Food-related lies/myths that adults tell kids?
this topic reminded me of things that I was taught as a kid and stuck around for a while.
here are some examples:
"You'll go blind if you leave rice grains in your bowl" by my 2nd-grade school teacher during school lunch (in Japan, kids used to have to finish whatever served for lunch, even if they don't like it. I don't think it's true anymore).
"Coca cola melts your teeth." (somewhat true).
Of course I didn't really buy what they said at that time, but I still feel like I can't leave any food on my plate (especially rice).
Do you have similar stories?
Have you told your kids convenient lies about foods?
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47 Comments:
"Bread crusts make your hair curly." Could be true...I love the crusts and heels of bread and my hair is very curly.
sweethunibabi at 10:51PM on 02/19/09
Eating the crust of your sandwich will give you curly hair, and of course, the ubiquitous "carrots will make you see in the dark."
smallblondemom at 10:52PM on 02/19/09
my grandmother used to tell my dad that the white parts of the orange are the best for you because he was picky about his orange segments and she got sick of it. he believed it for years.
megannesta at 11:02PM on 02/19/09
if you swallow watermelon seeds, a watermelon vine will grow in your belly and a watermelon will come out of your mouth.
cybercita at 11:03PM on 02/19/09
"Finsh your plate - there are children starving in China."
Made no sense then, makes no sense now.
moibec at 11:35PM on 02/19/09
Milk will help you grow stronger.
Also, same thing as @cybercita's, only with grapes. And if you swallow a cherry pit, a cherry tree is supposed to grow on your head.
Apropo of head -- not food related, but when I was 5-6, I used to read a lot (I started reading when I was 3.5), and my father wanted me to play outside, so he used to tell me that if I kept reading so much, my body will stay very small, but my head will keep growing and growing, and I will end up having a gigantic head on a tiny body. This was seriously scary to me, although apparently not scary enough to change my reading habits.
brooke29 at 11:37PM on 02/19/09
My parents would lie and say the bread crusts were good for us and we had to eat them, and they wouldn't cut them off. I remember when I realized breat crusts are just that, crust, and that gimmick went south, lol.
My parents never let us be picky, stories or no stories, lol.
omnomnom at 12:13AM on 02/20/09
if you swallow your gum it will become a rock in your belly.
andshewas at 12:26AM on 02/20/09
My Grandma told me that if I didn't eat the crusts on my sandwiches, my hair will fall out. I learned to love crusts of all types. Baldness still found me. Blah.
Carnal at 12:45AM on 02/20/09
Eat the potato peels. That's where all the vitamins are.
Remander at 12:54AM on 02/20/09
Don't walk barefoot on a cold kitchen floor or you will get a bladder infection.
Don't eat hard boiled eggs at night or you will have bad stomach problems.
Throw a grain a salt over your head for good luck.
Apple a day keeps the Doctor away.
Rub some a tiny bit opium on collicky babies gums to get them to sleep, (old counrty).
pjracz10 at 1:00AM on 02/20/09
Oh, I remembered another one, from my Gran (and a rather odd one at that):
Don't drink cold drinks when you eat fatty foods, it will twist your intestines.
brooke29 at 1:05AM on 02/20/09
Clean your plate and the next day will be sunny.
I've heard the "bread crusts will make your hair curl" as well. I simply argued that I wanted straight hair. ;)
mikaque at 1:47AM on 02/20/09
My mom browned chicken pieces and pork chops in a pan on the stovetop before baking, otherwise we'd be poisoned. Made them nice and crispy though!
LunaPierCook at 5:50AM on 02/20/09
"Olives will give you kidney disease" (I still don't like them).
The grand myth was "Bagels are nothing more than donuts that have been baked" !
Ribster at 6:32AM on 02/20/09
Not food related exactly, but my mother always told us that ONLY cold water worked when using the garbage disposal. Never, never use hot! In college, I realized she was just trying to save on her hot water bill. My sister just figured it out last year (20 years after graduating college).
smallkitchen at 6:56AM on 02/20/09
When I was around 8 my mom informed me one day that I was allergic to chocolate and could no longer eat it. No doctor visit just a phone call (that never happened) telling her that the rash on my arm was a reaction to chocolate (the rash was from my scratching an insect bite). SHE did not like chocolate and could not understand my love of it. That lasted about a week. I ate chocolate at every opportunity and no rash. One of my friends mothers called her on it and the mystery allergy to chocolate simply "went away.
finsbigfan at 8:01AM on 02/20/09
The bread crust ones crack me up and then I remember my mother telling my brother to eat his bread crust, it will put hair on your chest. Bf- says his parents used to tell them not to swallow any fruit seeds because you will grow roots on the bottem of your feet and branches on the top of your head and it will kill you as you become a tree. He said for a litle kid it scared the hell out of him.
pjracz10 at 8:22AM on 02/20/09
haha, thank you, they're all interesting!
