BLOGGING THE VIEW: 10 ‘facts’ you believed as a kid debunked

BACK in the day, we didn’t have access to Google or social media platforms, so when somebody – usually an adult – told you something, you simply had to believe it as fact.

Ironically, social media platforms are now continuing this long tradition of ‘fake news’ but mostly for the less discerning among us.

Let’s start debunking a few of those childhood myths in case they’re still causing you anxiety…

1. Tastebud zones
This wasn’t just a story adults told us, it was shared in school textbooks! You have certain zones on your tongue where you can taste salty, sweet, sour, bitter there – and only there. Fact is, you have receptors all over your tongue to pick up these different tastes.

2. Sugar makes you hyper
This was mostly based on a study conducted in the 1970s that showed a child’s behaviour improved when sugar was removed from the diet. Don’t be mistaken – sugar is very bad for you and should be avoided, but the idea of a sugar high is unfounded.

3. Don’t swim after eating
I still believe this one! The tale went that if you swam immediately after eating, you’d get a cramp and drown. This is because the blood is diverted to the stomach to digest food, rather than the arms and legs. While blood is diverted to the stomach, it’s not at the expense of your limbs.

4. Urine makes a pool change colour
Remember the story that if you urinated in the pool it would turn a different colour because of a specific pool dye? Well, it doesn’t exist. That said, rather don’t urinate in the pool please!

5. You can die in quicksand
For some reason, 80s movies had a predilection for slow deaths in quicksand that seemed to resonate with a generation. It’s not likely. Your legs might sink a little but you are unlikely to sink further. The biggest risk would be if the tide was coming in, causing you to drown. But, again, that’s unlikely.

6. Never wake a sleepwalker
Waking a sleepwalker could cause them to have a heart attack. Nah! It might startle them, but unless they’re doing something dangerous, you could just let them be.

7. Don’t sneeze with open eyes
It’s a biological reflex that if you sneeze, you close your eyes. When we were young, we believed that if you tried to keep your eyes open while sneezing they would pop out of your head. This is false.

8. We use only 10% of our brain
Well…. Jokes! No, this was some 1900s belief that kept being repeated by motivational speakers with no fact-checking ability. We use all our brain for (most) of the time.

9. You swallow spiders in your sleep
In theory, sure, you might swallow a spider, but it’s not multiple spiders in your lifetime. Spiders are scared of us! While sleeping, we have a noisy heartbeat, deep breathing, snoring, and lots of other movements and noises to scare spiders (and often sleep partners) off!

10. Breakfast is best
It’s important, but as important as the other meals – so don’t skip it! Our bodies need good nutrition throughout the day, it’s just that breakfast is often overlooked during a manic morning routine.

SOURCES:
www.uchealth.org
www.archive.thetab.com

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