Misconceptions

Fact: Digestion actually starts in the mouth when you start to chew. Your salivary glands make saliva, a digestive juice, which moistens food so it moves more easily through your esophagus into your stomach. Saliva also has an enzyme that begins to break down starches in your food.

Demonstrate this to your students using the following chemical vs. mechanical digestion labs.

Fact: Food is transported down the esophagus by a process of involuntary muscle contractions known as peristalsis. Peristalsis allows someone to be able to swallow even when they are upside-down or sideways. Vomiting reverses the order of the contractions to bring the food up from the stomach. 

Even though you are able to swallow food upside down, it isn't something that is recommended for students to try. Instead, show your students this video to demonstrate. 

Fact: Artificial sweeteners give food a sweet taste without extra calories and are safe to be used in food products, but the research on whether they are a healthier option is mixed. There is some evidence to suggest that they may change your perception of sweetness (making you crave higher levels of sweetness) and alter your gut bacteria. 

Have students evaluate the validity of an online article claiming that the artificial sweetener, aspertame is unsafe for human consumption using the lesson provided by MediaSmarts below.  

Fact: Carbohydrates are essential to a healthy diet, providing energy for your whole body. But it’s best to get carbs from healthy, minimally processed foods, like fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, whole grains and dairy. We tend to eat more refined grains and sugar than we should. 

Fact: Choosing a proccessed option like ready-to-serve brown rice, whole wheat bread, canned beans, or frozen fruit is not unhealthy, especially when these options are convenient, easy to access, and budget friendly. Processed foods with added sugars and sodium and excess fats are the processed foods you want to limit. 

Fact: Your body, especially your brain, needs fat to function. Fat also provides you with a feeling of fullness and helps your body absorb nutrients like vitamins A, D and E. Think plant fats for optimal health, like nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocados, and just watch your portion size.

Alberta Health Services provides a teacher guide (developed by registered dieticians) of various activities that can be implemented in any classroom to debunk these common misconceptions about healthy eating. 

Fact: Hiccups are repetitive, uncontrollable contractions of the diaphragm muscle. There are two effective ways to stop these contractions, either by increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the blood or stimulating the vagus nerve, which controls the diaphragm. Show students this short video to explain how and why these strategies work. This video was uploaded into Edpuzzle to add an interactive element for students watching at home through asynchronous distance learning. 

Fact: Oxygen isn’t the only gas in the air. In fact, air’s mostly made of nitrogen. When we inhale, we breathe in oxygen along with nitrogen, carbon dioxide and various other gases in the air. When we exhale, we breathe out less oxygen but more carbon dioxide than we inhale. Breathing pure oxygen sets off a series of runaway chemical reactions called oxidation reactions that can damage fats, proteins, and even our DNA. 

Fact: The heart has a major role in transporting oxygen, but it is a part of the circulatory system. Air moves in and out of the lungs through the trachea, bronchi, and bronchioles. Blood moves in and out of the lungs through the pulmonary arteries and veins that connect to the heart.

Fact: Even relatively small amounts of tar and seocond-hand smoke can cause significant damage to your blood vessels and make your blood more likely to clot. 

Fact:  Health Canada  says vapes are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes, but less harmful doesn't mean safe! Most vapes contain nicotine, the most addictive drug in the world. Once nicotine enters the system, it immediately starts altering the brain of the user. This is dangerous for young people, as the brain doesn’t stop developing until age 25. Vapes also contain many other chemicals, some of which are carcinogenic. 

Fact: The Tax revenue collected from cigarettes is much lower than the health care costs attributable to smoking. For example, in 2009, Ontario collected $1 billion in tax revenue from tabacco sales, compared to an estimated $6 billion (direct and indirect costs) spent for smoking-attributable health costs. (Tax Revenues from Tabacco Sales, 2011)

Smarter Than Smoking is an inititive based in Austrialia that  offers resources for teachers to creatively teach students about tabacco and smoking related issues. The following module can be found on this website and includes three great activities that work to debunk these common misconceptions about smoking.