I've never heard of bread crust-> curly hair, probably because that wouldn't work well for Japanese girls (and "sandwich bread" in Japan is usually crustless) :-)
I've heard of seeds-> sprouts, though. I think I did have a small fear about that as a kid.
the white parts of orange actually have lots of flavonoids, so megannesta's grandmother was scientifically correct!
@brooke29, in Japan we have "eating tempura with watermelons will give you a stomachache," which is kind of similar (oily + cold watery food)
@finsbigfan, "too much chocolate gives you a nosebleed" is very ubiquitous in Japan. I actually believed it for a long time, and recently found out that was a myth.
hmw0029 at 8:30AM on 02/20/09
I used to love finishing off my mother's coffee. My dad did not like this habit so he told me that drinking coffee would stunt your growth. He may be right though, I am only 5' 1". Of course my mother is very short to so it could be genetic and not our coffee habits!
LizSherman at 8:32AM on 02/20/09
I used to get the line that gum that you swallowed would stay in your stomach for 10 years being digested. This line was handed to me by the smartest boy in my Grade 3 class (his name was David) and I totally believed it. I think probably teachers were propagating that one to prevent us from secretly chewing gum in class and then swallowing it when we were going to be found out.
Maureen at 9:25AM on 02/20/09
The favorite one in my family was, "[Insert not-so-tasty vegetable] will put hair on your chest." I do have a lot of chest hair, so I guess all the veggie eating has paid off.
crispyscorpio at 9:45AM on 02/20/09
My parents were lucky... They never had to make up reasons why I should eat something. In fact they threatened to put a lock on the fridge when my brother and I were in high school. The one food myth I always hated was when we went to the beach and were told not to swim for at least 30 minutes after we ate...
Coffee stunting your growth I did hear. So when my parents were having coffee and my brother and I wanted some, my mother would make us something she called "Scotch Tea" which was just cream in hotwater with sugar... Has anybody else heard of "Scotch Tea" or is my mother (as I have suspected all along) crazy?!
Pavlov at 9:54AM on 02/20/09
That all of the vitamins in brocolli were in the stems, not the florets; and in the crusts of the bread; and in the peels of the potatos.
juliebugsmama at 10:04AM on 02/20/09
You will be sold to the gypsies as a dish-washing slave if you spill milk in the car.
heisey at 10:42AM on 02/20/09
What's up with the chest hair!? Do boys want to grow chest hair?
There are still things that I don't know about American culture :-)
Oh and potato peels, too, since Japanese people are paranoid about solanine.
hmw0029 at 11:38AM on 02/20/09
This isn't really a lie or myth but it's something my parents used to tell me and my brothers when we didn't like our vegetables: think of it covered in chocolate!
A non-food related lie my brother used to tell me was that I would die if I accidentally swallowed my toothpaste. One time I did and I started screaming and my parents couldn't understand why...
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 12:44PM on 02/20/09
@Hillary, according to a recent episode of one of the CSI shows, there's enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill an adult. So parents need to be careful that kids don't start eating the stuff, but a little bit is okay.
As far as my childhood, you couldn't go in water for an hour after eating anything. We're not talking about swimming or exerting yourself, this applied to wading in a kiddie pool.
dbcurrie at 12:56PM on 02/20/09
I once told my fussy one year old that mixed vegetables were "special corn." He bought it until he was two. He still only likes corn as far as cooked veggies go. I can occasionally get him to eat salad--and now he's fourteen.
dhorst at 1:11PM on 02/20/09
for a long time i thought that beets were dessert, because that's what my chinese grandma would give us for dessert.
billyburgwife at 1:58PM on 02/20/09
My dad used to say "eat your carrots,they will keep you from going blind.Have you ever seen Bugs Bunny wearing glasses"!!!
marchesa at 2:15PM on 02/20/09
I totally believed that eating turkey makes you sleepy. Tryptophan made it sound convincing! but it's a myth.
Carrots (and other foods rich in carotenoids) do improve your eyesight, but I like how parents exaggerate the point :-)
hmw0029 at 4:53PM on 02/20/09
The rule at our house was that you ate everything on your plate or nothing at all.
My brother loved extra cheese on his pizza and being the wonderful older brother he was... he told me that cheese was really boogers so that I wouldn't want it. He would heroically eat it for me.
gingercookiewithlime at 5:41PM on 02/20/09
@Pavlov--I was given what was called 'cambric tea'--pretty much hot water, milk, and a tea bag dunked for two seconds--as a child.
