.
6,000 year old gum was discovered
in Finland and many other ancient cultures
like Aztecs, Mayans, and Greeks all
chewed gum made from tree resins and tars,
even whale blubber was chewed like bubble gum by the Eskimos.
Over time, people stopped making gum out of tar
and started using things like leaves and roots.
In the 1860s, modern chewing gum was finally
invented using synthetic rubber.
And no matter what kind of gum you're
chewing, ancient or modern, one thing's
for sure, you can't digest any of it.
Our bodies just don't make the chemicals
that can break it down.
So mom was right.
You can't digest your gum, but that
doesn't mean it'll stay in your belly for 7 years.
It stays for about 3 days, which is the normal amount of time
for anything indigestible.
When you swallow food, your body breaks it down,
taking out all the nutrients as it works its way
through your digestive tract.
It's the same thing when you swallow gum.
Your body breaks down the sugar and flavoring,
but the actual rubbery substance gets pooped out the other end.
So swallowing a single piece of gum won't do you any harm,
but swallowing lots and lots of gum
could create blockages in your digestive tract called
a "Bezoar."
In fact, one medical journal from 1998
recounts the story of a 5-year-old boy, who swallowed
5 to 7 pieces of gum every day.
It got so bad that doctors had to remove a taffy like trail
of gum manually.
So, yeah, you're probably better off just spitting out your gum.
Was it just a myth that cracking your knuckles is bad for you?
Despite the persistent rumors, research
has shown that cracking your knuckles
daily doesn't increase your chance
of getting arthritis or any other knuckle problems
as you age.
The most famous study on the subject
was done by a doctor named Donald Unger, who spent over
60 years just cracking the knuckles on his left hand
and never cracking the knuckles on his right to see
if there is any difference.
In, 1998 he published his research,
his left hand was perfectly fine and had no noticeable effects
from a lifetime of daily knuckle cracking.
OK, so it might not be such a big deal
to crack your knuckles, but there is
one question still lingering.
What actually causes the noise you hear from your knuckles?
Even though we call it cracking our knuckles,
what we're really doing is actually
making a bunch of little pops.
They're caused by tiny bubbles in your Synovial Fluid, which
is just a fancy name for the fluid in between your joints
that keeps your bones from scraping together.
Think of it a little bit like bubble wrap.
When you crack your knuckles, it squeezes
those microscopic bubbles that build up
in the fluid and they all pop, making
that distinct oddly satisfying knuckle cracking noise.
But like all things satisfying, moderation is key.
You can only crack your joints once
every 15 or 20 minutes because it
takes some time for the gases to dissolve back
into the joint fluid.
So whether you find the sound satisfying or horrifying,
you can rest assured it's perfectly safe
to crack your knuckles, unless it happens
to bother your older brother.
Is sugar really all that bad for you?
OK.
Let's start with the basics.
What exactly is sugar anyway?
Sugar is a super sweet substance found in plants, mainly sugar
cane and sugar beets.
Its fancy scientific name is Sucrose.
And it's in way more things than most people realize.
Obviously, there's lots of sugar in candy, desserts,
and other sweet treats, but it doesn't stop there.
Breakfast cereals, sports drinks, ketchup,
barbecue sauce, and even tons of foods you'd never expect,
like yogurt, spaghetti sauce, fruit, and milk
all have lots of sugar in them.
Sugar can hide in foods using a few different secret
identities, Sucrose, Glucose, Fructose, and Lactose.
Like we said before, Sucrose is just a fancy name
for normal white sugar.
Glucose and Fructose combined to make an artificial sugar
like corn syrup.
Lactose is the sugar found in dairy products,
like milk and cheese.
OK.
Now, we know that sugar is found in a lot of the foods we eat.
So is it bad for us?
Yes and no.
Your body actually needs sugars to survive,
but too much of the stuff keeps your body
from getting more important vitamins and nutrients that
keep you healthy and feeling good.
So is sugar bad for you?
No, but eating too much of it definitely is.
Like anything else, the key is to not overdo it.
If you constantly eat super sugary foods,
your body will spend all its time
storing the extra sugar you're ingesting
without getting all the important vitamins it needs.
And it can be really hard to avoid sugar when it's just
about everywhere you look.
But if you know where it's hidden,
it's a lot easier to manage.
Are smartphones damaging our brains?
