Now for the fun part! The food myths we were told as kids that are complete fibs; and here are some of my favourites:

• Frying an egg on the pavement when it’s hot outside: let me tell you, having grown up in Dubai, I’ve tried this many times and it just does NOT work. You really don’t get much hotter than a summer in the UAE, so I think it’s safe to assume that this myth is just not true.
• It takes years for gum to digest: definitely something our parents told us as a means to get us not to swallow our gum.  Nonetheless, we all did it, countless times, and here we are, still going strong.  And in case there’s any doubt, don’t worry, your body digests gum as it would any other food.
• Hardee’s, McDonald’s, Wendy’s – whatever fast food we were into at the time, our parents had something to say about it.  In my house, my parents used to say the burgers were made with rodent meat – pretty sure that’s not true. And the weird part is, it never deterred us one bit!
• Coffee stunts your growth: to all you teens and pre-teens out there who are coffee-obsessed, rest assured, coffee does not stunt your growth, so don’t think twice about it next time you’re in Starbucks or pulling an all-nighter to cram for a test.
• Expired food will poison you: this is not necessarily true. Use-by-dates are usually there to get us to consume certain products sooner rather than later, as anything beyond that point may compromise the flavour of the food, but won’t necessarily make them unsafe to eat. So don’t worry too much about these dates, if the food still looks or smells okay, then it most likely is.  My only exception is baby food; let’s not take any risks there!
• Swallowing watermelon seeds will grow a whole watermelon inside your tummy – a personal favourite of mine, and of course, completely ridiculous!

Any debunked food myths you’d like to share?

Stay tuned for more fun food myths!