Perhaps you think you know everything there is to know about food. Well, despite your confidence, you are probably wrong about that. Believe it or not, there are a lot of facts about our food that just might surprise you. In this article, we look at 45 interesting food facts you probably didn’t know.
McDonalds Used To Cook Their Fries In Beef Fat
Up until 1990, McDonalds used to cook their fries in beef fat. They ended up changing this in response to critics who argued their food was too high in fat and cholestorol.
Scientists discovered a few years ago that peanut butter is so high in carbon that it can actually be used to make lab-created diamonds. So, if you are thinking of proposing to someone, don’t buy a diamond ring- just put some peanut butter on their finger.
Have you never stopped to consider where asparagus comes from? No, you haven’t? You’re likely not alone. Well, they don’t grow on trees or on vines, they just grow straight out of the ground. Weird, right?
Peaches and Nectarines Are Basically The Same Thing
The only difference between peaches and nectarines are the skin. There is just one different gene between the two that makes one’s skin fuzzier than the other. It feels like this should be a more widely-known fact.
You probably thought cranberries grow on trees, didn’t you? Nope. They are harvested from vast marshes of knee-deep water. You have to wade your way through the water just to pick out the ones you want. Maybe this is where those Cranberry Cocktail commercials came from.
You probably figured Hawaiian pizza comes from Hawaii. You know, because it has pineapple on it. It actually comes from Canada, where pineapples are far less prevalent. The first such pizzas were made in Ontario during the 1960s.
1700 Liters of Water Are Required To Make A 100-Gram Chocolate Bar
Your chocolate bar might not taste like there is a lot of water in there, but a lot of water is required in the process to make it. Cocoa beans need a lot of water to grow, meaning a typical chocolate bar requires a lot of water to produce.
Mountain Dew is basically concentrated orange juice, high fructose corn syrup and carbonated water. It might not look or taste like orange juice, but Mountain Dew contains a lot of OJ.
Spam is basically pork and spice, so the name is meant to be a mix of “spice” and “ham.” How the name came to mean unnecessary mass emails is a much bigger mystery, however.
European law actually dictates that chocolate must have a certain percentage of milk fat. There is more milk fat in European chocolate than in the United States, leading to a richer flavor.
Wasabi Is Often Just Horseradish With Green Food Coloring
Unless you’ve traveled to Japan for sushi (and even then), it’s likely that you have never actually tasted real wasabi. Most restaurants use a mix of mustard, horseradish and food dye. Even in Japan, real wasabi is not too common.
Monk Fruit Extract Is 250 Times Sweeter Than Sugar
Regular sugar has nothing on monk fruit extract. It is way sweeter than normal sugar. When regular sugar requires a spoonful to make something taste sweeter, monk fruit extract only requires a tiny, little pinch.
Potatoes seem like a fairly solid food. Try tossing one at another person and they will tell you that’s the case. They are actually comprised of 80% water, however, with only 20% being solid matter.
It Can Take 2-3 Years For A Pineapple Tree To Produce Fruit
Pineapples require a large degree of patience. Planting a pineapple tree is a long-term plan with the “fruits” of your labor not being felt for years. At the very least, a pineapple tree will require a year of growing before it is capable of producing fruit.
Even 100% Orange Juice Isn’t Made Entirely From Oranges
The juice extraction process causes a lot of lost nutrients when making orange juice. Companies then add lots of artificial ingredients to make up for this. Even when juice is labeled as 100% orange juice, it often isn’t.
There might be a special spot for butter in your fridge but you don’t actually need to put it there. It can be left at room temperature for up to ten days.
If you eat a lot of nutmeg, you’ll get high. The effects could even last as long as a few days. Because of the unpleasant side effects and the danger of shutting down your organs if you ingest too much, however, nutmeg has not become a drug of choice for too many.
The word cookie comes from the Dutch word “koekje” which means little cake. This makes sense- cookies are kind of like little cakes. Both cakes and cookies are delicious, no matter how they might be related to one another.
Apples grow on trees but cashews grow on apples. The apple portion of the plant is also edible and is often used in juices and other recipes, including fermenting alcohol.
Tomatoes used to be used to treat a wide variety of medical ailments. Ketchup used to be used to treat diarrhea. Now, ketchup is used on foods that regularly cause diarrhea to make them taste better.
