27 Myths We All Grew Up Believing But Are False

Eating before swimming doesn’t cause cramps. Everyone knows that you have to wait at least 30 minutes after eating to go swimming. If you don’t, you might cramp up or, even worse, sink! This is actually not true. Our bodies are perfectly adapted to swim while full! If you do happen to get a cramp while in the pool for any reason, just relax and float, and you’ll be feeling fine soon enough!

Handling a toad or frog won’t give you warts. Warts are caused by a certain virus that’s only carried by humans! This myth came about because of the bumpy, wart-like skin texture of toads and tree frogs. Frogs might not give you warts, but they could be poisonous, so you still shouldn’t handle them!

You don’t accidentally eat 8 spiders a year while sleeping. This old myth doesn’t have a leg, or eight legs, to stand on! Most people sleep with their mouth closed, so in the unlikely event that a spider made it to your face, it wouldn’t have the opportunity to go into your mouth! If you sleep with your mouth open, you’re most likely snoring, which creates vibrations strong enough to scare any spiders away!

Bananas don’t grow on trees. We call the plant that bananas grow on ’banana trees,’ but they’re actually a herb. Weirdly, they’re most closely related to the ginger family! These “trees” are really just big stem-like succulents, like aloe vera, jade plants, or cacti! The banana itself is also technically a berry, like a pumpkin, cucumber, and avocado!

Sitting too close to a TV won’t ruin your eyes! We’ve all been told not to sit too close to the TV and PC monitor, or you’ll damage your eyes. Ophthalmologists have said that it can cause temporary strain to the eyes, but long-term problems are rare. If you’re nearsighted, chances are you are always going to be whether you sit too close or not!

You don’t lose most of your body heat through your head! While it may feel that way during winter, our body loses heat all over! You need to wear a hat because it’s more exposed, unlike the rest of the body, which is kept toasty with jackets and thick pants!

Swallowed gum won’t stay in you for 7 years. You should definitely avoid swallowing gum; it definitely isn’t good for you. But just in case you do by accident, you’ll be happy to learn that it won’t stay inside your body for 7 years! You can’t fully digest the gum, but all that happens is the gum leaves your body naturally in a matter of days.

Our tongues don’t have different sections for tasting. There are no bitter, sweet, sour, umami, or salty sections of our tongues whatsoever! This giant muscle can taste everything all over, so you don’t need to worry about keeping specific foods in specific parts of your mouth.

Fingerprints might not be unique. Sounds terrifying, doesn’t it! The reasoning is actually very simple. We can’t check every fingerprint on earth, so it’s difficult to know if they really are unique to each individual. Related people can have somewhat similar fingerprints, and there are over 7 billion people on the planet, so it’s almost impossible to check.

Sushi doesn’t mean raw fish. While many people will think it means raw fish, sushi comes from a Japanese word meaning “sour rice”! And it’s the rice that’s at the heart and soul of every piece of sushi! That’s why you can buy sushi with cooked fish in it in supermarkets.

Sharks do have tongues. It’s a common debate, but it turns out that sharks do have tongues, just not the type of ones that you can find on people. Most can’t even move them around, so it barely counts. For example, the cookiecutter shark’s tongue doesn’t help much with eating. Instead, it supports some of the bones around its gills. And no, it doesn’t make delicious cookies.

You can swallow watermelon seeds. Watermelon is the perfect summertime treat, but worrying about a plant growing inside you can completely ruin it! Not to worry, seeds can’t survive and grow inside stomach acid. Watermelon seeds are actually GOOD for you!

Flies live longer than 24 hours. Some flies can live for a few days to even years! That’s right, those pesky houseflies live a lot longer than you think! Sometimes even up to a month, so trapping one in a room won’t make it go away faster. It just means you won’t have access to that room for a LONG time!

