Glad I could add something beneficial!
It is always interesting to read about these stories of people doing something, like your mother, without realizing why and how beneficial it was/is. It just once again shows how important generational knowledge is and how sad and scary it is that we are slowly losing it all.
It's always fascinating to me when I discover that "something we always do" - a habit or generational knowledge, choose your slant - turns out to be grounded in serious science.
That is so right! I love it. But not to sound anti-science (because I am not haha) but sometimes people have too much faith in it and sometimes when we look at things in a very reductionist sense it can be harmful. For example, certain compounds in isolation is dangerous to eat but food never ever arrive in isolation!