In the past decade, no invention has changed the world quite
as much as the smartphone.
Today, there are almost as many cell phone subscriptions
as there are people on Earth.
And over 70% of Americans own a smartphone.
80% of teens and 70% of parents in the US
check their phones hourly.
And 36% of parents say they argue with their kids
daily about device use.
77% of parents feel their children
get distracted by their phones.
And a shocking 56% of parents even
admit to regularly checking their phones while driving.
In other words, we're all addicted to our phones, so much
so that it's transformed how we talk, learn, watch, shop,
and play, just to name a few.
And the effects aren't just mental.
There may be physical effects too.
The National Toxicology Program did a study
on the effects of cell phones on mice.
It found that cell phone use increases
the chances of brain cancer and tumors in mice by about 3%.
That's scary news, but we're not mice.
So what does that mean for humans?
Well, after crunching the numbers
on that study and a bunch of others,
the International Agency for Research on Cancer
concluded that there's some evidence that smartphones
can increase your chances of getting brain cancer
and tumors, just like the mice.
So once and for all, do smartphones
cause cancer in humans?
Yeah, probably.
But the good news is that there's
some easy steps you can take to lower your risk of exposure.
Start by keeping your distance.
Smartphone exposure is kind of like a fire.
If you sit close to it, you're fine.
But if you're close enough to touch, it's going to burn you.
Try using a speakerphone while you're on a call,
carry it in a bag or purse instead of in your pocket,
and maybe even turn it off when you aren't using it.
So if you're worried about what your phone is doing
to your brain, try using our tips to lower your exposure,
and don't let technology rule your life, or at least try.
Are video games bad for you?
Well, I've got good news and bad news on this one.
Let's start by getting the bad news out of the way.
Things like muscle pain, lack of vitamin D,
and sleep deprivation are just some
of the problems you can develop by overplaying
console or PC games.
Muscle pain is one of the most commonly reported problems
among hardcore gamers, since most video games still
involves sitting motionless in front
of the TV for long periods of time.
Humans get their daily dose of vitamin D from the sun.
So when gamers spend a whole day inside,
they miss out on this key vitamin.
Sleep deprivation affects kids, who
stay up super late to beat the next level.
So how much is too much gaming?
Well, most experts recommend no more than an hour or so
of video games per day.
The problem is most gamers play way more than an hour,
which leads to the negative effects.
OK.
So playing tons of video games has negative consequences,
but now for the good news.
There's some surprising benefits too.
That's right.
Studies show that playing the recommended
amount of video games can improve your vision,
social skills, and even help slow the aging process.
Parents love to say, don't sit too close to the TV.
But modern science shows that video games may actually
help improve your vision.
Studies have shown that people who play certain types of video
games are able to recognize more shades of gray than someone who
doesn't.
The rise of online multiplayer games
has helped people all over the world connect with new friends
and create communities by working together
to solve problems in game.
And it's not just online, about 70% of gamers
say that they still play video games
with their friends in person.
Problem solving, memory, and puzzle games
are also a great way to slow the aging process because they
stimulate the brain.
Just 10 hours of games can have lasting, positive effects
on brain function, especially for players over 50.
So once and for all, are video games bad for you?
No, they aren't, as long as you aren't overdoing it.
Is social media, like Instagram and Snapchat, addictive?
There's lots of debate in the medical world over
whether or not social media addiction is a real disorder.
Since social media is still new and evolving,
it will take a little more time before professionals
can actually diagnose it.
But one thing almost all experts agree on
is that social media definitely can
have negative effects on your health
that are similar to other addictions.
There are some symptoms you can look for if you
think you might be addicted.
Checking social media at dangerous times,
like while driving or in an unsafe place, losing interest
in other activities, feeling irritable
if you can't look at social media,
loneliness when you're unable to send or receive text messages,
or when social media regularly gets
in the way of school or work.
Studies show that somewhere between 4% and 13%
of internet users in the US say they
experience symptoms of internet or social media addiction.
And in South Korea, the addiction is even worse.
Experts say that up to 30% of South Korean kids
have symptoms of social media addiction.
In the most extreme cases, users actually die from exhaustion,
while playing online games for days on end.
So is social media addictive?
Yeah, it can be.
But like most anything else, it is perfectly
healthy in moderation.
So just don't overdo it.
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