An apple a day, keeps the doctor away
Not many people would argue that this favourite saying is just a devious ruse to make us eat more fruit. Eating an apple is indeed a fantastic way to incorporate essential health-boosting nutrients into your diet. But then again, so is tucking into any fruit, which can protect you from numerous conditions including heart disease, cancer and stroke. Just make sure apples are part of your five-a-day regime and you will help keep your body in fine fettle.

Eating carrots helps you to see in the dark
I would wager that almost all of us were told this by our mothers when we were young – and they were right. Carrots are jam-packed with vitamin A, which is something our retinas feed on. Worldwide, vitamin A deficiency is considered to be a common cause of blindness, which suggests that eating carrots is indeed a good idea if you want to keep your eyesight in tip-top shape. The Eyecare Trust supports this idea and lists carrots as one of its top-ten foods for protecting eyesight.

Fish is good for your brain
This old adage has been given credence by a raft of recent research that says eating fish can indeed boost brainpower, especially in children. Researchers at the US National Institute of Health found that children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant were smarter and had better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none. Elsewhere, a school in England announced last year that it would be giving its pupils fish oil tablets to improve their performance in exams, while the government even considered giving pupils the supplements en masse.

Statistics show that young people in the UK are consuming less fish than they used to, something that worries Prof. Michael Crawford, Director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at North London University. He said: “We need to get back to feeding our minds as well as our bodies. We should all be eating oily fish at least once a week.”

Eat your crusts
While there is little truth to the saying that eating your crusts will make your hair curly, there is plenty of evidence that says the last thing you should do is cut the crusts off your bread. Bread contains an antioxidant called pronyl-lysine, a nutrient which helps the body fight carcinogens. Research carried out by German scientists found that there is up to eight times as much pronyl-lysine in the crust of the bread compared to the less-baked centre.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
This old phrase perhaps contains more truth that any of our other old wives’ tales. Eating a nutritious breakfast is essential if you want to maintain a healthy, balanced diet. This is backed up by numerous studies, which all say that eating breakfast prepares your body both mentally and physically for the day ahead.

According to NHS Direct, eating first thing in the morning stabilises your blood sugar levels, while missing out on breakfast can lead to fatigue and poor concentration. Not eating breakfast also slows down your metabolism and makes it more likely that you will pig out on unhealthy, sugary snacks. So, if you are trying to lose weight, missing out this essential meal is in fact one of the worst things you can do.