That's why add salt to coffee ... Having learned the true reason, you will do this every day! Harmful foods - to be eaten: nuts, chocolate, ketchup.

But also such popular products as chocolate, pasta, ketchup and ice cream. It's time to find out which myths it's time to leave in the past.

Myths about chocolate

Chocolate contributes to the development of atherosclerosis

After studying the properties of dark chocolate, scientists came to the conclusion that this treat helps fight atherosclerosis by regulating blood cholesterol levels. The main component of natural chocolate produced by factories such as Red October or Rot Front is cocoa. It contains vitamin F, which helps lower cholesterol levels and takes care of the condition of the capillaries, reducing the risk of strokes and heart attacks. And a study by scientists from Harvard Medical School showed that chocolate lovers are not threatened by senile dementia, and they live a couple of years longer than others.

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Hull York Medical School also found that chocolate stimulates mental alertness, improves performance, and improves memory. White and dark chocolate contain tannins that remove toxins and regulate bowel function, vitamin A and B vitamins, as well as many microelements necessary for life - phosphorus, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium. What's more, chocolate is rich in antioxidants that fight free radicals that can cause cancer.

Chocolate is addictive

Chocolate contains the "hormone of happiness" (serotonin) and andanamide, a substance that temporarily reduces anxiety, giving a feeling of peace and satisfaction. The product also contains the amino acid tryptophan, which improves mood. Therefore, chocolate causes a feeling similar to mild euphoria, but it does not cause an addiction comparable to a drug.

Myths about ketchup

Ketchup is made from dyed zucchini

There is nothing useful in ketchup

And again, it all depends on the composition of the product. Using non-tomato-viscous zucchini, apples, or pumpkins will most likely result in the addition of starch, artificial coloring, and flavoring. And synthetic (or "table") vinegar, which is taken as a preservative, is also not an ally on the path to a healthy diet.

Natural ketchup gets its viscosity, taste, color, and aroma in a natural way - from tomatoes, and vinegar added in small quantities turns out to be natural, because it is obtained due to the fermentation of fruit juices. Tomatoes are beneficial due to their lycopene content. Studies conducted in the world's leading clinics show that lycopene reduces the rate of oxidative processes in the body, which protects the body from the onset of cancer. This antioxidant is also famous for its ability to preserve the natural structure of the skin, stimulates the process of cell renewal and the production of collagen, which makes the skin of the face and body more elastic.

And since natural ketchup is made by evaporating excess moisture from tomatoes, the content of lycopene in the product is almost three times higher than in fresh fruits. Moreover, its chemical form changes during heat treatment, as a result of which the antioxidant is more easily absorbed. All this makes ketchup a low-calorie product: a tablespoon contains only 15 kcal. Therefore, ketchup is not prohibited in many diets, for example, it is included in the list of allowed products of the popular Pierre Dukan protein diet.

Myths about pasta

pasta is bad for health

Pasta is different: from durum and soft varieties of wheat. The latter have a high glycemic index, that is, they provoke a sharp increase in blood glucose levels and the release of insulin, which leads to an increase in appetite. As for durum pasta, these are products with a low glycemic index, which, firstly, helps to stabilize glucose levels, and secondly, it effectively fights hunger and maintains a feeling of satiety for a long time. This paste contains B vitamins and nicotinic acid, proteins and fiber, but its main advantage is complex carbohydrates that lower blood cholesterol levels.

On the label of a product made of durum varieties, its belonging to group "A" is noted. On the rest of the pasta, the marking may vary - “B”, “C”, “first” or “second class”. Durum pasta can also be identified by its amber color and smoothness. When there are white blotches on the pasta or roughness is noticeable, then this is most likely a fake (soft flour products passed off as hard pasta) or a mixture of different varieties.

Nutritionists say that durum wheat pasta contains several substances important for maintaining health. Firstly, it is tryptophan, a natural amino acid responsible for stress resistance and normalization of sleep. Secondly, B vitamins, nicotinic acid and vitamin E, which is one of the strongest antioxidants. And, thirdly, the paste is rich in trace elements such as potassium, manganese, iron and phosphorus. You should also not forget about the large amount of fiber in this product, which absorbs accumulated toxins and toxins and removes them from the body.

