Grandma said…

Verdict: A large review commissioned by the WHO in 2024 found no link between mobile phones and brain tumours, even though almost everyone has had a mobile for decades.

Verdict: No research has shown that people drown from swimming on a full stomach. A gentle swim after lunch is perfectly fine.

Verdict: The stomach is far too dark and acidic for anything to sprout. The pips come out again, usually quite unbothered.

Verdict: There is no evidence that coffee stunts growth. Children still shouldn’t have much caffeine – but for other reasons.

Verdict: Research has not been able to show that video games lead to real-world violence. The generation that grew up with Doom did not turn out more violent than those before it.

Verdict: In the 1950s experts warned that comics made children stupid and criminal. The best-known research later turned out to have been manipulated. Children who read comics grew up into adults who read.

Verdict: Not worms – but raw dough is not risk-free. Raw flour can carry E. coli and raw eggs salmonella, and food safety authorities advise against eating raw cake mixture.

Verdict: True. The glycyrrhizin in liquorice can raise blood pressure, and the Swedish Food Agency advises against eating a lot of it regularly. The odd piece is no problem.

Verdict: True. Long exposure to loud sound damages hearing permanently, and hearing loss and tinnitus are common among young people. The Walkman was more dangerous than it looked.

Verdict: True. Staring at the sun, for example during an eclipse, can cause permanent damage to the retina. Use proper eclipse glasses.

Verdict: True – for a landline. A lightning strike can send current down the phone line, and people have been injured that way. Cordless mobile phones are not dangerous to use indoors.

Verdict: No face has ever got stuck because of the wind direction. Pulling faces is harmless, even in a gale.

Verdict: The head loses about as much heat per area as the rest of the body – only a small part of the total. The myth comes from an old military experiment in which people were warmly dressed everywhere except the head. A hat is still ni…

Verdict: In double-blind studies, where neither children nor parents know who has had sugar, sugar has not been shown to make children hyperactive. Parents who believe their child has had sugar do rate it as more unruly, though. The party…

Verdict: Spinach does contain iron, but the body absorbs it poorly. And the story that its iron content was a misplaced decimal point is itself a myth. It is still good for you.

Verdict: A lack of vitamin A does cause night blindness, and carrots contain what the body turns into vitamin A. But extra carrots give no super-vision. The myth was spread by British wartime propaganda to explain how pilots found enemy p…

Verdict: Colds are caused by viruses, not by cold. Wet hair makes you chilly, but it does not give you a cold.

Verdict: Chewing gum is not digested like ordinary food, but it passes through the gut and comes out after a few days, like everything else. Only very large amounts at once can cause trouble.

Verdict: An American doctor cracked the knuckles of only one hand for 60 years and then compared the two: no difference. He won an Ig Nobel Prize for his trouble. Larger studies have found no link to arthritis either.

Verdict: Reading in poor light can make your eyes tired, but it causes no lasting damage. The torch under the covers was harmless.

Verdict: Sitting close to the TV does not damage your eyes. But research links lots of time indoors and little daylight to short-sightedness, which has risen sharply among children. Not square eyes – but slightly more short-sighted ones.

Verdict: Urinary tract infections are caused by bacteria, not by cold from below. There is no evidence that cold stones cause cystitis – though it is hardly comfortable.