8 Of The Best Lies That People Told You About Their Food

What not parents need to do to make these fussy children eat ! Yes, so true !! To handle the tantrums of these little cutesters, parents always create stories. When you're little you think that your parents know everything, so when they tell you that carrots help you see in the dark or that spinach makes your strong, you believe them.

Curiously, everyone's parents seemed to have the same lies to tell, so we asked around and collected 8 of the best lies that people were told about their food.

Bread crusts will make your hair curly

Now that we're all grown up we know that it's pretty unlikely that eating bread crusts will do anything to your hair…but that doesn't mean it isn't good for you. In fact there is evidence of a higher concentration of nutrients in the crust than the center. Legend has it that this particular food myth may have started in Europe several hundred years ago, where a thick head of curly hair was known to be a sign of good health.

Haggis is an animal that lives in Scotland

Parents love to make up stories to get their kids to eat their dinner, and in Scotland it's no different. In fact parents went so far as to make up a mythical animal to avoid telling their little ones where their traditional haggis really comes from (it's actually made from oats and the organs of sheep). Wild haggis is said to be native to the Scottish Highlands and it has legs that are different lengths so it can run around one the mountains and hillsides of the countryside – but only ever in one direction.

If you eat the seeds from a piece of fruit, a tree will grow in your tummy

This was always an odd one, if you eat the seeds of an apple, orange or watermelon, then a plant will start to grow…first of all can we just take a minute to appreciate how terrifying this lie is. Secondly, it makes no sense when you think about logically, there are plenty of seeds you eat regularly and these were never considered part of the lie. What about strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, cucumbers…no internal gardening going on there, so what made apples, oranges and melons so special?

Fruit serves as the protective shell for seeds as they develop, and while accidentally eating a fruit seed may not lead to a plant growing inside you, some seeds are better for you than others.

In fact, the seeds of pears, papayas, watermelons and jackfruit are good for you, they can help lower your cholesterol, ease bowel issues, help digest protein and regulate your blood pressure. Other seeds are not so great, apple seeds for example, contain cyanide – you would have to eat a lot of seeds for it to poison you, around 200!

If you swallow bubblegum it will stay in your tummy for years

Although gum is designed to be chewed and not swallowed, it isn't particularly harmful if swallowed. Despite what your parents told you, it doesn't take seven years to digest gum. While it is true that your stomach cannot digest the gum, it doesn't stay in your stomach. It moves relatively intact through your digestive system and out the other end.

You shouldn't eat fish and then drink milk or you will get spots

Truly an old wives tale that has been told the world over but where did it come from? Well, it's no secret that both milk and fish are really nasty when they go off and in the days before refrigeration and pasteurization you can imagine how quickly things went off which could very easily cause food poisoning. But spots? Well that's just untrue. There is no evidence to suggest that eating dairy and fish together will have any sort of effect on your skin.

The ice cream van only plays it's tune when they have run out of ice cream There is no rhyme or reason to this one other than your parents didn't want you eating ice cream.

If you try a new food you'll live 72 days longer

We're not sure where this came from or who made it up – we scoured the web and came up empty – but who's to say there isn't some truth to it? So why not try something new today?

Chocolate milk comes from brown cows and regular milk comes from black and white cows (no, no one knows where strawberry milk comes from)

There is some twisted logic to this one…chocolate milk is brown, the cow is brown…but it's really not true, any coloured cow produces milk. So do nuts, seeds and plants, so why not shake things up a little and try something !