Get fat from pasta

It's hard to believe, but 50 g of dry pasta contains only 190 kcal. The carbohydrates, proteins and starch contained in it are completely absorbed, supplying the body with energy. In the homeland of pasta, in Italy, it is customary to combine it with tomatoes, herbs, garlic. But in Russia, pasta is considered more of a side dish than an independent dish: they are served with meat products - meatballs, chops, cutlets. In such a neighborhood, even durum wheat pasta will lead to inevitable weight gain. In addition, if the pasta is cooked too much, this will increase the amount of glycemic substance in the product.

Myths about ice cream

Ice cream provokes a sore throat

Angina is not a cold: it is provoked by viruses, fungi, bacteria, but not cold. If, after eating ice cream, your throat hurts, then most likely you were in too much of a hurry and swallowed the delicacy in large pieces, preventing it from melting in your mouth. According to ENT doctors, the correct use of this dessert is equivalent to hardening: a throat trained over the summer will get used to the temperature contrast and will be able to resist colds in the winter.

Ice cream is useless

A completely false statement if we are talking about real ice cream, and not melanin, in which dairy products are replaced with tropical fats. The natural dessert contains all the beneficial substances present in its dairy ingredients. It turns out that ice cream is rich in amino acids, mineral salts, lactose, fatty acids, enzymes, as well as two dozen vitamins, including E, D, A and B vitamins.

Weight gain from ice cream

If we compare ice cream with other sweets, then, for example, the calorie content of soda with an equal volume will be about the same, and a cake with cream will be twice as high. But, unlike the mentioned sweets, a cold delicacy quickly satisfies hunger without requiring a “continuation of the banquet”: the carbohydrates present in it are completely absorbed by the body and provide a person with energy for several hours, and fats are burned fairly quickly under the influence of high calcium content. Naturally, remember the calorie content of ice cream if you actively monitor your diet: a glass of fruit and berry sherbet and dairy varieties are estimated at 230 kcal, and a 100-gram serving of ice cream will pull 320 units already.

Each of us has favorite combinations of products, many of which are considered generally accepted, such as tomato sauce with pasta, cottage cheese with fruit, or tea with cookies. And few people would like to change their habits or try new combinations of products, especially if they seem unusual and highly questionable. But trust me, these food combinations are sure to delight your taste buds and are worth a try!

Meat + berry jam

Many still do not imagine how you can eat meat with berries. Meanwhile, in many countries of the world, this combination is considered a classic. Try serving lingonberry or cranberry jam with a steak or baked pork - we are sure that you will remember this taste for a long time.

Eggplant + honey

Eggplant with honey is something new! But in sunny Andalusia, this combination is considered almost classic. Just fry the eggplants in the usual way and pour them with honey - you will lick your fingers!

Strawberry + cucumber

Strawberry season is just around the corner. So, it's time to try something new. How about an unusual, but very original combination - strawberries and cucumbers? With them you can cook sweet toast, refreshing flavored water or a very tasty salad according to our recipe.

Melon + ham

It would seem that these products are absolutely not compatible with each other. Meanwhile, ham with melon is a traditional Italian summer dish that is served both at official receptions and at home dinners. Try it, it's very tasty.

Pineapple + blue cheese

Pineapple and cheese actually contain a lot of similar substances. Their combination allows them to interact, enriching the taste. Best paired with blue cheese, the acidity of which is balanced by the sweetness of the fruit.

Strawberries + Parmesan

Strawberries sprinkled with grated parmesan have replaced chocolate-covered strawberries. The butyric acid found in this cheese, which is also found in chocolate, reacts with the flavonoids in strawberries to produce a rich, sweet taste.

Dark chocolate + beets

Geozyme and pyrazine give beetroot a special taste. The latter is also found in dark chocolate, and when you combine it with beetroot, you get an interesting combination of sweetness and bitterness. Try sprinkling beetroot salad with grated dark chocolate.

Chocolate + soy sauce

The perfect combination in terms of chemistry. The saltiness of the soy sauce brings out the sweetness of the chocolate. In addition, both products contain fried, vegetable and fruit components, mutually enriching each other's tastes. Try dipping a chocolate bar in soy sauce or drizzling over a chocolate dessert.

Pickled cucumber + ice cream

Pregnant women intuitively feel that this combination can trigger a reinforcement response in the brain. And here's why: the salt in pickled cucumber is essential for normal blood circulation and cellular metabolism, while the sugar and fat in ice cream provide energy through fast carbohydrates. Your body needs all of this to survive. Therefore, the brain encourages the use of such combinations, even if they seem inappropriate.

