Sunday, January 31, 2010

13 things you may not have known about food

While researching for my post, I stumbled upon this website with a large list of interesting facts about food. Alli J and I went on to search for more facts and were intrigued, disgusted and, overall, enlightened by what we found. Here are a few of the best:

  1. Corn always has an even number of ears.
  2. A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime.
  3. A “brain freeze” was invented in 1994 by 7-Eleven to explain the pain one feels when drinking a Slurpee too fast. The medical term is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.
  4. An apple is made up of 25 percent air, which is why it floats.
  5. Chocolate may have its romantic effect due to the effects on the brain of a naturally occurring substance called phenylethylamine which enhances endorphin levels, increase libido and act a natural antidepressant.
  6. You are more likely to be hungry if you are cold.
  7. When a source of Vitamin C (orange, lemon, grapefruit, strawberry, tomato, potato, etc.) is eaten with meat, the body makes better use of the iron in the protein food.
  8. The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter.
  9. Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.
  10. Ice cream was brought back by Marco Polo from China in 1295, from a recipe called "milk ice." Europeans substituted cream for the milk to create “ice cream.”
  11. Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to be sold commercially.
  12. Hamburgerology can be studied at Hamburger University, located in Elk Grove, Illinois.
  13. Bakers used to be fined if their loaves were under weight, so they would add an extra loaf to every dozen, just in case. Hence, the expression “baker's dozen.”


While some of this information may be completely useless, there are a few things you can take away from doing a little research about the food you consume on a regular basis.


For more interesting facts check out these Web sites:

-Fun Facts, Strange Facts, and Trivia about Food

-Fun Food Facts

-Arrow Scientific – Amazing facts to do with food


Have fun and good luck.

3 comments:

  1. I think we should go to Hamburger University!!!!

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  2. Oh we totally should! I feel like it may be much less stressful. We would get so fat though...

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  3. "The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter." Ew! I didn't want to know that, but thanks because now I may think twice before eating a PB&J sandwich.

    ReplyDelete

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