10. Brown sugar and honey are better for you than white sugar
Most of the people who use brown sugar or honey instead of white (cane) sugar do so under the misconception that white sugar is less healthful for them. Brown sugar and honey are sometimes called for in recipes, but that is really the only time there is any reason to use them, unless you just happen to like the way they taste. All simple sugars affect your body the same: they provide an initial burst of energy when they hit the blood stream, to which your pituitary responds with a rush of insulin, which is why sugar "rushes" are always followed by corresponding lows. Ultimately, the result is the same regardless of which type of sugar was responsible: excess blood sugar is processed relatively easily and stored partly as body fat, rather than slowly, and substantially as glycogen in your muscles. As a general rule, darker colored carbohydrates are more complex than lighter, so pumpernickel and wheat bread (especially whole wheat) are more complex than white bread, dark pastas and spinach pastas are more complex than white pastas made from flour, and sweet potatoes are more complex than white potatoes. The irony is that sugars are the principle exception to that general rule: they are all the same dietetically speaking.
11. Organically grown foods are healthier for you and better for the environment
The truth is when free-range chickens, their eggs, and organically grown produce are tested for all of their possible "benefits", they are found to have exactly the same number of parasites, and infectious organisms as ordinary groceries. As a matter of fact, when there IS a difference to be found, it is virtually always the organic food that shows up with higher levels or infestations. It is true that organic foods are sometimes free of the risks associated with pesticide use, but salmonella and other parasitic and bacterial food poisoning account for thousands of consumer deaths every year, while pesticide toxicity accounts for a tiny fraction of illness and mortality by comparison. Furthermore, just as ground meat labeled "turkey breast" more than occasionally yields a significant percentage of beef or pork products, the food for which you pay top dollar specifically because it is "organic" turns out not to be organic at all, and/or full of pesticides. This problem has improved recently, owing to government intervention, but in any case, even when organic food is genuinely pesticide-free, it is more likely to give you food poisoning. So only eating pesticide-free foods is about the same as always driving without a seatbelt because (perhaps) once every ten thousand vehicular accidents or so someone survives a wreck by being thrown clear, when thousands are killed annually, in accidents they would have survived had they used their belts. As far as the issue of saving the environment goes, the news is even worse: Virtually without exception, organic produce requires a tremendous amount of land compared to regular produce, because chemical-free agriculture is much less efficient. Consequently, organic farms WASTE energy rather than saving any. The same is true for organically fed and/or antibiotic-free farm animals, which cost more to feed and also suffer a much higher level of natural waste when significant numbers of them they die from preventable causes. Naturally, the cost of maintaining all that land and raising more poultry to account for those that die are passed directly to the consumer.
