Myth: Fruit can rot and ferment in your body if it is not eaten on an empty stomach.

Answer: Busted! The idea that fruit will rot and ferment in your body unless eaten by itself on an empty stomach is a myth that is circulating widely again. This myth is the foundation of many odd “food-combining’ diets. The fact is you can eat fruit any time. You can eat fruit with other foods as part of a meal. You can eat fruit as a dessert after a meal or you can eat fruit as a snack all by itself.

The human digestive system handles all food combinations very efficiently. As foods are broken down during digestion into their various components, they pass into the small intestine where naturally occurring bacteria are present. Sometimes these bacteria will act upon certain compounds in fruits and vegetables and give you gas. This has nothing to do, however with the fruit fermenting or in what combination the food was eaten. In fact, most nutrients from foods are best absorbed when eaten in combination with other foods.

The best advice for choosing foods to eat is to follow the MyPyramid guidelines. If you need more fruit in your diet try these tips from Missourifamilies.org.

Contributor: James E. Meyer, Nutrition and Health Education Specialist, University of Missouri Extension, meyerje@missouri.edu

MYTH: Drinking cold water after meals can cause cancer.

Answer: Busted!

As the myth goes, drinking cold water after meals will cause the oils and fats that you have just consumed to become solid. This "sludge" is supposed to react with the acid in your digestive system, line the intestines, turn into fat, and cause cancer.

This myth is busted on several accounts, starting with the entire premise that drinking cold water will turn oil into solid sludge. Our internal body temperature is a steamy 98.1 degrees, and it typically takes 2 to 3 hours for a meal to empty from the stomach and move into the small intestines. This is plenty of time for all of the liquids and solids in your stomach to become the same warm temperature. Additionally, during these 2 to 3 hours of digestion, the stomach mixes and churns it contents until everything is a similar consistency. Once in the small intestines, food is broken down further into carbohydrates, protein, and fats and absorbed through the wall of the intestine and into the blood stream. Fat does not remain in the intestine for an extended period of time.

While it is true that an accumulation of a large amount of body fat can put you at a higher risk for certain types of cancers, this has nothing to do with the temperature of the water you drink before, after, or during meals.