Are apples good for your teeth? Do carrots make you see better in the dark? Can runner beans make you run faster?
These are just some of the white lies Nottingham parents admit to telling their children to convince them to eat healthy food.
A survey of 2,000 mums and dads across the city shows one of the most popular techniques used was telling children that milk makes you strong.
Around a third – 32% – admitted to using the line, but it seemed it was learnt from their own parents, with 37% saying they had been told the same thing as a child.
Spinach made Popeye strong and 11% of Nottingham grown-ups tell their kids the same thing, although again it was a myth they were told, with 17% told it when they were younger.
Lyndsay Jones, spokesperson for Persil, which carried out the research, said: "It's clear that the most persuasive stories about food are passed on from generation to generation.
"Our research shows that ideas stick, and we tell our kids the same things our parents told us, even if it's not always entirely true."
Other persuasive phrases given by parents included 31% telling kids crusts make your hair curly, 24% saying carrots help you see in the dark and 12% saying eating runner beans makes you run faster.
Jamie Coxon, 47, who runs the High Street fruit stall in the city centre, said he had heard loads of the lines working with fresh produce since he was 12 years old.
He said: "It is good for kids to eat more fruit, but I just think you should tell them it is good for you because it is. I don't think you need to tell lies."
Kayleigh McQuade, 25, from Clifton, said the odd white lie wasn't too bad, but you had to be honest with your children if you want them to be the same with you.
"Its ok to tell them these things as long as it isn't anything silly," she said. "I wouldn't say the carrots in the dark thing because then my daughter would probably eat carrots and ask me, 'mummy, why can't I see in the dark?'"
"I always tell her not to lie to me so I can't then lie to her. I try not to lie, but I will tell her fruit and vegetables will make her strong because that has actually been proven."
But Janet Clarke, 66, from Clifton, said there wasn't a choice about eating what was on the plate when she was a child.
She said: "I was always told carrots gave you good eyesight. But to be honest, I just got told to eat it or starve! You don't do that nowadays, but it has done me all right."
Retired Chris Hinton, 70, agreed. He said: "We were told that if you eat cabbage, it makes your hair grow. Although, as children, whatever we had on the table we had to eat. Otherwise we didn't get dessert!"
Sharon Coles, 55, is from Wales but was visiting her granddaughter in Kimberley for the Easter holidays.
She said: "Of course we were told fibs by our parents. We were always told not to eat cheese at night so we didn't have bad dreams.
"It is definitely a good thing. My parents always said all sorts of things to us to make us eat and it worked."
And singer Emily Harris, 26, said: "I heard that if you eat too many oranges you can get pregnant, although I don't know how!"
Do you have any food fibs you were told as a child or tell your children? Let us know in the comments.
