Actually, Not

Skipping breakfast is bad for you — it makes you gain weight and wrecks your stomach

Bone soup is full of calcium — the longer you simmer it and the whiter it gets, the more nourishing it is

Overnight dishes are full of nitrite — eating them causes cancer

Too much MSG is bad for you — it makes your hair fall out and leaves you thirsty

Eating pig's feet, bird's nest, or tremella soup replenishes collagen and improves your skin

You must drink eight glasses of water a day

Coffee and tea are diuretics — the more you drink, the more dehydrated you get, so they don't count toward your water intake

Eating spicy food gives you stomach ulcers

If a fruit has one small rotten spot, just cut off the bad part and eat the rest

If honey crystallizes, it's been cut with sugar — it's fake

Microwave ovens give off radiation — microwaved food causes cancer and loses all its nutrients

Simmer a soup long enough and all the goodness ends up in the broth — drinking the soup is more nutritious than eating the meat

Egg yolks are high in cholesterol — no more than one egg a day

Food dropped on the floor is fine to eat if you pick it up within five seconds

Eating after 8 p.m. will definitely make you fat — anything eaten before bed turns straight into fat

If your stomach is acting up, drink congee (rice porridge) to nourish it back to health

You need regular detoxes to flush out accumulated waste — juice fasts to purge the gunk from your body

Swallowed gum sticks to your intestines and takes seven years to pass

Sugar makes kids hyper — bouncing off the walls and impossible to control

Eat lots of carrots for good eyesight — you'll even see better at night

Fresh-squeezed juice is the same as eating fruit — and even better absorbed

Drinking water with meals dilutes your stomach acid and hurts digestion

Craving a specific food means your body is missing a nutrient it contains

If you don't blow-dry your hair after washing it, dampness gets in and you'll get headaches and catch a cold

Cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis and makes your fingers thick

Pluck one gray hair and ten more will grow back

Shaving makes hair grow back thicker, darker, and faster

Wearing glasses for myopia makes your prescription climb, so avoid them if you can

Blue-light-blocking glasses relieve eye strain and protect your vision

Reading in the dark or looking at your phone in bed ruins your eyes

People only use 10% of their brain — unlock the rest and you could be a genius

Take some 'anti-inflammatory pills' (antibiotics) when you catch a cold and you'll recover faster

Load up on vitamin C as soon as you catch a cold and you'll recover faster

Getting a flu shot can give you the flu

Leg cramps mean you're low on calcium — take a supplement, quick

The tongue has zones: sweet at the tip, sour on the sides, bitter at the back

The left brain handles logic, the right brain handles art — develop your kid's right brain to make them smarter

Vaccines cause autism, especially the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) shot

A glass of red wine a day softens your blood vessels and protects your heart

Antiperspirants block your sweat glands so toxins can't get out, and that causes breast cancer

Getting sick once or twice a year is good for you — it purges the illness and trains your immune system

When you're pregnant you must avoid everything — coffee, crab, hawthorn — and ideally stay in bed the whole time

After giving birth you can't wash your hair, shower, brush your teeth, or open a window — you must stay bundled up in bed or you'll get lifelong 'confinement sickness'

Fewer half-moons on your fingernails means your body is weak and deficient

You must have a bowel movement every single day — otherwise 'stale stool' builds up and toxins get absorbed

Getting laser eye surgery cures your myopia

A drink before bed helps you sleep deeper.

Sleep less during the week, no big deal — just catch up on the weekend.

Everyone must get a full eight hours of sleep.

Snoring means you're sleeping soundly and deeply.

Never wake a sleepwalker — you'll frighten them out of their mind or make them sick.

Can't sleep? No problem — just lying there with your eyes closed is rest too.

Older people naturally need less sleep — sleeping poorly is just a normal part of aging.

Take melatonin for insomnia — it's a natural hormone, safe and sleep-inducing.

Night owls are just lazy and undisciplined — early risers are better people.

Lots of dreams means you slept badly — dreamless sleep is the deep, good kind

The longer your afternoon nap, the more refreshed you'll feel — aim for an hour or two

A glass of warm milk before bed helps you sleep, thanks to the tryptophan

Scrolling your phone in bed is fine as long as night mode is on

Train your abs to lose the belly, train your arms to slim them down.

