Weird facts about food. food facts

Throughout the history of its existence, people have always done 3 things - get married, die and eat. AND interesting facts about food during this time, a lot has accumulated. Here are some of them:

1. In 16th century England the most trendy dish among the aristocracy and golden youth was "surprise pie". When such a cake was cut at feasts in front of guests, live birds flew out of it!

Modern pie without surprises,

2. Cheese is recognized as the most desirable food for thieves around the world. It is stolen from stores most often.

3. Until 2011, Russian law referred beer and all drinks in which less than 10 degrees are non-alcoholic.

4. Bananas, like watermelons, are actually berries. But strawberries - no! This is a flower bed. And about the banana: the banana plant is a giant grass, and bananas are its berries. By definition, a berry is "a soft, juicy fruit containing several seeds." And a grass is "a plant with a fleshy, but not woody stem, which, after the plant has flowered and produced seeds, dies down to the ground."

Banana ice cream with raspberries

5. The sandwich was invented by a man named Earl Sandwich. He was an avid poker player and refused to leave the poker table for food.

6. Are you for real you can hear the rhubarb growing! W The sound comes from the opening buds. It is said that during the growing season, rhubarb constantly squeaks.

7. Big bag of pistachios(as well as any large number of these nuts) may ignite at any moment.

Salad with pistachios

8. Peanut butter can be made not only sandwiches and snacks, but also diamonds! According to one hypothesis, diamonds are formed from carbon under very high pressure. Almost all foods contain carbon, so researchers at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, have managed to create an artificial diamond in the laboratory from ordinary peanut butter. It can be obtained from any oil, even from the one you usually have for breakfast. And then, in the usual way, the diamond turns into a diamond!

9. Mushrooms cannot be overcooked.

10. Loud music can make you drink more and more often.

Whiskey

11. Lobsters and oysters were once food proletariat.

12. Fruit stickers are actually edible. Manufacturers claim all stickers are made from edible paper. And the adhesive on the sticker is edible. Similar paper is also used as a decoration for cakes.

13. Astronaut John Young dropped a bean and beef sandwich into outer space in 1965.

Sandwich

14. If there were no flies, there would be no chocolate.. Everything good in life has to be paid for. Chocolate midges have long been fond of pollinating cocoa trees, and carry pollen from one plant to another. When cocoa beans are harvested, insects are also partly included in the crop.

15. In the Middle Ages hot pepper was such an expensive and valuable commodity that it accepted as payment for loans and taxes.

Food is an integral part of every person's life, which directly affects health and appearance. But how little we know about what we eat every day. Here we are talking not only about the benefits or harms, but also about the history, origins and amazing facts about food. We offer to replenish your knowledge with interesting, and sometimes unexpected information.

From the history

The following facts will help to tell about the amazing stories of the appearance of various foods and dishes, and learn about the events or random adventures that they had to go through.

Decorating dishes with parsley was common in ancient Rome, where the plant was considered a talisman against unclean forces. Therefore, its addition to food was a sign of special respect for the guests.
In 450 AD e. Hun warriors kept meat under the saddle of a horse: the juices of the meat were mixed with the sweat of the horse, the moisture evaporated and dried salted meat was obtained.
During the Renaissance, beer was much safer to drink than water, because it completely destroyed the bacteria that cause dysentery and cholera due to fermentation.
Serving fish with a traditional slice of lemon has been popular since the Middle Ages. Then it was believed that lemon juice could dissolve a fish bone accidentally swallowed.

During the time of Ivan the Terrible, there were their own ways of smuggling: Russian ambassadors exported valuables from Muslim countries, hiding them in pork tenderloin. Naturally, the Muslims did not even approach the meat to check the cargo.
In the XVI century. The colonizers of South America discovered the capybara, an animal that leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle, and turned to the Pope with a request to recognize it as a fish in order to eat it during the fasting period. An amazing fact, but the head of the Catholic Church agreed with their request.
Sugar, after its appearance in Europe, was initially available exclusively to rich people. In this regard, teeth blackened from excess sugar were considered one of the signs of a person's high status.
At the beginning of the XIX century. oysters were considered among the British and French as food for the poor who could not afford meat. But due to uncontrolled fishing, their numbers declined sharply and by the second half of the 19th century. they have risen in price and become a delicacy.
In 1908, US tea merchant Thomas Sullivan invented tea bags by mistake. He decided to use silk bags instead of boxes to send samples of his products to customers. But he could not have imagined that customers would dip a bag of tea completely into boiling water without opening it.

In 1912, the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's exile was celebrated in Moscow, in honor of which a cake was made from puff pastry with cream in the shape of a triangle, symbolizing Napoleon's cocked hat. The cake was given the same name, which has survived to our time, although today it is usually rectangular in shape.

