Warnings we grew up with
Grandma said…
Don’t sit on cold stones. Wait an hour after eating before you swim. Which warnings did you grow up with? Hang yours on the wall – the editors check what was actually true.
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.
Don’t swim straight after eating, you’ll get cramp and drown!
Verdict: No research has shown that people drown from swimming on a full stomach. A gentle swim after lunch is perfectly fine.
Verdict: Reading in poor light can make your eyes tired, but it causes no lasting damage. The torch under the covers was harmless.
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.
Don’t swallow your chewing gum, it stays in your stomach for seven years!
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: Colds are caused by viruses, not by cold. Wet hair makes you chilly, but it does not give you a cold.
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…
Put your hat on, nearly all your heat escapes through your head!
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…
Don’t pull that face – if the wind changes you’ll stay like that!
Verdict: No face has ever got stuck because of the wind direction. Pulling faces is harmless, even in a gale.
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: 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.
Don’t keep your mobile in your pocket, the radiation will give you a brain tumour!
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: There is no evidence that coffee stunts growth. Children still shouldn’t have much caffeine – but for other reasons.
Don’t swallow the apple pips, a tree will grow in your tummy!
Verdict: The stomach is far too dark and acidic for anything to sprout. The pips come out again, usually quite unbothered.