Sunday, June 28, 2009

Myth-Busting!

I frequently get into discussions with friends during which it becomes clear that someone is Totally Wrong about some fact, but no one knows enough to truly disprove them.

For example, canker sores are nasty little sores on the inside of your mouth or on your gums or the inside of your cheeks. They are NOT in fact "cold sores" which are caused by a variation of the Herpes simplex virus and are recurring and on the outside of your lips. Canker sores are caused by a variety of random things, like food allergies/sensitivities, rough toothbrushing, stress, and lack of sleep. The Mayo Clinic (the ultimate source) also recommends switching to toothpaste with no sodium lauryl sulfate, which actually works, I think. Tom's of Maine makes some, but they were pricey so we got Weleda's Salt Toothpaste which is good but makes you thirsty, and Peelu toothpaste which Zeb hates because it has weird fibrous bits in it but I think is not that bad.

2 comments:

lila u. said...

Tom's of Maine is owned by Coke. A very sad fact that I learned last week. Co-workers and I went through every "natural brand that makes you feel good about yourself" that we could think of, and all of them were owned by either Coke or Pepsi or Heinz or someone corporate and huge, EXCEPT:

Weleda. Which "owes its existence to Rudolf Steiner" and, as we concluded at work last week, maybe that's not all that great of a legacy, but its worth something that they are the only in-stores-nation-wide natural brand not have full corporate ownership. I like it.

Amy said...

It's true. I remember reading somewhere that they were recently bought by a large company, although I couldn't remember which one. This doesn't bother me terribly, actually. I told my uncle that Trader Joe's was owned by Aldi's and he was very saddened, and I felt like a jerk.