Health Facts Quiz

You may be well-informed about health and the factors that can promote it or reduce it.  But most of us aren't. Until recently, much health education was conducted in boring and naive ways, often consisting of a list of 'don't', backed up by scary warnings about what would happen to you if you 'do'. At the same time, myths and misinformation about health abound, often deliberately fostered by quacks and conmen.

So how much do you really know about health?

Try this quiz:

The purpose of this quiz is to help you check the accuracy of some of your ideas about health. The better informed you are about your health and what affects it, the better you can look after it. See how you go at deciding which of the following statements are true (at least mostly) or false (at least mostly).

• 1 Eating sensibly means eating just enough to supply your energy needs, so that you do not put on weight. True/False

• 2 Being thin is extra healthy. True/False

• 3 Polyunsaturated fats (in some margarines) are less fattening than saturated fats (in butter). True/False

• 4 A serving of potato is more fattening than an equal weight of lean steak. True/False

• 5 A glass of fruit juice is less fattening than a glass of lemonade. True/False

• 6 To be healthy, you should cut out all fat and sugar from your food. True/False

• 7 You can get all the fibre you need for good health by eating a bran-based breakfast cereal. True/False

• 8 Eggs are a dangerous source of cholesterol and should be avoided for your health's sake. True/False

• 9 The best way to get the vitamins and minerals you need is to take a vitamin/mineral pill each day. True/False

• 10 To lose weight, you need to cut out starchy foods like bread,potatoes and pasta. True/False

• 11 If a weight loss diet from a women's magazine did not help you lose weight, that's most likely because you didn't have the willpower to stick to it. True/False

• 12 You can have up to six alcoholic drinks each day without any bad effect on your health. True/False

• 13 If you frequently have more than six alcoholic drinks a day, you are most likely an alcoholic, which means you have an incurable disease that can only be managed by abstaining from alcohol completely. True/False

• 14 Tea is healthier to drink than coffee because it does not contain caffeine, only tannin. True/False

• 15 You don't need to drink water each day for good health, so long as you have at least twelve cups of tea or coffee, or twelve glasses of fruit juice. True/False

• 16 The main risk to your health from smoking is lung cancer. True/False

• 17 If you have been smoking for more than a few years, you have already done the main damage to your health, so you will not gain much from quitting. True/False

• 18 There is no direct health risk to )children if their parents smoke. True/False

• 19 If you quit smoking, you will proably gain weight because your metabolism slows down. True/False

• 20 If exercise is going to improve our health, you must do it for at least half an hour every day. True/False

• 21 If exercise is going to improve your health, you need to push yourself to your limits: no pain, no gain. True/False

• 22 You can get all the exercise you need for good health by playing a sport, like squash or golf, twice a week. True/False

• 23 You can get all the exercise you need for good health from a physically demanding job, like laboring. True/False

• 24 If you drink or eat before exercising (or swimming), you will get a cramp. True/False

• 25 You should rug up in something like a track suit as soon as you finish exercising to avoid getting a chill. True/False

• 26 If women exercise as hard as men, they will wind up with big muscles like men. True/False

• 27 A typical teenager gets all the exercise he or she needs from sport or other recreations. True/False

• 28 Exercise helps you lose weight by burning up extra energy, so you need to do lots to lose much weight. True/False

• 29 If you are trying to quit smoking or to eat or drink sensibly, you must avoid relapsing or you will only be back where you started. True/False

• 30 Sport and recreation are much the same thing. True/False

• 31 Recreation may be fun but is not important to your health. True/False

• 32 Recreation always takes up time and may cost money, so you can only do it when you have spare time and money. True/False

• 33 Leading a healthy lifestyle means going without all of the enjoyable things in life, like good food and drink, exercising hard every day and taking lots of cold showers. True/False

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