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18 'healthy habits' you should give up in 2018

Wondering if BMI is really a good measure of your health? Or if avoiding gluten is a good idea even if you don't have celiac. Here are all the answers you need.

We all have them — habits we think are healthy because we heard them somewhere on the news or from a health-conscious friend. And no matter how much we hate them, we just keep doing them because we think they're good for us.

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Takeusing BMI to tell whether you're a healthy weight. Is it really the best measure of fitness? Ortaking a daily multivitamin. Healthy habit or a little bit of nonsense?

The answers to these questions might surprise you.

Using a standing desk

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A recent long-term study looking at data on nearly 4,000 US adults foundno benefitin terms of overall risk of dying from standing as opposed to sitting.

In the short term, however, standing does burn more calories per minute; so if losing weight is all you're worried about, stand on!

Using toilet-seat liners

Viruses like HIV and herpes are fragile, meaning they don't survive very well outside a nice, warm human body. By the time you sit down on a public toilet seat — even one that was recently used by someone else — most harmful pathogensprobably won't be able to infect you.

Plus, your skin is an effective block against any microbes. (Unless, of course, you have a cut or open wound there, which could allow the bacteria to get in.)

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Eating only low-fat foods

According to recommendations from the USDA in the 1990s, millions of Americans seeking to lose weight opted for a low-fat, high-starch diet. They chose margarine over butter and "fat-free" instead of "regular," and they curbed their indulgence on rich, creamy foods. But it didn't work.

Aneight-year trial involving almost 50,000 women, roughly half of whom went on a low-fat diet, found that those on the low-fat plan didn't lower their risk of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, orheart disease. Plus, theydidn't lose much weight, if any.New recommendationsshow that healthy fats, like those from nuts, fish, and avocados, are actually good for you in moderation! So add them back into your diet if you haven't already.

Using BMI to tell whether you're a healthy weight

Sometime during your most recent doctor's visit, your physician probably had you hop on a scale to determine whether you were a healthy weight. After weighing and measuring you, he or she might have shown you a colorful body-mass-index chart.

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In reality, the BMI, whichwas invented in the 1830s, isnot a great measure of fitness when used on its own. Obesity experts say theBMI has several major problems, including the fact that it ignores two important factors: 1) how much body fat you're carrying around, and 2) yourwaist mference, which can be a good measure of your risk for certain diseases, including heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Avoiding gluten

Swapping dairy for almond milk

Alternatives to dairy milk have been surging in popularity in the past few years, chief among them almond milk. Yet almond milk ispractically devoid of nutrients.

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By themselves, almonds are protein powerhouses. But a typical glass of almond milk, by volume, is just about 2% almonds and contains almost no protein. And all the vitamins inside are added. So if you're looking for a truly healthy alternative, opt for soy, skim, or low-fat milk.

Juicing

When you juice fresh fruits and veggies, you remove all of their fiber, the key ingredient that keeps you feeling full and satisfied until your next meal.

What you keep is the sugar. In the short term, a high-sugar, low-protein diet meansconstant hunger pangs, mood swings, and low energy. In the long term, you can lose muscle mass since muscles rely on protein.

Slathering on hand sanitizer

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If you wash your hands regularly throughout the day, hand sanitizer is almost entirely unnecessary. Plus, it can't kill all the germs that plain old soap and water can.

Norovirus and C. difficile, for example,are immune to sanitizing gels.

Eating egg whites instead of whole eggs

Lots of people began avoiding egg yolks when nutrition experts came out with a recommendation that eating cholesterol was bad for you because it raised your cholesterol.

But there's good news: A growing body of research shows that for the vast majority of people, dietary cholesterol (from foods you eat)doesn't really have much of an effect on your blood cholesterol. So unless you have high cholesterol, ditch those nasty egg-white-only alternatives. Good morning, eggs Benedict!

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Holding your breath after someone sneezes or coughs

When people sneeze or cough without covering their mouth or nose,bacteria enter the air at speeds approaching 50 to 200 mph.

If you're nearby, holding your breath won't do much good in preventing them from landing on your mouth, nose, or eyes. It'll stop you from pulling in any bacteria hanging directly in front of your face, but that's about it.

Taking tons of vitamin C to ward off a cold

While a little extra vitamin C can boost an underperforming immune system,taking too much will make you sick.

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The upper limit for an adult is 2,000 milligrams a day. Any more than that will most likely cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, headaches, and other side effects.

Ear candling

The practice of ear candling — yes, ear candling — involves putting a lit, cone-shaped candle inside your ear. People who do it say it's helpful for relieving earwax and treating some infections. According to the Mayo Clinic, not so much.

"Research shows,"they write, "that ear candling is ineffective at removing earwax and is also not an effective treatment for any other conditions." Plus, the practice can end up pushing earwax deeper into your ear. Even worse, you can burn your face, hair, scalp, or ear. So don't.

Taking multivitamins

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Close to half of American adults take vitamins every day. Yetdecades' worth of researchhasn't found any justification for our pill-popping habit.

That isn't to say we don't need we have a hard time turning

Avoiding MSG

Monosodium glutamate is an ingredient added to many foods to enhance their flavor.

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Not cracking your knuckles

Going on a "detox" diet

No one needs to detox. Unless you've been poisoned, you already have a superefficient system for filtering out most of the harmful substances you eat. It's made up of two toxin-bashing organs: the liver and the kidneys.

Using a recumbent bike instead of a regular one

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You've seen these at the gym — stationary bikes that 've been revamped to position your body so that it's leaning slightly backward with your legs outstretched.

Unless you have aspecific injury, though, like a shoulder, knee, or hip injury, these types of bikes are unnecessary.

Avoiding the microwave

We've all heard the rumors about how "nuking" foods robs them of their nutrients. Fortunately for most of us, this isentirely false. Microwave ovens cook food using energy waves. The waves cause the molecules in food to vibrate quickly, building up their energy as heat.

Bonus: flossing

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Flossing became controversial in 2016 after areport from the Associated Pressfound that the effectiveness of flossing had never been researched.

The US government has recommended flossing for nearly four decades. But according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a set of recommendations the agency sends out every five years, all of the recommendations have to be grounded in scientific evidence.

And flossingis, well, not.

In itsreport, published in August, the AP says it used the Freedom of Information Act to request evidence for the benefits of flossing from the Department of Health and Human Services. AP never received that evidence. Instead, it got a letter from the government acknowledging thatthe effectiveness of flossing had never been studied.

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