Anyone who’s ever had too much fun and too little willpower has been there: Tempted by the slice of leftover pizza that was ordered late night and left on the counter, not stored in the refrigerator, where — second to the belly — it belongs.
It can’t be that bad, you think. Cheese tastes better anyhow when it’s had a chance to, you know, breathe. Right?
Nice try, says Tina Hanes, a technical information specialist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s meat and poultry hotline. “It may look and smell OK, but it may not be,” she says. “You can’t see, smell or taste the type of bacteria that cause foodborne illness.”
Hanes, a nurse and registered dietitian, recommends tossing any perishable food that’s been left out for more than two hours since room temperature is considered “the danger zone,” or the temperature range at which bacteria can grow rapidly, she says. On the contrary, food that’s stored in the freezer doesn’t spoil, she says. Hypothetically, you could eat a pizza that’s been chilling for years, although its taste will likely be subpar.
What if you refrigerate the pizza properly but then drop it on the floor? Hanes doesn’t endorse the 10-second rule. “There’s bacteria everywhere and you can’t see the bacteria, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” she says. “It’s not worth the price of the pizza or the food in general.”
So which is worse? Leaving the pizza out makes it a petri dish for bacteria, while dropping it on the floor makes it a sponge for bacteria. Both are bad; this one’s a wash.
Which is Worse: Skipping the Workout or Skimping on Sleep?
It’s 6 a.m. and you’re cursing your alarm, your distress made greater by a decision you must make fast: Get out of bed to hit the gym or stay in bed and hit the snooze. Of course, the latter is more appealing, but if you’re going to work out today, it’s now or never.
Good news: This scenario is one where the tempting option is also the right one, says Kevin B. White, a certified personal trainer and fitness consultant in Bethesda, Maryland. “Without a doubt, sleep is more important,” he says. “It’s not even a competition.” Sleeping less than six hours a night raises your risk for obesity by 30 percent, White says, in large part due to sleeplessness’s effects on two hormones, ghrelin and leptin. “You have more of the one that’s telling your body to go eat, and less of the hormone that’s telling your body to stop … which equates to more weight gain,” he says.
There’s also broad support that sleepy people are more likely to make unhealthy food choices. One recent study, for example, showed that children and adolescents who regularly got less than seven hours of sleep ate fewer fruits and vegetables and more fast foods than those who tended to sleep more than eight hours — even after controlling for demographic and behavioral factors. Finally, White says, if you rouse a sleepy body to exercise, your workout — and recovery from it — will suffer. “This dangerous cycle is usually spawned by sleep deprivation, and it does wreck your health and your fitness and your goals, ultimately,” White says.
So which is worse? Skimping on sleep. A subpar workout won’t make up for the ill effects of a subpar night of shut-eye.
Which is Worse: Looking at the Sun or Reading in Low Lighting?
Back in the 1940s, a vision scientist decided to make himself the subject of an experiment by slowly exposing one of his eyes to the sun for two minutes — and ended up blinding his fovea, or the part of the eye that helps us see details, says Martin S. Banks, a professor of optometry and vision science at the University of California–Berkeley.
Now the rest of us know what not to do. “Like when you try to burn something with a lens, your eye is kind of doing the same thing — it’s collecting light and trying to concentrate it on a position on the retina and the heat causes damage,” Banks says.
Non-direct sun exposure is worth avoiding, too, since it’s linked with retinal detachment and cataract formation, Banks says. “If you can reduce the amount of light that falls on the eye — whether that’s directly or indirectly — you’re at less risk for those two bad effects,” he says. Banks recommends wearing sunglasses that protect the sides of your eyes and a billed hat.
If too much light is bad, how bad is too little, like when you’re stuck reading in dim lighting? “The jury is still out,” Banks says, but there’s reason to believe it’s not a good idea. Similar to how a camera works, a shrunken pupil can focus best on close things. So when you’re under low lighting and your pupils expand, they have to work harder to focus on something close, like a book.
So which is worse? Sun exposure — even indirect — has clear, damaging effects. Those trump the suspected strain on your eyes when you’re reading in low light. Fortunately, you don’t have to choose: Take precautions to avoid them both.
Which is Worse: Holding in a Sneeze or Spreading your Germs?
Sneezes can come with little warning and at the most unfortunate times — on a crowded bus, in the middle of an important presentation, during a moment of silence at church. In such cases, holding it in may seem like the most respectable thing to do. So is it really as bad as a mini-concussion?
For most people, “there’s probably very little risk,” says Kevin P. McGrath, a physician in Wethersfield, Connecticut and a national spokesman for the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. But in rare cases, people who have extra fluid in their ears due to allergies, a cold or an ear infection, for example, could burst an eardrum. It’s also possible to trigger a nosebleed, to burst a blood vessel in your eye or, theoretically, to even detach a retina, McGrath says.
“Even though it’s not very likely for an average healthy person, there is still potential for certain people at high risk for certain things,” McGrath says. “So it’s not usually recommended to usually hold it in.”
But letting it out spreads germs — something we’re particularly weary of during flu season and the age of Ebola panic. Still, holding it in is worse, says McGrath, since it’s easy enough to sneeze in a way that keeps others safe. “If you [sneeze] into a tissue or a napkin or even your sleeve, your risk of spreading it is not that much, so that’s the better option: to just sneeze,” he says.
Which is Worse: Holding Your Pee or Not Drinking Enough Water?
Whether you’re a vacationer on a road trip or a nurse on a no-break shift, there are few feelings more unpleasant than needing a toilet when one isn’t around. Plus, mom always told you not to hold it in. But how much damage can you really do?
“The occasional time, it’s probably not a big deal,” says Tomas L. Griebling, a professor of urology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Urological Association. “But I think if it becomes a chronic pattern, that’s when people can start to run into some problems.”
For example, people with diabetes — a condition that can cause some people to lose some bladder sensation over time — may end up getting a distended bladder or developing changes in their muscles that make it even harder for their bladders to contract. Holding it in frequently over time may also lead to problems such as incontinence, urinary tract infections and kidney damage, Griebling says.
While those potential consequences aren’t good, what’s even worse is purposefully drinking less water in an effort to avoid needing to go since dehydration itself can put you at higher risk for kidney stones and urinary tract infections. “You’ll make less urine, but the urine you make will be very strongly concentrated, and it tends to be more irritating to the lining of the bladder — and it actually may worsen” the feeling of needing to go, Griebling says.
So which is worse? Opt for the discomfort of needing to pee when in a pinch — dehydrating yourself will likely only exacerbate the problem.
More from U.S. News
6 Tips for Healthy Gameday Snacks From Food Network’s Robert Irvine
Exercising After You’ve Gone Under (the Knife, That Is)
Which is Worse: Eating Pizza That’s Been Left Out or Dropped on the Floor? originally appeared on usnews.com
