General Food Facts

1. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.
2. Apples are more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine.
3. The largest pumpkin weighed 377 pounds.
4. The largest cabbage weighed 144 pounds.
5. The no. 1 food ordered by women in restraunts is french fries.
6. coffee originated from the Arabic word “qahwah”.
7. almonds are a member of the peach family.
8. americans eat approximately 10kg of tomatoes yearly, over half of which is in the form of catsup and tomato sauce.
9. apple is made of 25% air, that is why they float.
10. apples, onions, and potatoes all have the same taste? Try the test: Pinch your nose and take a bite out of each.
11. avocado has the highest protein and oil content of all fruits, but most of this is the healthier unsaturated type.
12. beer drunk with dinner works better than drinking red wine, gin or sparkling mineral water in controlling homocysteine, a blood factor that promotes heart disease by boosting blood levels of vitamin B6.
13. beer is a popular ingredient in batter for deep fried foods since the protein in beer provides browning and produces a light, crisp, dry batter when cooked.
14. beer of 375mL has fewer calories than two slices of bread and contains no fat.
15. birds eat half their own body weight in food each day! So, why do people say that a poor eater "eats like a bird"?
16. black-eyed peas are really beans.
17. blenders were invented by Stephen Poplawski when in 1922 he became the first person to put a spinning blade at the bottom of a small electric appliance to make Horlick's malted milk shakes.
18. bubbles in Guiness beer sink to the bottom.
19. butter and margarine are similar in calories, the difference is that butter is higher in saturated fats, while margarine generally has more unsaturated fats.
20. butterflies taste with their feet.
21. cabbage is 91% water.
22. capers are the unopened green flower buds of a wild and cultivated bush which is related to the cabbage family.
23. capsaicin, which makes hot peppers "hot" to the human mouth, is best neutralized by casein, the main protein found in milk.
24. carrots were originally purple in colour, changing in the 17th Century to orange with newer varieties.
25. celery requires more calories to eat and digest than it contains.
26. cereal as a word is derived from the name of the Roman goddess Ceres, protector of crops.
27. cherries are a member of the rose family.
28. chewing gum may keep you slim by boosting the metabolic rate by about 20%.
29. chewing gum stimulates signals in the learning center of the brain and thus help save memory as you age.
30. chicken is one of the few things that we eat before it's born and after it's dead.
31. chili heat is measured in Scoville units, named after the pharmacist Thomas Scoville.
32. chocolate bloom occurs when the cocoa butter has separated causing it to rise to the surface of the chocolate and is a result of the chocolate being stored in too humid or too warm a temperature.
33. chocolate is a particularly good source of magnesium, potassium and calcium. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. On the down side it contains caffeine and has a high fat level.
34. 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.
35. coca-cola was originally green.
36. corn always has an even number of ears.
37. corn makes up about 8% of the weight in a box of corn flakes.
38. cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.
39. doughnuts were orginally made of raised dough with a nut in the centre.
40. eggplants are actually fruits, and classified botanically as berries.
41. fish consumption may be more than brain food but also help protect your eyes from age-related macular degeneration, a potential cause of blindness.
42. flamingos owe their pink or reddish colour to the rich sources of carotenoid pigments in the algae and small crustaceans that the birds eat.
43. fortune cookies are not Chinese, they were invented in Los Angeles around 1920.
44. gelato comes from the Italian word gelare which means to freeze; it is made from cow milk and its rich taste comes from being denser (30% air whereas ice cream is around 50%).
45. Gerber's top selling baby food in Japan is sardine dish.
46. hamburgers were invented in 1900 by Louis Lassen. He ground beef, broiled it, and served it between two pieces of toast.
47. himalayan gogi berry contains, weight for weight, more iron than steak, more beta carotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges.
48. humble pie comes from the food "umble pie", a pie consisting of the innards of deer, which very poor people in Medieval England ate.
49. Kopi Luwa from Indonesia is the world's costliest coffee, at US$350 a kilgram, thanks to a unique taste and aroma enhanced by the digestive system of droppings of palm civets, nocturnal tree-climbing creatures about the size of a large house cat, which eats ripe robusta coffee cherries for treats. The coffee beans, which are found inside of the cherries, remain intact after passing through the animal. Plantation workers track them and scoop their precious poop.
50. lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.