The more you sweat, the more fat you burn — sweat suits work great.

Next-day muscle soreness is lactic acid buildup — massage it out to break it up.

Always do a good static stretch before exercise, or you'll get hurt.

You must hit 10,000 steps a day to count as healthy.

Women who lift weights will turn into muscle-bound hulks — cardio is the safe choice.

Running ruins your knees — run too much and you'll need a joint replacement sooner or later.

Morning workouts on an empty stomach burn fat directly — way more efficient for weight loss.

You must slam protein powder within 30 minutes after training — miss the window and the workout was wasted.

Muscle turns into fat if you stop training — everything you built will end up as flab.

You shouldn't exercise during your period — just lie down and rest, or you'll end up with lasting problems.

You have to exercise for more than 30 minutes before fat starts burning — anything shorter is wasted

The air is freshest in the early morning, so a dawn workout is the healthiest

When you catch a cold, go for a run or sit in a sauna — sweat the sickness out

The more exercise the better — train every single day, because one day off undoes everything

Have a shot of liquor to warm up in cold weather.

Pour strong baijiu (Chinese distilled liquor) on a wound to disinfect it.

Phone and Wi-Fi radiation causes cancer — keep your phone away from the bed at night.

Run your phone down to empty before a full charge, and never charge it overnight — that ruins the battery.

More laundry detergent means cleaner clothes.

Zap your kitchen sponge in the microwave and it's disinfected, good to keep using.

No need for sunscreen on cloudy days, in winter, or indoors.

Don't use your phone indoors during a thunderstorm — it attracts lightning.

Earwax needs regular digging — give it a twist with a cotton swab to really clean it out.

An acidic body is the root of all disease — eat alkaline foods and drink alkaline water to neutralize it.

Magnetic bracelets and magnetic mattresses boost circulation and cure all kinds of pain.

Get a standing desk — work standing up and you'll lose weight and fix your back pain.

Iodized salt causes thyroid nodules — who still dares eat it?

New clothes are clean from the factory — no need to wash before wearing

Public toilet seats can give you an STD — sitting on one is risky

Sleeping with the AC or fan blowing on your face can give you facial paralysis

A squirt of hand sanitizer is just as good as washing your hands

For a nosebleed, tilt your head back — or raise the arm on the opposite side.

Sweat out a fever — bundle up under heavy blankets until you sweat, and the fever breaks.

Rub a feverish child down with alcohol to bring the temperature down.

Put toothpaste, soy sauce, sesame oil, or ice on a burn.

During a seizure, press the philtrum (the groove under the nose) and wedge something into the mouth so they don't bite their tongue.

A drowning person will scream for help and thrash wildly — you'd definitely notice.

If someone's choking, give them a sip of water to wash it down.

If CPR breaks someone's ribs, you pushed too hard and did it wrong.

During a stroke, prick the fingertips to let blood out — it's life-saving first aid.

If a fish bone gets stuck in your throat, swallow vinegar to soften it, then gulp a ball of rice to push it down

Right after a sprain, apply heat and rub in medicinal wine to disperse the bruising

If someone collapses from heatstroke, pinch the philtrum (renzhong) to wake them

If someone's being electrocuted, grab them and pull them away immediately

Put a silencer on a gun and all you hear is a soft 'pfft' — nobody nearby can hear a thing

On TV, a few chest compressions bring the person back — CPR saves most people

Quicksand swallows people whole, and the more you struggle the deeper you sink

In films a person who has been in a coma for years wakes up neatly groomed, with no wasting, and quickly recovers fully

A second knock on the head cures amnesia, and amnesiacs otherwise get on fine with life

A person exposed to the vacuum of space explodes or instantly freezes solid

In movies a blow to the head either knocks you out or does nothing; if you did not pass out, your brain is fine

Jurors who watch crime dramas expect high-tech evidence in every case and acquit without it (the 'CSI effect')

A person who is shot is thrown backwards by the bullet's impact, crashing through windows or doors

