25 Common Myths That We Thought Were Facts But Are Actually False

You shouldn’t believe everything out of fishwives’ tales! How many times have you believed in facts that you later found out to be untrue? For instance, Napoleon being a dwarf, when in reality he was taller than the average Frenchman! In some instances, even what you’ve learnt in school turns out to be false, when you research about it later. Here are 25 such facts that aren’t really true, but have been projected as true:

Fact: Studies have claimed that frozen fruits and veggies are as nutritious as fresh ones. Fruits/vegetables start losing their nutrients once picked from the farm and by the time they reach the local grocery store, they’ve already lost quite a lot of nutrients. On the contrary, frozen fruits/vegetables are immediately processed once they are picked and hence retain their nutritional content.

Fact: There is no connection between wet hair and illness. Flu and cold are caused by viruses, not cold temperatures.

Fact: For those who can’t observe long periods of pop-culture anchored masculinity (read ‘No Shave November’), shaving extra won’t help! It’s a common misconception that shaving makes hair thicker or coarser. It just appears so because the hair is no longer tapered.

Fact: Often used as an excuse for drinking in winters, alcohol doesn’t actually keep you warm, it merely lowers body temperature. Now you know why you suddenly feel cold after finishing your drink.

Fact: Bo single human-made structure is visible from space. You can see the pyramids of Egypt, though. But again, most preposterous theories claim that the pyramids were built by ancient aliens.

Fact: Well, 420 isn’t a code for Mary Jane parties, it actually is a police code in LA that means “juvenile disturbance.”

Fact: This is a common myth that needs to be busted right away. You only lose about 7% of body heat through the head. As a matter of fact, our body loses a disproportionate amount of heat through any exposed body part, including hands and toes.

Fact: Stop consoling yourself with this myth! Einstein not only excelled in mathematics, he mastered integral and differential calculus before he turned 15. He, however, failed to crack the entrance exam of a prestigious polytechnic school in Zurich, Switzerland, because he fared poorly in the non-science subjects, especially French.

Fact: That’s preposterous! Chewing gum doesn’t digest, it passes through the body, undigested.

Fact: Brown bread bought off the shelf may not always be healthy. The colour could be from colouring agents, which aren’t healthy at all!

Fact: Absolutely false! A coin can never gain enough velocity to kill someone. It can injure you big time, though!

Fact: Neurologists can count as many as 21 senses. These include balance, hunger, thirst, movement and temperature.

Fact: Nothing testifies the fact that The Forbidden Fruit was an apple, not even The Holy Bible. Most researchers believe the fruit was a fig!

Fact: Had that been true, it’d have been so ghoulishly cool! Sadly, it isn’t. Hair and nails appear longer because the skin around them starts to shrink.

Fact: There is no mention of Jihad as ‘Holy War’. The word actually translates to ‘struggle’ in the Holy Quran.

Fact: On the contrary, sex helps physical performance by increasing testosterone levels.

Fact: You use almost all of your brain throughout the day. However, at one given moment, the “trigger point” of the brain is just a small portion of it.

Fact: Well, sorry to break your bubble, but black holes are packed with such dense matter, that not even light can escape from it!

Fact: Not even in the case of alcoholics, does alcohol kill brain cells. It only damages them before being replaced by new ones. But hey, that doesn’t mean you should turn into a drunkard.

Fact: Now, I think I got you there. Most of us confuse sushi to be raw fish. This is so because sushi is served cold. Actually, raw fish is sashimi, which is another dish.

Fact: Now that seems both dumb and preposterous. Most of their sweat glands are in the foot pads and they pant just to keep themselves cool.

Fact: You’d probably call me crazy if I say this, but let me feed you the truth. The Earth actually orbits around the Solar System’s center of mass, known as the Barycenter. This point often falls within the mass of the Sun, but can be shifted by the gravitational pull of larger planets.