Mom Lied to Me!

I'll bet your mother lied to you, too.

The British Medical Journal published a study this week that punches holes in conventional wisdom typically doled out from when we were kids.

Indiana University medical professor Dr. Aaron Carroll and his partner Dr. Rachel Vreeman took a scientific look at some typical gems of wisdom that we've all come to accept as fact. Once again, science is a buzz kill.

For example:

• Sugar gets kids all wild for hours - scientific studies showed no connection between sugar and hyperactivity in children. Twelve separate studies validate this finding. Most scientists believe that any connection between hysterical kids and sugar is all in the minds of the parents.
• Eating at night can make you fat - no correlation was found between dining at night and weight gain. Apparently, if you eat too much, you get fat, regardless of the time of day.
• Wearing a hat in cold weather is a good idea - there's nothing special about your head and heat loss. Any exposed body part will lose heat and reduce your core body temperature proportionally.

Finally, for the holidays - poinsettias are not poisonous. In almost 23,000 cases where people ate poinsettia leaves, only 4 percent needed some kind of medical attention. Thanks, mom.