No one ever intentionally lied to me as a child about food but my mother and father firmly believed:
1. If you did not drink orange juice every day, you would get scurvy.
2. If you did not drink milk everyday, your growing bones would turn to Jell-O.
3. Meat at every meal was a necessity.
4. McDonald's was fine, because it was not sugar and....
5. Sugar will make you fat. Any sugar. Sugar is evil.
6. Cheese before bed will give you nightmares.
7. Did I mention that desserts will make you fat?
8. Spinach will make you strong.
9. You need carrots to see.
10. An apple a day keeps the doctor away--and only an apple. Not strawberries, grapes, or even vegetables...you must have an apple...
HeartofGlass at 7:44PM on 02/20/09
My father always told me not to eat hot bagels because it would become rocks in my stomach. I also wasn't allowed in the water (to wade!) for 30 minutes after eating. And if you swallow a watermelon or cherry pit you would grow a watermelon or cherry tree in your tummy.
deefine at 8:09PM on 02/20/09
I was not allowed to have ice cream before bed as my mother told me it would give me nightmares. We also had the crusts story - we were told it would put hair on your chest - not something a girl strives for! My mother also swears to this day that lard slathered on my feet was the only thing that broke my fever as an infant. (?????)
cinamongirl at 8:22PM on 02/20/09
I wouldn't eat the endive in my salad when I was a kid (still can't abide the bitter crap) so my grandfather told me it would give me rosy cheeks. He's quite the storyteller, and I bought it, and ate every horrible bite! When I was finished, he told me to close my eyes so he could bring me a mirror. He then proceeded to tape a red poker chip to each one of my cheeks. Even at 5 years old, I had to admit that it was pretty funny.
And I don't get the chest hair thing either, @hmw0029! I prefer my men smooth-chested. That's why I married a Filipino. :)
buffy at 9:16PM on 02/20/09
Watermelon pits would grow into watermelons in my tummy, apple seeds (which I dearly loved to eat, core and all) would turn into trees and grow out of my head, swallowed gum stayed in your stomach forever. Let me thank, right here and now, my 3rd grade teacher who said, no, none of that stuff happened.
The creepiest one was that if I ate a living creature (strict veg household) their screams of pain would haunt me in my sleep. That one took a while to get over.
I told my godson, who hated vegetables but loved dinosaurs, that broccoli was dinosaur grass, at which point he happily chomped away.
chisai at 9:27PM on 02/20/09
From my past life as a Starbucks Barista, I remember someone telling their child that everything in the pastry case was spicy and they wouldn't like it. Not a bad idea!
mcanna at 11:44PM on 02/20/09
I heard the "(insert food here) will put hair on your chest" thing. Yes, because apparently that's the cool thing now...women with hairy chests. Kind of like when my ex-bf tried to convince me tequila was great because it made girls' clothes fall off. Just what I want...a hairy chest and naked women. Great.
I also heard the "all the vitamins are in the orange's pulp/potato's skin" lines, but I think that my parents truly believed that.
cycorider at 12:59AM on 02/21/09
My mom told me and my older sister that the onions on a McDonald's cheeseburger were actually rice. It took a few years to realize they were actually onions.
My baby sister actually made up her own myth ("Blueberries make you smart,") to convince our brother (her twin) to eat fruit.
I was always told that too much candy would give me a stomach ache. Oddly enough, I made it through childhood with no cavities and no candy-related stomach aches... But I can't gorge myself on sugar anymore without some sort of reaction.
sideshowMel at 5:52AM on 02/21/09
I just remember being told (insert food) will make your skin smooth, or will make you beautiful.
Also, I was told if you don't finish the food on your plate your husband/wife will have lots of pimples and if you finish your food they will be really good looking.
Yes, apparently we were really into vanity.
ag3208 at 8:00AM on 02/21/09
there are some good ideas to fool kids! ;-) I don't have any child but my friend's kid is a picky eater.
@ag3208, I think I heard the "pimples" line from my Taiwanese-American friend!
hmw0029 at 1:33PM on 02/21/09
My mom used to say that I would get appendicitis if I played too hard after eating. I had forgotten about that until just now when I was reading about appendicitis.
runnereater at 5:04PM on 02/21/09
If my 18 month old isn't eating his dinner, I'll pretend to sprinkle some raisins over everything, mix it up, and he'll clear his plate. ;)
Meleyna
http://wwww.makingitwithmeleyna.com
meleyna at 10:01PM on 02/21/09
We couldn't drink milk with rhubarb sauce or pie, cuz the milk would curdle in your stomach.
windjunkie at 10:50PM on 02/21/09
Thanks to Dr. Spock's book on child-rearing, my mom believes to this day that too much sugar makes you hyper. Granted, everything makes me hyper, so maybe she wasn't completely wrong.
@smallkitchen - my mom also believes the bit about cold water and the garbage disposal! Her older brother told her the disposal engine would over-heat if you used hot water. I'm fairly certain he was pulling her leg.
TheCheapChick at 6:02PM on 02/23/09