I usually don’t, you know, read chain-letters, but this one hit my inbox and caught my eye, not least because it appeared to be from someone I know and trust…although closer inspection of the email headers revealed that they were simply one of dozens of people to have been cc’ed when the messages was forward for the umpteenth time.
Anyway, this is what it said:
“Warm Water After a Meal — It is nice to have a cold drink after a meal. However, could it be that the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down digestion and once this “sludge” reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and can lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm tea/water after a meal.
The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals…not cold water.. maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating!”
Now, that part sounds fairly reasonable but for the fact that it was couched in a rather unscientific manner, but I think there might just be something in the idea that any warm fats your ingest could indeed become solid once they have cold water poured on to them. Although they don’t say anything about the churning and warming of food by the stomach itself. Moreover, whether that leads to digestive problems, coating of the intestine with fat, and ultimately cancer, is a different matter. It may or it may not. I’d like to see some test results on that before forwarding this chain letter.
Meanwhile, on a totally different theme, albeit still health related, the chain letter goes on to say:
“A serious note about heart attacks — Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line as well. You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. A pain in the jaw can wake some from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware The more we know, the better chance we could survive.”
Apparently, some anonymous cardiologist says that if everyone who receives the email forwards it to 10 people, you can be sure that we’ll save at least one life. I suppose statistically that number could be even higher if you have even a 105 marketing hit rate in sending the message on to friends and family. But, I prefer to blog about these things and not simply forward emails. Do any cardiologist readers have any comment on this method of nocturnal myocardial infarction prevention, I wonder?