Mothers' remedies: do they work or are they just old wives' tales? JO HAYWOOD investigates.

Mother knows best. No, honestly she does. Doctors have confirmed that fish oil, once an old wives' remedy for aching joints (and virtually everything else that ails us), really does work.

In what is claimed to be the first clinical study of its kind, funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign, cod liver oil was found to be highly effective in slowing the destruction of joint cartilage in patients with osteoarthritis.

This is a painful and disabling condition which caused more than two million people to visit their GP last year and is the major reason for joint replacement surgery.

As a result of the research, carried out by professors from Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine, people as young as 20 are now being encouraged to take a daily capsule of fish oil to protect their joints and help delay the onset of arthritis.

So when you were young and your mum insisted on pouring cod liver oil down your throat, with or without a spoonful of sugar to help it go down, she was actually setting you up for a pain-free future.

But were her other health-related home remedies as worthwhile?

We decided to investigate...

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Research shows that a third of all cancers are diet-related, and that eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day significantly reduces the risk of contracting the disease.

So, while an apple a day will not turn a sack of potatoes into a lean, mean runner bean, it is a step in the right direction.

But don't feel obliged to pick an apple: a carrot, an orange or a stick of celery will keep your GP at bay just as well.

Carrots help you see in the dark

This probably stems from the fact that carrots have a high level of betacarotene which is converted by the body into vitamin A and helps to prevent cataracts.

People suffering from night blindness are usually deficient in vitamin A, but this is a very rare condition in Britain and not something to worry about unduly.

Additional vitamins are useful if you have a deficiency, but they will not make you healthier if you don't.

Chicken soup cures colds

And hen's teeth make particularly attractive earrings. This is a classic old wives' tale, but because chicken soup tastes great, let's let sleeping chickens lie. Even though it won't cure you, it is easy to digest, contains protein and replaces fluid loss, so it may prove beneficial for a feverish patient.

Eating crusts makes your hair curly

Nope. But it does leave mum with less waste to throw away. Sneaky, but effective.

A malty drink before bed helps you sleep

Carbohydrate, which appears in malty drinks in the form of sugars, produces the relaxant serotonin.

But most of the calming effects of a malty drink are psychological rather than scientific. Put in simple terms, a lot of people find it comforting because milk is associated with childhood.

Spinach makes you strong

Popeye may have been able to deal a mean punch to beefy Bluto once he had chomped a tin or two of spinach, but this was based on medical research which subsequently turned out to be wrong.

Spinach was promoted as a good source of iron by scientists in the 1960s, but the proclamation was based on a mathematical cock-up.

Researchers thought it contained 20mg or iron per 100g, when in fact it was two.

And that's not the end of the bad news. The oxalic acid found in spinach actually prevents successful absorption into the body.

Fish makes you brainy

Eating large quantities of fish before sitting your GCSEs is a good idea, as long as you chow down about 16 years before you are expected to put pen to paper.

Fish contains omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for brain growth in the womb.

Oily fish is, of course, a healthy choice throughout life, but sadly it won't turn Jordan into Einstein.

So there you have it, in some instances mother really does know best. Unfortunately, however, there is no evidence available at present to prove her notion that your face will stay like that if the wind changes.

Updated: 09:07 Monday, February 16, 2004