原文: Top 10 Old Wives Tales Debunked

Almost all of us have, at some time, been chided by a parent or grandparent who has been mislead by an old wive’s tale. Their intentions are always good, but unfortunately they are misguided. There are thousands of old wive’s tales - ranging from the seemingly logical to the outright bizarre.

This is a list of ten of the most common old wive’s tales which are, in fact, bunkum! Feel free to use the comments to tell us about some of the more unusual tales you have come across in your life.

In fact, both colds and fevers cause dehydration - so liquids are essential when suffering from either. In addition, missing out on food when you are sick is never a good idea as food provides the body with the sustenance it needs to get healthy. So, you should feed a fever and feed a cold. This, of course, does not mean to overeat - it means to eat healthy balanced meals.

There is an old wive’s tale that says that if you eat within an hour of swimming you will get cramp. The Red Cross says that eating directly prior to swimming does not increase risk of cramp at all. They do, however, recommend at least waiting for digestion to begin if you have eaten a particularly fatty meal. They also recommend that you not eat gum or food while you are swimming.

There is actually not an iota of evidence to support this tale - no food type (not just chocolate) can cause acne or bad skin. Needless to say, eating too much chocolate or sugary food is unhealthy for the body, but it will not cause skin problems. Acne is actually caused by changes in the lower layers of the skin surrounding hair follicles.

It is possible that this tale came about due to allied propaganda during the second world war when rumors were spread that the British airmen had excellent night vision due to eating carrots. The myth was spread to stop the Germans from discovering that the British were using Radar. While carrots contain vitamin A which is good for healthy eyes, eating lots of them will do nothing to improve your vision.

There are a huge number of myths about how to catch a cold, but in fact there is only one way to catch a cold virus - by direct contact with the virus itself. You can stand outside on a cold night with wet hair and your chances of getting a cold do not increase at all. The reason that colds seem to spread more in Winter is not from the cold itself, but the fact that people tend to live more often indoors and this increases your chances of coming in to contact with a sufferer. It is also worth mentioning that if you get a cold in your nose, you can not stop it from spreading to your chest if the virus is programmed to attack you there. Most cold medicines are completely pointless and do nothing to help except alleviate the pain through the inclusion of painkillers.

My parents constantly told me off for sitting too close to the television when I was a kid - I was told that my eyesight would deteriorate from doing so. The same was also said of reading in dim light. In fact, neither of these things do any damage to the eyes. It should be noted, however, that spending too much time in front of the TV is not good for children (regardless of how close they sit) as research has shown that children who spend 10 hours or more in front of the television each week are more likely to become overweight, aggressive, and slower in school.

The tale states that masturbation will cause blindness (in France it is said it will cause deafness). This is not true (at least not completely) and the idea has probably been spread in order to prevent children from masturbating for religious reasons. Curiously, sperm contains quite a lot of zinc, and a serious zinc deficiency can cause a decline in vision. However, it is nearly impossible to cause a zinc deficiency through masturbating.

While it is true that constant knuckle cracking can reduce the strength of your grip and cause swelling, it does not lead to arthritis. There are many causes of arthritis (such as trauma or infection of a joint, or old age), but knuckle cracking is not one of them.

If a person suffers from an ulcer, spicy food can often aggravate it; however, ulcers are not caused by spicy food at all - if they were, ulcers would be pandemic in many eastern nations. An ulcer is usually caused by overuse of medications like aspirin and anti-inflammatories.

It is almost certain that this strange old wive’s tale has come about because of the appearance of wart-like growths on many toads. In fact, these growths are not human compatible at all. Warts are caused by viruses and they are almost always exclusive to a particular genus of creature. Human’s cannot catch warts from other animals, and animals can not catch human warts. The most common human wart virus is called the human papillomavirus.