Fortune cookies are used only in American Chinese Food restaurants. They have never been used in China. They first started popping up in California around 1918.
Did you think that cilantro was different from coriander? Well, you were wrong. They are the same thing. It is called cilantro in the USA and coriander in the UK.
Garlic can be damaging to human bodies. Some of the same chemicals that cause its smell to be pungent are the same that are harmful to the skin. In extreme cases, garlic left on the skin can even cause 2nd or 3rd degree burns. This is especially the case if you are a vampire.
4% of the World’s Cheese Supply Is Stolen Every Year
For whatever reason, cheese is the most stolen item in stores. They say approximately 1 in every 25 packages of cheese is stolen. We can’t say for certain that it is mice that are doing the stealing, but the theory holds up to reason.
Take 5 Candy Bars Have Reese’s Peanut Butter Filling
The Hershey Company makes both the Take 5 bar and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. If you’ve noticed a similar taste between them, it’s because Take 5 bars use Reese’s peanut butter as its filling.
You Could Eat A Different Type of Apple Every Day For 20 Years
There are 7500 different types of apples. That means you could eat a different kind of apple every day for the better part of 2 decades without eating the same type twice.
A study from 2016 looked at the effect different types of alcohol have. Red wine was found to be the alcohol that most frequently causes drowsiness when compared with others. What a fun study that must have been to undertake.
Glass Gem Corn Has Colorful Kernels That Look Like Glass
Glass gem corn was created by mixing multiple Native American varieties together. The end result looks like colorful beads of glass in corn. And who doesn’t want to eat colorful glass?!
A lot of people think you need to wash chicken before eating it but that’s not what germ experts recommend. They actually say that washing raw chicken can spread bacteria in your kitchen without actually removing it from the chicken. Just cook that bird and be done with it!
If you are in a medical emergency and need some blood plasma but can’t find any, just reach for some coconut water instead. There are examples of medical professionals using it intravenously as a replacement for blood plasma due to how similar to the two substances are.
The Filling From Kit Kat Bars Comes From Broken Kit Kat Bars
The rejected Kit Kat bars at the factory get crushed up and then placed between the wafers of the non-rejected bars. So basically, Kit Kats bars are stuffed with other Kit Kat bars.
German Chocolate Cake Doesn’t Actually Come From Germany
The name actually comes from a man named Sam German who created the cake. Sam German was not German, though it isn’t quite clear if he was American or English. Regardless, his cake sure tastes good!
We often hear about how oranges are an excellent source of vitamin C. They’ve got nothing on peppers, however. A cup of chopped up red peppers has 3 times the amount of Vitamin C than one orange.
A man by the name of Richard Montanez was a janitor at a Frito-Lay plant when he had a great idea for a new flavor. He’s now a top executive working with Pepsi-Co.
In a highly important scientific study, it was conclusively shown that lemons float when submerged in water and limes sink. Limes are a little bit more dense, so that’s why they don’t float.
The first few days after milk has expired, it is usually fine to drink. The flavor might be a little off-putting but it won’t harm you in any way. After several days, however, it’s best to throw it out.
President John Adams Drank A Quarter Pint of Cider A Day, Then Lived to 90
President John Adams drank about four ounces of cider every single morning. The routine is thought to have been one of the reasons he lived to be 90 years old.
Bananas Used To Look A Lot Different, and Weren’t Edible
It took generations of growing only the right types of bananas to get what we have today. Bananas used to be entirely green, not very big, and contained little fruit at all.
All Fruit and Vegetables Need To Be Washed Before Eating
Unless a fruit or vegetable says specifically that it has been pre-washed, you need to wash it before eating. This is to get off any remaining dirt or pesticides.
Added fiber basically means that there is cellulose, or wood pulp, in it. It might sound gross, but a little bit of wood pulp isn’t bad for you. It is often found in cereals and some cheeses.
When flying at high altitudes inside of a pressurized cabin, human being lose as much as 30% of their sensation for sweet and salty foods. That’s why food always tastes a little different when you eat it while flying in a plane.
45 Interesting and unexpected facts about food you proabably have no idea about
Ian Carey
12.15.20
Perhaps you think you know everything there is to know about food. Well, despite your confidence, you are probably wrong about that. Believe it or not, there are a lot of facts about our food that just might surprise you. In this article, we look at 45 interesting food facts you probably didn’t know.