Black caviar + white chocolate

Renowned British chef Heston Blumenthal knew that a hint of saltiness on white chocolate would enrich its flavor and soften the sweetness. He began to experiment with combinations and empirically discovered that it is best to put black caviar on a bar of white chocolate.

Meat + chocolate

Complete madness. But not for the Mexicans, because this is their traditional dish for several centuries. "Mole" is a mixture of several types of meat baked in a pot along with chocolate, peanuts, sesame seeds and various spices. The chocolate enriches the meat sauce, making it deeply dark and velvety. To completely drive the future eater crazy, local chefs also add garlic to the dish.

Fruit salad + chilli powder

Ready for fireworks for your taste buds? But this dish is an ordinary Mexican street food. The capsaicin found in chili stimulates the sense of smell and enhances the sweetness of the fruit. Mango and pineapple go especially well with chili.

Nutella + french fries

Salt enhances the taste, even if it is a sweet taste. Try the Nutella Nutella chocolate nut mass with french fries. As mentioned above, the potato has a mild taste, so in this case it acts only as a container for salt. You can also replace Nutella with a chocolate milkshake. However, beware of side effects - bloating and other troubles.

Strawberries + balsamic vinegar

Vinegar instead of cream? The combination of sour and sweet, firstly, has been repeatedly used in cooking. Secondly, it is much healthier than pouring cream or chocolate sauce over strawberries.

Ketchup + dark chocolate

You probably pour ketchup on a lot of other foods, but I don't think you've ever tried it with dark chocolate. However, the latter has notes of tomato in the taste, and ketchup enhances them, enriching the taste. They both also have parsley notes, thanks to the linalool molecule.

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Potatoes are often mentioned in lists of foods that need to be banished from the diet in the name of proper nutrition and weight loss. Of course, if you eat a large plate of fried potatoes every day, it is naive to expect that you will be able to lose weight. Still, potatoes are not as bad as we are told.

It is a source of potassium, which is important for maintaining water balance and improving the supply of oxygen to the brain. A medium-sized potato contains up to 20% of the required daily value of potassium. To get the maximum amount of this element, eat baked potatoes along with the peel. Of course, the tubers must first be washed thoroughly.

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Here, lovers of proper nutrition are partly right. If you regularly replace a normal meal with a chocolate bar or eat a bar of milk chocolate every day, your body is unlikely to thank you. Replace milk chocolate with bittersweet. Maybe it's not so tasty (although someone likes it), but it's definitely useful.

First, eating chocolate reduces Chocolate and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review the risk of diseases of the cardiovascular system: theobromine and catechin have a positive effect on the state of blood vessels. The more cocoa powder in chocolate, the better. Dark chocolate in this regard is preferable to milk chocolate, but white should not be taken seriously at all.

Secondly, chocolate with a high content of flavonoids protects Eating chocolate can significantly protect the skin from UV light. our skin from exposure to ultraviolet rays. Of course, this does not mean that now you can lie on the beach all day long, forgetting about sunscreen, but there is a good reason to return chocolate to the diet without remorse.

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“Give up caffeine,” healthy lifestyle gurus tell us. “Drink not coffee, but tea,” they are echoed by online publications about proper nutrition. Do not rush to listen to the friendly chorus of opponents of this drink.

Studies link Increased caffeine intake is associated with reduced risk of basal cell carcinoma of the skin. coffee consumption is associated with a reduced risk of basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. Coffee is also good for the liver: already two cups a day will help Coffee, alcohol and other beverages in relation to cirrhosis mortality: the Singapore Chinese Health Study protect against cirrhosis.

Coffee helps fight depression by increasing the production of dopamine, reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes ... Well, enough arguments? Just remember that everything is good in moderation, so it’s better not to overdo it with coffee.

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10. Black caviar and white chocolate
The eminent British alchemist chef Heston Blumenthal proved in practice that the tandem of white chocolate and black caviar is the most successful union. Everything is understandable: caviar and white chocolate contain a huge amount of amino acids that complement and shade each other in the best possible way. The main thing is not to swallow the tongue!

11. Strawberries and balsamic sauce
Usually strawberries are eaten with cream or sour cream and sugar, and we suggest you taste this amazing berry with balsamic sauce. The combination of sweet and sour is an invigorating elixir, and also low in calories.

12. Meat and chocolate
This combination of products seems very doubtful. But not for ardent Mexicans who bake juicy meat with chocolate sauce, peanuts, sesame seeds and spices every now and then. Chocolate makes the meat soft and velvety, and its taste unforgettable. And sweet tooth will love this dish!

