IT GETS worse. “Not possible!” you cry. Even irregular readers of this column will have noticed that all sorts of good things turn out to be bad for us, such as salt, meat, chairs, braaivleis, take-aways, alcohol, sugar, caffeine, anything dropped on the floor, etcetera, etcetera.
Now science would have us believe exactly the opposite: that at least half of our bad habits are good for us or, at very least, harmless.
Perhaps you missed this contribution on the virtues of disgusting habits which appeared last week in a Johannesburg newspaper. Perhaps you were lucky enough not to be in Johannesburg.
The following habits, science says, not only do you no harm they might even be good for you: nail-biting, nose-picking, belching, passing wind, knuckle-cracking, spitting, eating in bed....
If you have already stopped reading, nobody is going to blame you. Here come the excuses.
Our ancestors, back then, living in caves in the hillsides or under hides or branches out on the savannah, had no toenail clippers or scissors, so apparently chewed their nails to keep them under control. “Hands and feet?” you have to ask but they’re not saying.
If it had killed them we would not be here QED biting your nails is good for you! Just don’t do it at the dining table.
Nose-picking is a form of personal recycling, they say, and therefore harmless. Enough of that. Burping, to use the polite term, apparently releases trapped gases after we eat or drink too fast and reduces discomfort and reflux. If you don’t let out the air your stomach acid gets pushed up your oesophagus and all sorts of painful and horrible things can happen from too much of that.
Releasing wind has a similar effect at the opposite end, upon which we will not elaborate. And what may not be harmful to you, science fails to add, might be extremely harmful to anybody nearby.
Knuckle-cracking, they have tested, does absolutely no harm to your joints and might even improve the flexibility of your joints. Just don’t do it around other members of the human race.
Sportsmen, you might have noticed, have developed spitting to competitive heights. Reason is that humans normally breathe though their noses and that warms the cold air and it doesn’t condense into moisture in our lungs. When we exert ourselves and gasp cold air directly into our lungs – the moisture condenses there.
If we don’t get it out, we are going to drown. But it still isn’t pretty on TV.
Eating in bed, granny might have told you, is very bad. Wrong again, says science. Eating when you are relaxed and taking it easy is best and that is most true when we are lolling in bed.
Now it is also true that what is not bad for you – and you will think of several other bodily functions – is not necessarily good for those around you.
So the point is not so much “don’t do this at home” as “don’t do any of this when you’re not at home!”
Today’s Chiel is Gavin Stewart:
Wrong about awful habits
Now science would have us believe exactly the opposite: that at least half of our bad habits are good for us or, at very least, harmless.
Perhaps you missed this contribution on the virtues of disgusting habits which appeared last week in a Johannesburg newspaper. Perhaps you were lucky enough not to be in Johannesburg.
The following habits, science says, not only do you no harm they might even be good for you: nail-biting, nose-picking, belching, passing wind, knuckle-cracking, spitting, eating in bed....
If you have already stopped reading, nobody is going to blame you. Here come the excuses.
Our ancestors, back then, living in caves in the hillsides or under hides or branches out on the savannah, had no toenail clippers or scissors, so apparently chewed their nails to keep them under control. “Hands and feet?” you have to ask but they’re not saying.
If it had killed them we would not be here QED biting your nails is good for you! Just don’t do it at the dining table.
Nose-picking is a form of personal recycling, they say, and therefore harmless. Enough of that. Burping, to use the polite term, apparently releases trapped gases after we eat or drink too fast and reduces discomfort and reflux. If you don’t let out the air your stomach acid gets pushed up your oesophagus and all sorts of painful and horrible things can happen from too much of that.
Releasing wind has a similar effect at the opposite end, upon which we will not elaborate. And what may not be harmful to you, science fails to add, might be extremely harmful to anybody nearby.
Knuckle-cracking, they have tested, does absolutely no harm to your joints and might even improve the flexibility of your joints. Just don’t do it around other members of the human race.
Sportsmen, you might have noticed, have developed spitting to competitive heights. Reason is that humans normally breathe though their noses and that warms the cold air and it doesn’t condense into moisture in our lungs. When we exert ourselves and gasp cold air directly into our lungs – the moisture condenses there.
If we don’t get it out, we are going to drown. But it still isn’t pretty on TV.
Eating in bed, granny might have told you, is very bad. Wrong again, says science. Eating when you are relaxed and taking it easy is best and that is most true when we are lolling in bed.
Now it is also true that what is not bad for you – and you will think of several other bodily functions – is not necessarily good for those around you.
So the point is not so much “don’t do this at home” as “don’t do any of this when you’re not at home!”
Today’s Chiel is Gavin Stewart:
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos