The Truth Behind Common Old Wives' Tales

Old wives’ tales have been around for many generations. They are still passed from mother to child, and then to their children’s children. If people didn’t believe that there was some truth to them, then perhaps they would not keep passing them on.

Old wives’ tales are just wisdoms passed down from generation to generation by ancestors, friends and even neighbors. They are traditional beliefs or ideas, often of a superstitious nature. They can touch up on inner needs, and have even been used to predict weather.

A 1994 New York Times article, by Marian Burros entitled, “Tales from old wives, true and otherwise,” says that some old wives tales have been proven true by scientists. So, perhaps it is not wrong to believe in some of them.

Eating carrots improves night vision. According to the Burros article, a university of Chicago study taken in 1988 showed that although eating carrots does not directly prevent night blindness, the beta carotene in carrots prevent diseases that cause blindness.

Bread crust is better than the other part of the bread. The lifetimetv.com website had information on this old wives tale. According to information on the site, The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published a study, which found that a crumb of bread crust has eight times the amount of cancer-fighting antioxidants as a crumb from another part of the slice.

Too much loud noise can cause hearing loss. According to kidshealth.org, just 15 minutes of listening to loud, pounding music; machinery; or other noises can cause temporary loss of hearing and tinnitus, a ringing in the ears. Loud noise causes the eardrum to vibrate excessively and can damage the tiny hairs in the cochlea, a cone-shaped tube in the inner ear that converts sound into electrical signals for the brain to process.

Still, some old wives tales are nothing but myths.

Feed a cold, starve a fever. When the body is sick, it needs a lot of nutrients for recovery. According to a Reader’s Digest article, if a sick person does not eat, the body will not have the energy it needs to overcome the fever.