When I was young (about 4 or 5) my older brother told me those tiny strawberries that grew wild in our yard were poisonous. When I was thirty one a neighbot offered me some. They were delicious. I'm mad that I missed out all those years. Brothers!

Tracy

When I was a kid, my sister told me that
the ends of bananas were poisonous. I've
since realized that it's not true, but
I still never finish bananas, I always
eat right to the end, then throw it away.

Anon

when i was 4 i used to think that mushrooms were going to attack me with their furry stigers

Milan

I thought that the reason I shouldn't take candy from strangers was that it was poisonous. My sister-in-law thought it was because it had drugs in it. We were both in our 30's when we compared notes.

EAP

I used to believe that if you swallowed cherry pits, you would have a tree growing in your stomach.

porkchop

My older brother told me that there was radiation put out by tv ads and that if you ate... say, skittles, during a skittles commercial,you would get really sick.

TankFu

I lived with my grandparents growing up and my grandma loved to bake. Every time she would make cookies, i would sneak dough out of the bowl before she baked them. Whenever I got caught my grandpa would tell me not to eat it because a tapeworm would grow in my stomach and that my worm would move around in my stomach to try and get out. It didnt scare me enough to not eat the dough, but then I would lie down with my hand on my stomach trying to feel the worm moving

yummy

My mom used to make stir fry a lot and always used a large amount of green peppers. My sister told me that if i didn't eat every pepper the ones in my stomach would turn to snakes. It made sense at the time and I still have a hard time leaving any green peppers uneaten.

Jen

When I was about 4, I met one of my parent's friends who happened to be an old lady who wore false teeth. She had made meatballs for dinner and for some reason she took out her teeth and told me that she had lost all her real ones from eating too many meatballs. For years not one meatball touched my mouth.

Priscilla

my cousin told me that if you ate cherries and drank milk, it would poison you and you could die. Naturally, I had to try it...

Still Alive

I used to believe that the crunchy things in the fillings of Fig Newtons were actually hornets eggs...ever since then I can't eat them.

Melissa Shea - Durham, NC USA

My mom told me that if I ate raw hotdogs or spoonfuls of sugar, I'd get worms. I believed her until I was 13.

seale

My parents told me not to drink out of the milk container because I'd get germs in it and then people could get sick when they drank the milk. So one time I was drinking a glass of milk and my dad drank the rest of the milk out of the carton to finish it off. I thought I was going to get sick because I was drinking the milk that came out of that carton!

Doofus

When eating boiled eggs with my father,
he used to say that eating egg shell was
good for you as the egg shell used to
"cut the cords", my father believed this explanation was more than enough, and I never did find out what "the cords" were !

Stuart

I was abut 8 when my Dad was teaching me how to crack and eat walnuts - he told me that you shouldn't eat the membrane bits in between an you should make sure that they get thrown away - I asked him why, and he told me that they were poisonous - I believed this until I was 18 and I still eat walnuts with some trepidation

steve

I used to believe (entirely of my own accord) that if you ate water chestnuts and then drank water, a giant white rooted plant would grow in your stomach. I still can't stand those things.

water chestnut hater

When I was little, my mom told me that the eyes on potatoes were poisonous, and to this day, I can't eat potato chips with green spots or french fries with black spots because, even though I know it's not going to happen, I think I'll get really sick.

Jules

When I was younger, about 5 or 6, I always used to eat hotdogs, and one day my mother said that if I kept on eating hotdogs one would grow out of my stomach! From that, I hardly ever ate hotdogs as often!

Shanna

When I was a little kid, I would never eat the wrinkled ends of a hotdog because I thought they were poisonous. I suppose it was just because they're sort of ugly looking...?

Anyway, grew out of that one.

Pfilip

When I was about 6 or 7, my uncle told me Wonder bread was poisonous to children and I should only eat wheat bread. I didn't like wheat bread and I figured any other brand of white bread was safe so I ate that. I still don't buy Wonder bread, and I'm 33 now. Thanks Uncle Jim. :-P

Anon