Are These Common Beliefs Myth or Fact?
We’re sure you’ve heard more than enough urban legends and old wives’ tales to last multiple lifetimes. Sometimes they have great advice and other times they’re downright confusing or incite fear. When something is repeated over and over for multiple generations, we may start to see it as fact. Some of these can literally change the way we live our lives. What if we told you most of the stories you grew up hearing are nothing more than stories?
Some are based on facts, though they might’ve been a little stretched over the years. Let’s go through some of the most popular tales to see which are totally true and which are just myths.
FACT
There are many old wives’ tales about birth and pregnancy, like mixing your urine with baking soda to see what gender you’re having. The funny and fake methods have made the real ones lose their credibility. One that’s been proven to be true is that labor length can help you determine the gender of your baby.
Those with longer and more intense labors typically give birth to a boy. In one study, they found a direct correlation between the two. Of course, this could be partly due to the fact that boy babies are a bit bigger, and require more help. Nevertheless, it’s still a link that makes this saying at least partially true!
MYTH
There’s nothing quite like summer. You get to eat yummy treats like popsicles, bask in the sunlight, and swim to your heart’s desire. We’re sure you’ve heard that you need to wait 30 minutes after eating before going for a swim. If you didn’t, you’d risk getting intense cramps that might cause you to drown!
The doctors of Duke Health explained what really happens. Your body indeed sends extra blood to help your digestive system, but this isn’t enough to cause anything more than a small cramp. Rest assured, you can chow down at the barbecue and go on to participate in the diving contest right after.
MYTH
We guarantee you’ve used the rule of thumb in your daily life, but do you know where it comes from? Let’s start with where it didn’t come from. It was stated that in England in the 1400s it was okay for a man to beat his wife with a stick, but the stick couldn’t be any thicker than his thumb.
When the Baltimore Sun took a look into this off-putting explanation of the rule of thumb they concluded there wasn’t any evidence to support it. They offered up a less grim explanation: while making beer, brewers would test the temperature of the beer with their thumb.
FACT
If you’ve heard of Charlie No Face odds are you’re hoping he’s not real. But what if we told you there’s some truth to him? Legend has it that there’s a man who burned off much of his body, including his face. He would walk around at night to haunt his community, and people became fearful of him.
What if we told you Charlie No Face was just a regular guy named Raymond Robinson who had an unfortunate accident when he was a child? He enjoyed walking at night, something most of us like to do. But when he did it he got a wild story made up about him.
MYTH
Golf is a sport loved by people all around the world. No matter who you are, you’re welcome to join in and tee up. The game originated in Scotland and somehow its name was interpreted as an acronym that meant only men were allowed to participate. In reality, women didn’t have to earn the right to play, they were always allowed.
When the Scots invented the game, they took the Dutch word for “club” as their inspiration. In the 14th and 15th centuries they called it either “goff” or “goulff”. The game we all know and love today was finally named “golf” in the 16th century.
FACT
There are two types of people in this world, those who choose hotels and those who choose Airbnbs. You might think that you only need to worry about bed bugs in hotels, but have you heard about bed bodies? It sounds crazy, and you might not believe us, but people have found dead bodies in their mattresses!
It’s a creative way to hide a body, but you’re sure to be found out. Not to mention it’s incredibly traumatizing for the hotel guests. The next time you’re not sure what that funky smell is, take a peek in the mattress and see if any extra guests made their way into your room, and maybe go with an Airbnb next time!
MYTH
This statement has ruled our hair-washing schedule for as long as we can remember, especially in the winter months. When we asked, nobody could explain why wet hair would make us catch a cold. If you’ve wondered the same thing, today is your lucky day, because we’re about to debunk it.
The reason people get colds is solely due to contracting a virus. As much as we’d all love to avoid getting sick during the colder seasons, it’s just not possible. You can do your hair however you like, leave it wet or dry, and it won’t increase your chance of getting a cold.
