10 more facts you believe that aren't actually true
We Showed you some of the most believed 'facts' that are actually not true at all. Here's ten new facts that are actually false.
1. Sugar = Hyperactivity
Studies have disproved this. Poor or rowdy behaviours still occur in children with sugar-free diets.
2. Bulls hate red
Bulls are colour-blind. They actually perceive the motions of the bullfighter’s cloth as a threat.
3. Your hair and nails keep growing after death
Wrong – but your skin tissue does recede, making them appear longer.
4. Celebrities die in threes
Of the celebs who have died since 1990, only in seven cases did three die in the same five-day period, according to data from the New York Times.
5. Bananas grow on trees
Actually, they grow on massive herbs that just resemble trees.
6. Bagpipes are Scottish
Sorry, Braveheart fans: they were prevalent in the Middle East centuries before Western Europe.
7. Adam and Eve ate an apple
They ate the forbidden “fruit” of the tree of knowledge – nowhere in Genesis does it say it was an apple.
8. Sleepers swallow eight spiders per year
Spiders usually don’t crawl into beds during night-time wanderings because they offer no prey. You probably swallow zero spiders per year.
9. All your fingernails grow at the same rate
Because blood flow stimulates nail growth, the nails on your dominant hand actually grow faster.
10. Van Gogh cut off his ear for a lover
It was just a small piece of lobe, and he did it during a violent spat with Pat Gauguin. Whether Van Gogh then gave it to a local girl remains unknown.
Written by David McCandless and Brandon Specktor. This article first appeared in Reader’s Digest. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, here’s our best subscription offer.