10 food facts you probably didn’t know 👀
Think you may know everything there is to know about the culinary world? Think again. If you think that some things are obvious, your entire belief system might be challenged here. 😨
Check out these surprising facts about food that blew our minds:
Pre-washed salads and vegetables might still not be clean.
Pre-packaged salads and vegetables that are labelled as pre-washed may not be telling the whole truth. Yes, they do go through a ‘washing’ process, but they are not exactly super clean. It was found that 39% of over 200 samples of pre-washed salads contained bacteria that indicated contamination. So maybe, next time, wash those pre-washed veggies! 🍅
Think that eating insects is gross? You’re probably still eating them.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States sets a level of insect traces that is allowable in food. For instance, peanut butter can have less than 30 insect fragments per 100g and chocolate can have less than 60 insect fragments per 100g. Peckish, anyone? 👀
Ears of corn usually have an even number of rows.
Have you ever counted the number of rows in an ear of corn? Us neither. But after reading this, we probably might start counting next time we’re eating corn. The number of rows in every ear of corn is always an even number, and this number is usually 16. 🌽
Want a healthy snack? Have some chocolate.
It was found that chocolate is actually as healthy as fruit. The research was done on dark chocolate because milk chocolate goes through more processing and thus has more sugar and fewer benefits. On the other hand, white chocolate is not actually chocolate (just a mix of vanilla, milk products, sugar, lecithin, and cocoa butter). 🍫
It was found that dark chocolate had more antioxidants that fight diseases when compared to fruit juices made from actual fruit. Who would have thought? 🤷
Fruits and vegetables are less healthy nowadays.
Speaking of fruits, around 50 years ago, fruit and vegetables were actually healthier than they are nowadays. Since agricultural practices have changed over the years, fruit and veggies have lost a lot of nutrients and vitamins. So for maximum health benefits, try to go for the organic stuff (or maybe eat dark chocolate instead). 😉
We might live in a world without chocolate in the future.
Ok, maybe don’t eat too much chocolate. The demand for chocolate around the world is so high, that we’re experiencing a shortage of chocolate. There are not enough cacao trees in the world to cater for all of you chocolate lovers out there! Can you imagine living without chocolate? 😱
Saliva from a bird is an expensive ingredient.
Yes, you read correctly. Ingredient. Swiftlets (a species of birds) make their nests from their saliva and in China, these nests are used to make Bird’s Nest Soup. The nests are technically the ingredient, but the bird’s saliva is in those nests. These nests are quite rare, making Bird’s Nest Soup super expensive. It might not be good for your pockets, but hey, it’s good for your health! 🐤
Bananas are berries and strawberries are not.
Yes, that’s right. You’ve been living in a bunch of lies. For a fruit to be considered a berry, it has to come from one flower that has one ovary, just like bananas do. Strawberries (and raspberries and blackberries too!) come from a flower with multiple ovaries, so they cannot be considered berries. 🍓
Chilli peppers are not actually hot.
More lies! It’s our brains that make us think that our mouth is on fire. Capsaicin, a chemical found in chilli peppers, binds to our pain receptors and makes our brain believe that we are ingesting something hot, so we start sweating as a way for our body to cool down. 🌶️
Cars and gummy bears contain the same type of wax.
We don’t know about you, but we think this is pretty creepy. Both cars and gummy bears are super shiny and that’s because they contain the same ingredient: carnauba wax. They definitely don’t taste the same, though. 😶
Which food fact surprised you the most? Sound off in the comments below! 👇
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