FACT
Have you seen the movie Candyman? If you’re easily frightened you might not want to. In one scene, a character’s apartment is broken into via her medicine cabinet, which isn’t exactly soothing to the mind. It’s not always that fiction becomes reality, but when it does it can be quite scary.
For one unlucky soul, someone was able to enter her apartment and by going through the slot where her medicine cabinet was supposed to be. The layout and material used when building this complex were not up to par and it ended up costing this woman her life. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t afraid of opening our medicine cabinet tonight.
MYTH
Listening to old wives’ tales can hurt you more than it can help you, that’s why it’s best to follow the advice of modern medicine. The idea of starving a fever and feeding a cold couldn’t be farther from the truth. When you get any form of illness, including a fever, you lose fluids at high rates. If you want to get better you’ll need to replenish them.
The easiest way to do this is to keep a water bottle next to your bed, or better yet, a liquid with electrolytes. When it comes to food, you might not be up for it but doctors say you’ll miss out on key nutrients that will help you feel better.
MYTH
What’s your favorite hangover cure? Some people like to drink pickle juice or coconut water, and others go for the hair of the dog method. This means having another alcoholic beverage to lessen your hangover symptoms. A lot of people swear by this method. It was once believed that if you were bitten by a rabid dog you could cure your rabies if you drank something that had the hair of the animal in it.
If this form of problem-solving sounds a bit far-fetched to you, you’re not alone. It turns out this so-called “cure” didn’t work on rabies and it doesn’t work on hangovers either. Pickle juice might be your best bet after all!
FACT
We wish we were as cool as Neil Armstrong, after all, he was the first person to step foot on the moon. Even the coolest people make mistakes sometimes, the good thing is it makes us normal people feel a lot better about ourselves. Instead of saying “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” Neil said “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” which wasn’t in his script.
It happens to the best of us, his nerves got the best of him! The funny thing is nobody would have known if he hadn’t admitted to it on the radio.
MYTH
Vegetables are full of nutrients that can support you in many ways, but they can’t create any drastic change. We’ve all heard that eating an extreme amount of carrots can improve your eyesight. As much as all of us with glasses wish we could eat our way to 20/20 vision, sadly that’s not how it works.
Carrots contain a lot of the pigment beta-carotene, which is converted into Vitamin A. While this vitamin does provide some benefit to your eyesight, mainly with seeing when there isn’t a lot of light. But it can’t make any drastic changes. In fact, once your body has converted enough beta-carotene it will stop doing so.
FACT
The way the world works has always felt like a mystery. Sayings like “red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in morning, sailor’s warning” never meant much to us, but there’s some truth to it. If the sunset has a red hue to it it’s indicative of good weather the following day.
This is due to the high volume of dust in the air which means high pressure as well as stable air. On the flip side, if you see the red hue while the sun is rising it means that a storm is on the way. We should give more credit to folks of the past, it turns out they really know what they’re talking about.
MYTH
If you’re someone who chooses to remove your body hair you know just how stressful it can be. There are so many options, each with different risks, rewards, and of course price points. One of the cheapest ways to remove your hair is by shaving it, but we all live in fear that shaving our hair will make it grow back thicker. If this was true, then shaving would be counterproductive.
Good thing a medical esthetician was able to set the record straight. The reason we think our hair is growing back thicker is because it’s no longer tapered at the end. As it grows, it feels thicker. You may now shave in peace!
FACT
We’ll be honest with you, we’ve always cut the crusts off of our sandwiches. After finding out about all the benefits of the crust we wish we hadn’t done that. A study was done on bread, and it revealed that the crust is full of an antioxidant called pronyl-lysine. This antioxidant has properties that reverse cell damage, which could in turn lower your risk of getting cancer.
Please excuse us while we go cut the crusts off the bread so we can eat them exclusively, after all. We need to make up for all that lost time. What other foods have we been missing out on?