When the heart monitor goes to a flat line, a defibrillator shock restarts the heart

In space, exploding ships and laser cannons make deafening noises

In films, a pregnant woman's 'water breaks' as a big gush at the start of labour and she must rush to hospital

Inject a spy or suspect with a 'truth serum' and he will honestly tell you everything

In the movies the detective smells bitter almonds and knows it is cyanide — because everyone can smell it

Hook someone up to a lie detector and, if they lie, the machine will accurately expose it

Fall into freezing water and within a few minutes you freeze solid and die

In the movies a fingerprint match is ironclad — 100% accurate, never wrong

In the movies a person who touches live electricity is blasted backwards — so you can always pull free

In the movies a needle of adrenaline plunged straight into an unconscious person's chest makes them jolt awake

In the movies the medical examiner takes one temperature reading and announces 'time of death: 10:17 last night'

In the movies a heart attack means clutching your chest, crying out and collapsing

A shark can smell a single drop of blood from miles away — in the movies, blood hits the water and sharks arrive from afar

Zhuge Liang invented Kongming lanterns to send military messages

Mozi invented the kite, and Lu Ban later improved it

After losing Jieting, Zhuge Liang played a zither on the city wall and frightened Sima Yi into retreat

Railway track width comes from Roman chariot wheels, and even the Space Shuttle's rocket boosters were sized by it

Santa's red suit was invented by Coca-Cola to sell soda

Napoleon was a tiny man, barely five feet tall

Viking warriors wore helmets with bull horns

In Columbus's day everyone thought the Earth was flat, and he sailed to prove it was round

An apple hit Newton on the head and he instantly discovered gravity

The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from space with the naked eye

SOS stands for 'Save Our Souls'

Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China

The forbidden fruit Adam and Eve ate was an apple

The 'iron maiden' was a common medieval torture device

Medieval Europeans went a thousand years without bathing and stank

The Chinese invented gunpowder but only used it for fireworks; Westerners made guns and cannon

OK comes from the American Civil War: battles without casualties were reported as '0 Killed'

Li Bai got drunk, jumped into the river to grasp the moon's reflection, and drowned

People eat zongzi and race dragon boats at Duanwu to commemorate the drowned poet Qu Yuan

The wedding ring goes on the left ring finger because it has a 'vein of love' running straight to the heart

Valentine's Day comes from the Roman festival of Lupercalia, or honors a saint martyred for secretly marrying lovers

James Watt saw a kettle lid rattle with steam and thereby invented the steam engine

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb

Archimedes discovered buoyancy in his bath and ran naked through the streets shouting 'Eureka'

Firecrackers and red couplets at Spring Festival come from scaring away a fierce monster called Nian

'Posh' stands for 'Port Out, Starboard Home', the shady cabins wealthy passengers booked on ships to India

The word 'cocktail' comes from a Revolutionary War tavern-keeper Betsy Flanagan decorating glasses with cock tail feathers (or from the French egg cup, coquetier)

The sandwich was invented by the Earl of Sandwich so he could keep gambling without leaving the card table

People clink glasses so the drinks splash into each other's cup, to guard against poisoning

The Cold Food Festival bans fire and eats cold food to honour Jie Zitui, who died when the Duke of Jin set the mountain ablaze to force him out

Thomas Crapper invented the flush toilet, and the English word 'crap' comes from his name

"Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world." — Albert Einstein

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." — Albert Einstein

"If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would have only four years left to live." — Albert Einstein

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." — Voltaire

"Let them eat cake." — Marie Antoinette

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." — Edmund Burke

"Well-behaved women rarely make history." — Marilyn Monroe

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle

"China is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes the world will shake." — Napoleon

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." — Mahatma Gandhi

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." — Gandhi

"God helps those who help themselves." — the Bible

"If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain." — Churchill

"A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth." — Goebbels

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." — Albert Einstein

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." — Albert Einstein

"There was originally no road in the world; when many people walk, a road comes into being." —Lu Xun

"Fierce beasts walk alone; only cattle and sheep move in herds." —Lu Xun

"Life is measured in units of time. Wasting other people's time is murder for money; wasting your own time is slow suicide." —Lu Xun