译文: 被识破的10个最迷信的故事

      有时候，我们大多数人都会受到被迷信的故事误导的母亲或祖父祖母的责备。他们的本意总是好的，但不幸的是，他们被误导了。有很多迷信的故事----从看似合乎逻辑的到完全异乎寻常的。

      这就是迷信故事中最平常的10个故事，事实上，全是废话！看看下面的评论，也谈谈在你在生活中所遇到的奇怪故事。

10
伤风时宜吃，发热时宜饿

      实际上，感冒和发烧都会造成脱水—所以，只要是感冒或是发烧，液体都是非常必要的。此外，在生病时不吃东西决不是个什么好办法，因为食物会给我们的身体提供其所需要的营养。所以，你必须在你发烧和感冒时吃东西。当然，这不是说你可以吃得过饱—而是说健康而平衡的饮食。

9
在游泳前进食

      有个古老的迷信故事说道，如果你在游泳期间的一个小时之内进食，那么你就会抽筋。红十字会说在游泳前直接进食一点都不会增加抽筋的风险。但，他们强调建议，如果你吃了一顿丰盛的一餐，那在游泳前至少要等待消化后才能开始。他们也建议当你在游泳时不要咀嚼口香糖或是吃东西。

8
巧克力会引起痤疮

      这个故事事实上几乎没有任何的证据来证明---没有任何一种食物（不仅仅是巧克力）会引起痤疮或是对皮肤造成不好的影响。不用说，吃太多的巧克力或是糖类食品对身体是不健康的，但不会引起皮肤问题。痤疮实际是有头发内层周围的发囊的皮肤变化而造成的。

7
胡萝卜有助于提高你的视力

      这个故事可能源于同盟国的宣传。在二战期间，有谣言说英国的飞行员因为吃了胡萝卜所以视力非常的好。散播这个神话只是为了不让德国发现英国正在用雷达。然而，胡萝卜中含有对生素A, 对眼睛的健康是很有用的，但吃大量的胡萝卜并不能提高你的视力。

6
患上感冒

      有很多关于怎样患上感冒的故事，但实际上，要想感冒，只有一个办法—和感冒病毒直接近距离的接触。你可以在冷冷的夜晚耷拉着湿漉漉的头发站到外面去，但你感冒的几率一点也不会提高。原因是之所以看起来在冬天更容易散播，不是因为寒冷本身，而事实上，是人们喜欢呆在室内从而成为受患者的几率也提高了。更值得一提的是，如果你是鼻子感冒了，那么你就不能阻止感冒散步到你的胸部，假如病毒计划侵入到你的胸部的话。大多数的感冒药是完全没有意义的，除了能通过止痛药中所包含的药物来缓解痛苦外，起不到任何的作用。

5
电视和视力

      当我还小的时候，我的父母总是提醒我不要靠电视机太近—我被告知如果我那样做的话，我的视力会变差的。同样，他们也告诉我不要在太暗的灯光下看书。实际上，这两种做法都不会对我们的眼睛造成损害。然而，应该指出的是，花太多的时间在电视机前对孩子来说是不好的（不管他们坐离电视机有多近）。因为，有调查研究表明，那些花10个小时或更多时间在电视机前的小孩更容易超重，暴躁，在学校显得迟钝。

4
手淫造成盲目

      这个故事称手淫会造成盲目（在法国的说法是会导致耳聋）。这是不正确的（至少不完全是）。散布这种说法可能是出于宗教原因，为了防止儿童手淫。奇怪的是，精子含有大量的锌，锌的严重缺乏会导致视力的下降。然而，手淫几乎是不可能导致锌的严重缺乏的。

3
指节和关节炎

      掰响关节是削弱你手指的握力导致手指肿胀，但不会引起关节炎。造成关节炎的原因有很多（比如说关节的损伤或传染，或者是年纪大的缘故），但，掰响关节不是其中的一个原因。

2
多香料的食品和溃疡

      如果一个人得了溃疡，那么吃多香料的食品就会让病情加重；但是，溃疡根本不是多香料的食品引起的---如果是的话，那么在西方的很多国家，溃疡可就是一种流行病了。通常，溃疡是服用过量的药物像阿司匹林，抗炎药而引起的。

1
蟾蜍和疣

      大体上讲，之所以会有这样奇怪的迷信故事是因为在很多的蟾蜍上出现了疣样的生长物。实际上，这些疣样的生长物当然不是人类所能解决的。疣是病毒造成的，而且在生物的特别基因中通常是独一无二的。蟾蜍上疣是不可能传染给人类的，同样人类的疣也不会传染给动物。人类最普通的疣病毒通常称之为刺瘤。