13. Dark chocolate and ketchup
Another madness worthy of your attention. Most likely, you pour ketchup on potatoes or meat, but not on chocolate. It turns out that dark chocolate has tomato notes, and tomato sauce enhances them, enriching the taste of your favorite sweet.

At first glance, these unusual gastronomic experiments seem like real madness, but you only have to try once ... you will lick your fingers!

The first thing you feel when you first hear the name of this artist is surprise: “Is this the guy from the Beatles? Did he also make sculptures?!” No, I didn't. But the absence of one letter "n" turns Paul McCartney into our hero, who, even without comparison with the great musician, has something to surprise. Meet: Paul McCarthy, American artist provocateur.

His career began with an eccentricity: the artist arranged performances on which he painted with his own genitals - and this was just the beginning!

Since the 1970s, McCarthy has been using food for his work. These are ketchup, mayonnaise and chocolate that mimic blood, semen and feces.

In 1991, the artist demonstrates an installation in which he makes fun of people's addiction to television shows and shows how a person can find pleasure in destruction. Bossy Burger is a combination of installation and performance. Viewers come to a splattered and ruined kitchen (the set of a failed TV show) and watch a video of McCarthy, wearing a mask and a chef's outfit, turning the clean and tidy kitchen into the place where the audience is now.

It was McCarthy's first installation. A year later, he arranged another one. "The Garden" (The Garden, 1992) with its trees and stones at first seems ordinary. But, coming closer, the viewer discovers the mechanical figures of father and son, copulating with trees and earth. With this work, the artist demonstrates to the viewer the animal side of a person and the subsequent behavior from which everyone suffers, even innocent trees.

Over time, McCarthy changed the vector of his activities, switching to grotesque in meaning and gigantic inflatable figures.

It all started in 2004 with the song "Doomed to fail" (Bound to Fail). This is an inflatable copy of the work of the famous sculptor Henry Moore, which was installed on the roof of New York's Whitney Museum. McCarthy literally puts this art in a precarious position, saying that even a masterpiece can be doomed to failure.

It's not just great works of art that are in McCarthy's precarious position. In 2007, he created an inflatable sculpture called Complex Shit. These, simply put, giant dog feces, he installed in Bern, near the Paul Klee Center. The sculpture was part of the East of Eden: A Garden Show. And everything would have gone as planned, if nature hadn’t thought of “joking”. Inflatable excrement was blown away by a gust of wind, so much so that they flew 200 meters, damaged power lines and broke a window. But, most likely, the artist was not particularly upset by this course of events - after all, the outrageousness only intensified.

Why does Paul McCarthy create such works? They shock, cause bewilderment, and some even disgust. Is this all a provocation for the sake of a provocation? Yes and no. In this way, the artist tries to draw people's attention to issues that are important to him. After all, a person would rather pay attention to a giant sex toy symbolizing a Christmas tree in the center of Paris, and think about the masquerade and cult of consumption around Christmas, than go to a museum for "traditional" art, even if it says the same thing.

McCarthy's work becomes even more important when another, not eccentric, but serious side of his work is revealed. It turns out that this artist is able to create for real, attracting attention not just with outrageousness, but with technique.

In 2008, McCarthy took part in the Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement: Three Installations, two Films exhibition, where he presented works that give viewers a sense of disorientation in space and allow them to take a fresh look at their position in it. This is achieved with the help of mirrors, moving walls or projections.

For example, entering the Spinning Room, viewers watch their image in the mirrors spin, and then projected onto a double-sided screen and reflected on four walls.

And in the Bang Bang Room, the space in general seems to come to life: in each wall, doors open and close with a loud knock, and the walls slowly move. In such surrealism, you can go crazy, or at least feel like Alice through the Looking Glass, if you do not remember that all this is a work of art.

It's amazing how one artist combines the talent to create both fabulously magical works, and a shocking Santa Claus with a giant toy for adults in his hand. But at the same time, it's a little sad that the author has to resort to such eccentricity in order to attract the attention of the audience and reach out to a mass audience.

And does he always succeed? After all, most viewers will see "faeces" from chocolate and sexual overtones in the sculptures. The notorious outrageousness in his works turns into a wall that does not allow reading the author's intention. The artist "sets a trap for himself" - attracting attention with a provocation, he, apart from this provocation, conveys nothing to the viewer. And it turns out nothing more than the cycle of eccentrics in nature.