"The greatest pain in life is to wake from a dream and find there is no road to take." —Lu Xun

"I have never seen anyone so shameless!" —Zhuge Liang cursing Wang Lang in 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'

'Repay hatred with kindness' is a teaching of Confucius

'Those inside the besieged city want to get out; those outside want to get in' is Qian Zhongshu's own invention

'Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles' is from Confucius or an ancient maxim

'The farthest distance in the world is not between life and death…' —Tagore, 'Stray Birds'

'If you are well, it is a sunny day.' —Lin Huiyin

'A filthy country, if everyone follows rules instead of preaching morality, will eventually become a normal, human country.' —Hu Shih

'Moistening each other with spit' (xiangru yimo) is Zhuangzi's praise of devotion in hard times

"What genius? I just put the time others spend drinking coffee into work." —Lu Xun

"Studying medicine cannot save the Chinese." —Lu Xun

"One dog in the village barked, and the other dogs joined in without knowing why; when murk becomes normal, being clean becomes a crime." —Lu Xun

"Wear a mask too long and it grows into your face; to take it off you must break bones and tear skin." —Lu Xun

"Time is like water in a sponge; if you are willing to squeeze, there is always some." —Lu Xun

'Head bowed, glad to be an ox for the children' means Lu Xun was glad to serve the people

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." —Mark Twain

"Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." —Mark Twain

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." —Mark Twain

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." —Abraham Lincoln (or Mark Twain)

"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." —Abraham Lincoln

"Write drunk, edit sober." —Ernest Hemingway

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." —Isaac Newton (his own humble phrase)

"The only thing I know is that I know nothing." —Socrates

"Good artists copy; great artists steal." —Pablo Picasso

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." —Mark Twain

"God does not play dice." —Einstein

"Some people are alive, yet already dead; some are dead, yet still alive." —Lu Xun

"Finding one true confidant in life is enough; regard that person as a kindred spirit in this world." — Lu Xun

"There was originally no trouble in the world; fools make trouble for themselves." —proverb

"Ten years drinking ice, and still the hot blood does not cool." —Liang Qichao

Manhole covers are round because only a round lid can't fall into its own hole.

Airliner windows have rounded corners because the Comet's square windows tore early jets apart.

The tiny hole in a pen cap is there to equalise air pressure so the ink doesn't dry out or leak.

A4's awkward 210 × 297 mm size was picked arbitrarily.

QWERTY scrambled the letters on purpose to slow typists down so the typebars wouldn't jam.

The line across the middle of a pill is just decoration; split or not, a pill is a pill, scored or not.

The big numbers painted on an airport runway are just serial numbers.

The 'black box' in an aircraft is black, which is why it's called that.

A golf ball's dimples are just for grip, and a smooth ball would fly farther.

The ridges around a coin's edge are for grip, or just for looks.

The big coloured balls on power lines are decoration, or counterweights, or for birds.

"Kōng xué lái fēng" (空穴来风) means a rumor with no basis at all

"Chā qiáng rén yì" (差强人意) means disappointing or unsatisfactory

"Shǒu dāng qí chōng" (首当其冲) means to charge at the front, to lead the attack

"Qī yuè liú huǒ" (七月流火) means July is blazing hot

"Bù kān zhī lùn" (不刊之论) means a view too shocking or improper to be published

"Zhì shǒu kě rè" (炙手可热) means hugely popular or in great demand

"Měi lún měi huàn" (美轮美奂) can describe anything magnificent — scenery, performances, music

"Xiǎoshí liǎoliǎo, dà wèibì jiā" (小时了了，大未必佳) means clever kids usually turn out mediocre

"Wú suǒ bù yòng qí jí" (无所不用其极) means using every dirty trick in the book

"Wén bù jiā diǎn" (文不加点) describes writing with no punctuation

"Wēi yán wēi xíng" (危言危行) means dangerous words and risky deeds

"Dòukòu niánhuá" (豆蔻年华) is a general term for lovely youth, for anyone in their early twenties

"Jiǔ jiǎ bù guī" (久假不归) just means borrowing something and not returning it for ages