MYTH
For as long as we can remember, we’ve lived in fear of what happens when we swallow gum. We imagined it cemented itself inside our bodies, making itself a home in our intestinal tract. Thanks to those at Yale Scientific, we can all relax knowing this isn’t true. While our bodies can’t digest gum like actual food, it can’t stay there for prolonged periods of time.
It might take a bit longer for it to make its way through you, but it’s not going to become a permanent part of your insides. How many pieces of gum have you swallowed in your lifetime?
FACT
Cities that are popular amongst tourists will do anything to keep business booming. Part of this is swaying people to not listen to the unsavory rumors. The tourists heading to Las Vegas want to be wooed by the Strip, casinos, bars, and nightlife. If these people heard about the homeless living underground, they might be less inclined to visit.
Las Vegas does rely heavily on tourism, and when their homeless population was reprimanded for setting up on the Strip they had no choice but to utilize underground parts of the city. Maybe if Las Vegas spent as much time helping the homeless as they did trying to bring in tourism, they wouldn’t have this issue.
MYTH
Have you ever visited Scotland? One of the main reasons people like to go is in search of the Loch Ness monster, otherwise known as Nessie. Legend has it that she likes to lurk around Loch Ness, one of the deepest lakes in Scotland. She’s been making her way around the lake for quite some time now, but in 1933, claims about seeing her skyrocketed through the roof.
A new road was put in that allowed people to take in more of Loch Ness than ever before, and one couple went around saying they saw something, causing more people to believe in Nessie’s existence. We now know the photo they have has been debunked as a fake.
FACT
No matter how much a company tries to avoid scandals, they’re bound to run into one or two in their lifetime. There’s nothing we love more than an ice-cold Coca-Cola, and while what happened to them is funny, we guarantee it didn’t have too much of an effect on their business. They made a poster to advertise the famous drink and its new design, but things didn’t exactly go as planned.
They didn’t catch it at first, but one of their ice cubes had a sexual image on it. We’re not sure why a consumer was inspecting the ice cubes so intently, but maybe it’s better an adult found it before the kiddos got their eyes on it. This happened a while back, and they’re still in business.
MYTH
We’ve always wondered how claims like these come to be. There’s nothing particularly interesting about the direction a toilet flushes, we don’t think it’s something we’ve ever even noticed. The claim that in the southern hemisphere toilets flush in the opposite direction is based on the Coriolis Effect, which is the result of the Earth’s rotation on motion patterns.
This effect only applies to extreme weather, like hurricanes. What can actually affect the way your toilet flushes is simple. It typically comes down to design or even water pressure. After this, we bet you’ll notice the way your toilet flushes.
FACT
What’s your favorite childhood movie? One of our all-time favorites is “Up”, it’s a classic. Just when you think the story can’t get any sweeter, it does. And would you believe it, it’s based on a true story! Larry Walters might not have gotten his house to fly, but he did get a lawn chair to do so, which in our opinion is just as cool!
It didn’t even take as many balloons as you’d think, just 45, and he was up in the air for 45 minutes. Maybe that’s his lucky number. He would have made it farther if he didn’t get caught up in the power lines. Let Larry serve as a reminder to us all that your dreams can become a reality…and a movie if you’re really lucky.
MYTH
We love our fruits and vegetables, but we’ll be honest, we don’t know that much about how they came to be. If you asked us where bananas grow, we would have sworn that they grow on trees. Unfortunately, we were wrong and so was anyone else who believed this myth.
It might look like a tree, but don’t let it fool you, it’s actually a plant! A lot of people mistake it for a tree due to how tall they grow. If you take a deeper look at them you’ll notice that they don’t even have a trunk, just big ol’ stalks and leaves. But we don’t care what they grow on, as long as we can use them to make banana splits!
FACT
The saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” has been around since the dawn of time. We always liked it because it rhymed, though it didn’t feel like it held much truth. It turns out there’s something to it, but there’s a catch. Those who consume their daily dose of apples are less likely to have frequent visits to the doctor.
Here’s the thing, it doesn’t exactly have much to do with the fruit itself, but the type of people who eat an apple daily. These people tend to exhibit better health habits than non-apple eaters. This one is only partially true.
