Are poinsettias really poisonous? Are snowflakes really pure as the driven snow? Does feasting really put on the pounds? Sure as sugarplums, myths and misconceptions pop up every holiday season. Here’s what science says about some of them.
Poinsettias, those showy holiday plants with red and green foliage, are not nearly as harmful as a persistent myth says. Mild rashes from touching the plants or nausea from chewing or eating the leaves may occur but they aren’t deadly, for humans or their pets. Poinsettias belong to the same botanical family as rubber plants that produce latex, so some skin rashes occur in people allergic to latex. According to a Western Journal of Emergency Medicine research review, the plants’ toxic reputation “stems from a single unconfirmed death of a 2-year-old in Hawaii in 1919.”
To form snowflakes, moisture high in the atmosphere is frozen by clinging to particles that may include dust specks or soot. Add germs to that list. University of Florida microbiologist Brent Christner has found that bacteria commonly found on plants are surprisingly abundant ice “nucleators” present in snow from populated areas, barren mountain peaks and even Antarctica.
So is catching snowflakes on your tongue a bad idea?
“There’s a yuck factor,” Christner said. “It’s better than yellow snow.”
He said the number of bacteria in snow would probably be about 100-fold less than in the same amount of bottled water.
Bakers beware: sampling holiday cookie dough, or any raw dough, can make you sick. And recent research says it’s not just because dough often contains raw eggs, which may harbor salmonella bacteria. Flour is another culprit. A study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine details a 2016 E. coli outbreak that hit dozens of people in 24 states that was linked with consumption of unbaked flour.
The truth about holiday weight gain depends on whether your Champagne glass is half empty or half full. One often-cited study says it’s commonly assumed that the average American gains 5 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. But the study authors found the average was a little less than 1 pound. Other studies have found it’s closer to 2 pounds, still barely enough to make your pants feel tight.