You may have heard a piece of nutrition advice that sounded too good to be true. The idea is that celery -- those crispy, crunchy sticks we chop up for mirepoix to improve our soup -- is so low in calories that you actually end up burning calories by eating them. (This doesn't include anything you might use to jazz up the experience, such as ranch dip or a generous application of peanut butter and raisins to make that snack time staple ants on a log.) It's an intriguing proposition, but hold on a second before you get in touch with your inner rabbit: Whether you're chewing a celery stalk or a celery rib, it's not actually true, and even if it was, it still wouldn't be a good idea.

The factoid vastly overestimates how many calories you burn through chewing. While a stalk of celery does only contain about 5 to 10 calories, it's worth noting that chewing gum burns just 11 calories an hour. We've never tried chewing on a stalk of celery for an hour, but we're willing to bet it's not a particularly pleasant experience. Celery is a great snack if you want to lose weight, but it's not negative-calorie food.