My parents, my Gram often told us that:
Swallowing chewing gum would plug you up.
Eating or drinking the following would put hair on your chest:
Hot peppers
Whiskey or any hard liquor
Sauerkraut
Dill Pickles
Espresso
Horseradish
Eating bologna sandwiches while pregnant caused birth defects. Gram said this after I told he my oldest son was legally blind in his left eye due to being born with no Macular in that eye.
Drinking anything containing caffeine caused low birth weight. Two of my children were 10 lbs when they were born.
The Boogey man lived across the street. An elderly man owned the field across from our house, he would yell at us if he caught us playing there.