An article published in the British Medical Journal written by researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine has dismissed commonly held beliefs as nothing but myths.
Researchers said that there is no evidence to support the theory that more heat escapes from the head than the rest of the body, eating at night makes people fat or that giving children more sugar makes them hyperactive.
Each example was dismissed as a myth and its origins discovered. On the issue of giving children sugar, 12 clinical trials found no difference in children’s behaviour and that it was all in the parents’ mind.
Other beliefs which were dismissed as old wives’ tales include poinsettia plants being toxic and the possibility of curing or preventing a hangover.
