FOURTEEN THINGS THAT MUMS SAY:  ARE THEY TRUE?

1.  Wear clean underwear at all times since you may be run over and will be embarrassed when you are undressed at the hospital

FALSE.  This is probably one of the silliest things mums can ever say.  According to Dr. Paul A. Silka of the Ruth and Harry Roman Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “When a patient is received we are interested in one thing and one thing only---stabilizing them and keeping them alive.  We are not concerned about underwear.” 

2.  Eat your vegetables and clean your plate because children in other countries are starving 

TRUE.  Sadly, there is much truth to this.  Every year 15 million children die of hunger.  The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed, and one-third is starving.  One in 12 people worldwide die of starvation.  The World Bank has termed “absolute poverty” the condition that affects 500 million people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  

3.  An apple a day keeps the Doctor away

TRUE.  Apples may benefit health.  For example, in 2006, Cornell University researchers found that the brain cells of laboratory rats were better protected from damage by quercetin.  This made the rats healthier.  Rats are very close to humans genetically.  (We all know some humans that are very close to rats in other ways too!)  Quercetin is an anti-oxidant found in high amounts in apples.  But it is also high in onions, blueberries, and cranberries.  So you could also say “An onion a day keeps the doctor away”---and everybody else too (phew, bad breath)!

4.  You can't start the day on an empty stomach

TRUE.  If you’re last meal was at 7pm and you start your next day at 7am, you have gone 12 hours without fuel.  Your blood sugar will be low and so will your energy.  It will be very difficult to perform well during the day.  A small meal in the morning keeps blood sugar and energy at a higher level.

5.  Don’t go out with a wet head, you’ll catch cold

FALSE.  You can only catch a cold if you are exposed to a virus.  Merely being cold is not enough.  However, if you get very cold for any reason, your body must burn more fuel.  With this additional stress to your system, you may be less resistant to a virus your immune system would otherwise have no difficulty with.  But the general rule is still:  No virus, no cold.

6.  Sit too close to the TV and you’ll ruin your eyes

FALSE.  Your eyes are more likely to get tired if you sit too close to a TV or computer screen.  But there are some doctors who believe that short-sightedness (myopia) can develop by looking at a TV or computer screen for too long---and from too close.  According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, children and adolescents can focus up close better than adults.  So they are more likely to want to sit very close to a TV screen.  If you’re only comfortable up close, this could indicate a need for glasses, but sitting too close is a symptom rather than a cause.

7.  There's enough dirt in those ears to grow potatoes!

FALSE.  They would have to be very tiny potatoes!  In fact, a little ear wax is good for you.  The stickiness of ear wax (cerumen) helps keep dirt and dust out of the sensitive middle and inner ear.  Cerumen also has anti-bacterial antiseptic properties that protect the ear from infections.  Although good for you in the ear, it is not helpful in the mouth.  Do not follow the example of the Prime Minister by eating it!

8.  A little soap and water won’t kill you

TRUE.  Soap and water won’t kill you.  They won’t even hurt you.  The only exception would be if you have the rare condition of aquagenic urticaria where you are allergic to water---including your own sweat---or if you are allergic to one or more of the ingredients in a particular brand of soap.  Too much soap and water can be drying to the skin, but a little of both won’t hurt if you have normal skin---and certainly won’t kill you.

9.  Eating carrots helps you see in the dark

TRUE.  There could be some truth in this.  Carrots are high in vitamin A.  Vitamin A is essential in the body’s production of the chemical retinal which helps make our eyes light-sensitive.  A serious vitamin A deficiency can weaken vision, especially night vision.  So eating carrots could help you see in the dark if you were deficient in vitamin A.  However, if you are already getting sufficient vitamin A and producing enough retinal, then eating carrots in order to get additional vitamin A probably would not affect vision.  

10. Eating your crusts makes your hair curl

FALSE.  There is no medical evidence to support the myth that eating bread crusts will make your hair grow curly. Or change hair in any other way for that matter.  However, although having nothing to do with hair, it is true that the crust may be the healthiest part of bread. Compared to the lighter part of bread, the darker part of bread may produce more healthy antioxidants.  These can help prevent the body absorbing harmful oxidising agents in the atmosphere such as ozone.  Curly hair or straight hair depends upon genes. The crust of bread has no bearing upon one's genetic make-up.  Although the origin of the myth that eating crusts can curl hair is unknown, it is thought to have emerged at least 300 years ago in Europe.  At that time, survival was more precarious and starvation was much more of a real possibility for everyone.  People can lose their hair when very sick and starving.  Healthy people were more likely to have enough to eat, including bread. It was also widely believed that healthy people had curly hair.  Bread crusts and curly hair were seen as being somehow related.  Furthermore, it was a practice well into the 19th century for poor people to sell their hair to wig makers.  The expression, "to sell one's hair for a crust", may have contributed to the myth that eating the crust has some effect upon hair.

11. If you’re too full to finish dinner you won’t have room for dessert

TRUE.  Science shows that if you are truly full, your stomach can take no more food, including desert.  Your stomach does not know the difference between foods.  But kids often say they are full when they are not.  They are “saving room” for desert that they know is coming and that they think will taste better.  Parents know this and say the above in order to get kids to eat the more nutritious foods rather than the high sugar deserts that kids love.  This is part of the propaganda in the parents/kids food war.   

12. Don’t eat cheese at night or you’ll have nightmares

TRUE.  Cheese can have a high salt content and thus cause thirst.  Thirst can disturb sleep and cause nightmares.  Cheese can also be heavy, difficult to digest, and thus can cause sleep disturbance including nightmares.  On the other hand, cheese, being a milk product, is high in L-tryptophan.  This is known to help sleep.  This is part of the basis for another mumism:  “Warm milk will help you sleep”. 

13. Don’t read in bad light, it’ll ruin your eyes

FALSE.  Most vision experts think that reading in poor light will make your eyes more tired than reading in good light, but will otherwise not likely damage eyes.  Still, why risk it?  Another mumism is:  “You only have one set of eyes, so take care of them!” 

14. If your ears are burning, it means someone is talking about you!

FALSE.  There is no medical evidence to support this myth at all.  How could there be?  The body doesn’t work that way.  If your ears burn, you’ve probably been out in the sun too long or using your mobile phone too much (possibly both).  The origin of this myth probably has to do in part at least with the fact that when some people blush, their ears turn red too---looking as if they are burning.  When people talk about you, what they might be saying might embarrass you---and make you blush.

 

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