Is there any truth to old wives tales?

Well, anyone who knows me will tell you, I still don't eat the crust on bread. And my hair has absolutely no curl. Straight as can be.

As I got older I heard more and more of these "old wives tales." Just exactly who are these old wives, and did they have some sort of special insight?

Much research has led me to believe these women were just wise mothers, grandmothers, midwives and healers. Before modern medicine, women were the keepers of medical information. They delivered babies, healed the sick, and were considered experts in nutrition, children, folk medicine, herbs, and healing.

Once rooted in truth, old wives' tales are synonymous with traditional lore. They exist for everything from health to pregnancy to forecasting the weather. While some of these tales appear to be silly superstition, many of them have a glimmer of truth in them.

My grandmothers' family came from Europe on one of the first ships to land in Virginia. The bread crust myth originated in Europe prior to that time.

Many people were living on the brink of starvation and curly hair was a symbol of health and prosperity, as well as youth. Those who had enough to eat (including bread) were generally healthier, so bread became associated with healthy, curly hair.

Another one of those reprimands I remember from youth, and have used on my own kids is not to swallow your gum. My mother always told us it would take seven years for it to digest.

Is it true? Absolutely not. Gum doesn't break down in the digestive system, but it passes through like anything else. If you're regularly swallowing wads of gum, then they could meld into a giant blob in your stomach and cause some problems, but the occasional swallow of gum is nothing to worry about.

Now, this is one of my favorites. If you pluck a gray hair, two more will grow back in its place. Gray hair can proliferate quickly, so it's not unusual that once you see one gray hair, you start noticing them all over your head.

The truth--follicles produce one strand of hair, no more, no less. Plucking a gray hair won't cause more to grow although it can cause you to lose hair, since yanking can damage the follicle or destroy it completely. Wow, that one is a relief, as I don't know how many gray hairs I have plucked!

How about the tale that touching toads gives you warts?

Contrary to popular belief, toads can't give you warts. In humans, warts are spread by human papillomavirus (HPV), and reptiles do not carry the virus.

Perhaps this originated because toads have bumps on their backs resembling warts. In fact, those bumps aren't warts at all. They're glands that store toxins to protect the toads from predators. So handling a toad won't give you warts, but the toad might release a poison to stop you from handling it.

Coming from a family of swimmers, all my life my brothers and I had to sit out of the water for an hour after eating. What a lot of time we wasted, waiting poolside for our lunch to digest so we wouldn't drown.

If you eat and then start rigorously exercising, the blood that should be rushing to your stomach to aid in digestion gets diverted to your arms and legs, causing a cramp or stitch. Although cramps don't usually happen to kids who are just splashing in a pool, you could get a cramp if you were swimming laps or really exerting yourself. I think we may have just had overprotective parents who wanted an adult swim.

Any of us chocolate lovers can and will tell you that the myth of chocolate giving you acne is just that--a myth. This tale may have originated when scientists discovered an overactive sebaceous gland could produce a fatty substance called sebum, which can lead to acne.

Because chocolate is high in fat, and sebum is high in fat, people equated eating a lot of chocolate with more production of sebum and therefore more acne. Chocolate does contain fat, but not the same type that's found in our skin. The only way it can cause acne is if you rub it onto your face.

So, it's probably safe to take a swim after lunch, pluck a gray hair or two, eat a candy bar, even swallow a piece of gum from time to time. As for me, I think it's too late for bread crusts to make my hair curly.