Fresh fruits and veggies aren’t superior to frozen. Having fresh instead of frozen produce might seem like a no-brainer, but the choice isn’t actually so simple! By the time that juicy mango or crisp carrot gets to your local store, it’s been through a lot.
Most fresh produce travels on trucks, ships, and planes and gets processed. Once it arrives, it’s often covered in pesticides in order to keep it fresh! On the other hand, frozen fruits and vegetables are immediately frozen, keeping all their nutrients and minerals preserved! If you can grow your own produce, though, you can guarantee freshness!

The Great Wall of China can’t be seen from the moon. The only thing you can see from the Moon is Earth, which is mostly white, with blue and patches of yellow and green vegetation. No man-made object is easily visible from this far away! In low Earth orbit, though, cities can be seen during the day and night. These include major roadways, airports, dams, and reservoirs. Hey! I can even see my house from there.

Lightning can strike the same spot more than once. This myth has been around for a very long time, and it’s just not simply true. Lightning will strike whatever is attracting it, however many times it can! This means that in many cases, it’s more likely to strike twice! Just watch the Empire State Building during a lightning storm. It gets hit more than 100 times every year!

Saturn’s rings aren’t solid. When you see a photo of Saturn, it’d be easy to assume that the rings are solid, but they’re not! There are tiny particles of rock and ice that vary in size! From as small as a grain of sand to as large as a house! Good luck trying to spacewalk on these rings!

Cracking your knuckles won’t cause arthritis. A lot of people are scared to crack their knuckle joints because of advice from friends and family. The most common myth is that it causes arthritis. This just isn’t true at all. One scientist even cracked the knuckles in his left hand for over 60 years and was left with no discomfort whatsoever!

Waking a sleepwalker won’t hurt them. In fact, the most dangerous thing for a sleepwalker is allowing them to carry on wandering around. Getting them back to bed, so they don’t hurt themselves is the best way to make sure they’re ok.

We use most of our brain percentage. We use far more than the myth of 10%! That’s right! Especially you, Bright Side viewer. Although some parts of the brain have yet to be figured out by scientists, we know enough to debunk this idea. We actually turn parts of our brain on and off and tap into different parts when they’re needed! We haven’t unlocked any secret powers yet, but hopefully, we can find something one day!

Bears don’t really sleep during hibernation. Bears don’t sleep for months on end while hibernating. They actually go into something called torpor! This means that they slow things down in their bodies but are still able to react to any stimuli around them! If you see one sleeping during winter, make sure to keep your distance.

Chameleons change color to show their mood and to communicate. Chameleons are known as masters of camouflage, but they often don’t even use their abilities to camouflage! They actually change color to show when they’re feeling a strong emotion. When they’re agitated and upset, they’ll turn black. When they’re happy, they’ll stay a bright green or blue!

The sun isn’t a fireball. The sun doesn’t “burn,” as we think of, like logs on a fire or a gas stove. It glows because it’s a giant ball of gas, with nuclear fusion is taking place in its core! Our sun isn’t yellow or white either. It glows green-blue! The human eye sees all the rainbow colors around it and mixes them all together to make the sun’s famous golden yellow.

Dogs see more than black and white. Asking dogs to read an eye chart or to pick out colors would be impractical, but scientists have been able to figure out the vision of dogs. They see the world through a basic color scheme of yellow, blue, and gray! Not black and white!

It seems that they also lack the ability to see the range of colors from green to red. Chasing a tennis ball has to do with movement and smell more than color!

Salt doesn’t make water boil faster. That tiny pinch you put in before your pasta doesn’t make any difference to the amount of time it takes to come up to the boil. The same goes for putting oil into the water to stop your pasta from sticking. It doesn’t work, but it might still be worth adding some if you want to make sure the water doesn’t boil over!

Vikings probably never wore horned helmets. As awesome as they looked, Vikings didn’t have a practical use for horned helmets. This look was created for an opera costume in the 19th century, and it has stuck ever since! Get the point? Looking sharp. Some Vikings might have used them, but archaeological finds have suggested that if they did use them, it wasn’t very common!