MYTH
George Washington accomplished a lot in his lifetime. One of the earliest things we ever heard about the first president of the United States was that he took a cherry tree down at just 6 years old, can you believe it? Neither can we, good thing it’s been proven false! He’s quoted as saying such, which you’d think would make it irrefutable, but just you wait…
It turns out this quote was made up by Mason Locke Weems, a Washington biographer. This was done to make Washington seem more appealing and obviously brought in extra business. It’s stories like these that make us wonder who we can trust.
FACT
Do you like a late-night snack? We know we do! It turns out this seemingly harmless habit of ours could be causing us to gain some extra weight. There has been a link between those who eat late at night and obesity. The reason is that eating late can disrupt your circadian rhythm, which serves as your body’s internal clock.
Additionally, it affects the way your body regulates blood sugar levels. Just know that you’re not alone in this, we all do it from time to time! Maybe from here on out we’ll try to curb our snacking habits.
MYTH
We’ve never been to a bullfight, but we’ve certainly seen a lot of them in cartoons. In bullfights, the matador will wave their red cape around to get the bull angry and cause them to charge. Here’s where the confusion lies, it’s not the color that incites this type of rage, it’s simply how the cape moves.
It makes sense, you might not like it if someone was waving something around in your face all day, especially if they were trying to fight you. The best part of this whole thing is that bulls are actually red-green colorblind!
FACT
What’s your favorite way to get rid of a cold? A great and delicious way to banish our sniffles is by eating a delicious bowl of chicken soup. Honestly, there’s nothing it can’t fix. And there’s a scientific reason behind why it’s so good at curing a cold. All the different ingredients in it provide enough vitamins and antioxidants to give our immune system an extra boost.
It even has an anti-inflammatory effect! And it doesn’t stop there, even the steam from the hot soup is helpful for congestion. What can’t chicken soup do? The next time you or someone you know is under the weather, make them a bowl of chicken soup!
FACT
Halloween is one of the best holidays out there, but it leaves a lot of people stressed, and with good reason. When you take your child trick or treating you expect the only trick they’ll deal with is a silly prank. But there are parents out there who are afraid their children will end up receiving candy laced with drugs.
However, it’s more common to find candy that has something sharp inside it. While it doesn’t happen often, it has happened before. In 2000, a 14-year-old found a needle in his Halloween candy. Thankfully, he wasn’t seriously injured, though the incident has caused parents to be warier about what their children are bringing home.
MYTH
When was the last time you were caught in a rainstorm? They can get quite intense and it’s important to take precautions to ensure you don’t get hurt. We’ve all heard the phrase “lightning never strikes the same place twice.” This makes a lot of people feel safer being in a place that had been hit before because they think it won’t strike there again.
We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but storm watchers have evidence of lightning strikes occurring in the same place over the course of a storm. Let this be a lesson to us all to not trust every safety tip we see on the internet.
FACT
Every state has one animal they absolutely loathe. For a lot of people, that animal is the alligator because of the frightening tale that they make a home for themselves in the sewer lines. This story has been gaining traction since the early 1900’s when it was alleged that neglectful pet owners would flush baby gators down the toilet.
These babies would grow into big beasts and the thought of them would terrify people. Imagine running errands and coming across a wild animal peeking at you through the sewer system. It may not be very common, but it does happen. What animal does your state have a standing issue with?
FACT
Not everyone feels like they can trust the government, and we don’t blame them. Its stories and legends like these make us a bit apprehensive. If you heard your government was stealing the bodies of deceased children to run experiments, we’re sure your initial reaction would be to write it off as a silly myth. That’s not the case with Project Sunshine.
To examine how nuclear radiation affects the human body, the U.S took the bodies of stillborn babies after dropping the first atomic bomb. Just wait, it gets worse. The parents weren’t notified about what happened to their children’s bodies. We’ll add the government to the list of people who give us trust issues.