Features of different products

Every day a person consumes a variety of foods, unaware of what amazing properties it is endowed with. The following facts about everyday food will reveal what many of us do not even know:

In egg yolks, the content of nutrients and trace elements is much higher compared to proteins.
Lemon contains more sugar than strawberries, but due to the high content of citric acid, this sweetness cannot be noticed.
Honey is the only product with an unlimited shelf life. The oldest honey was discovered in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922, which, after an examination, was found to be still usable.

Bulgarian pepper is the leader in the content of vitamin C (340 mg), in second place is parsley (150 mg). For comparison, lemon and orange contain 40 and 60 mg of vitamin C, respectively.
Potatoes, apples and onions are foods that cannot be distinguished from each other if eaten with closed eyes and pinched nose. This amazing fact was confirmed by scientists after a series of experiments with a group of volunteers.
When chewing celery, a person spends more calories than the body receives from eating it.
The most expensive spice is saffron, which is obtained by drying the stamens of a plant of the crocus family. The price for 1 kg can reach 6000 dollars.

About 7500 varieties of apples are known in the world, the smallest of which are the size of cherries, and the largest ones weigh more than 1 kg.
The spiciness of chili peppers does not depend on color, but on size: the smaller the fruit, the sharper it is.
Dry wine gets its name from the fact that it contains completely (dry) fermented sugar.
Tabaka chicken has nothing to do with smoking, and its name comes from a mispronunciation of the Georgian word for "frying pan" - tapaki, which is used to prepare this dish.
Smokers are advised to limit their consumption of carrots and tomatoes. They contain useful beta-carotene, which, after interaction with substances from tobacco smoke, turns into a carcinogen.

Local cuisines of different parts of the world differ significantly from each other. Amazing facts about food tell about the diet, eating habits and traditions of different peoples and countries of the world:

In Japan, the diet of the population has long been dominated by seafood and seaweed, so special microorganisms have appeared in the digestive system of the Japanese that contribute to better breakdown and assimilation of such food compared to representatives of other nationalities.

In Kazakhstan, it is not customary to pour a full cup of tea for welcome guests. Thus, the owner leaves an occasion to look after them, which is considered an honorable and pleasant deed.
In China, it is not customary to cut noodles into pieces so as not to shorten one's life, since noodles are considered a symbol of longevity.
In Russia, traditional kvass rarely appeals to foreigners. Most of them perceive the drink as a "cloudy sour goo."

In Chile, it is not customary to eat with your hands: no matter what is put on a plate, a well-mannered person will always use cutlery.
In the US, there is an ice cream graveyard where tombstones show the names of flavors that were not successful or have already lost their popularity.
In Scandinavian countries, recipes for local cuisine involve the use of spoiled fish: for Icelandic hakarl, you need rotten shark meat, and for Swedish surströmming, sour herring.
On about. Fiji has a unique dish for which the pig is not fed for a week, then the animal is allowed to eat the veal and sent to slaughter a few hours later. Half-digested food is taken out of the stomach, which is subsequently used to prepare the main dish.
In the European Union, legislation has established that fruits include tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, rhubarb and ginger. This is due to the fact that in the European Union it is legal to produce jams and jams only from fruits.

space food

Surely many people know that astronauts take food from tubes, but besides this, a number of amazing facts can be added about space food:

The diet of modern astronauts can be equated to a restaurant menu. It consists of 200 meals and drinks that are repeated every week. Despite the amazing variety, the fact remains: the taste of food is different from the usual.
The main task of the developers of the space menu is not to expand the range, but to achieve the maximum similarity to the "earthly" taste.
During the day, astronauts eat about 1.5 kg of food, so that the calorie intake is approximately the same as the Earth's level.

Space bread is packaged in packages that are enough for 1 bite. Such packaging allows astronauts to be protected from accidents associated with crumbs flying in zero gravity, which can get into the respiratory tract.
Sublimation is an essential procedure for food before being sent into space, which consists in dehydration through freezing and subsequent drying. This fact will seem surprising, but the most difficult preparation is freeze-dried tea.
The most delicious dish of space cuisine, according to astronauts, is freeze-dried cottage cheese with nuts and cranberries.

Space nutrition is considered the most natural and safe in the world. It is carefully checked for the absence of unnecessary chemical additives, since it is impossible to predict the reaction of these substances in space.

Knowledgeable people claim that the taste of beetles is similar to an apple, wasps - to pine nuts, caterpillars - to fried bacon. To the ear it is quite edible. However, there are things that are better not to eat.

The largest dish in the world is fried camel. It is stuffed with rams, which in turn are stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which is stuffed with eggs. Such a simple dish is prepared at a Bedouin wedding.

The oldest soup, which is confirmed by archaeological research, was brewed from a hippopotamus. This happened about 6 thousand years BC.

Worcestershire sauce
This very sauce is believed to be made from dissolved fish. This seasoning, popular in England, is made from dissolved anchovies (hamsa). To do this, the fish is soaked in vinegar until completely dissolved - the sauce also contains the remains of bones, scales and other parts of the fish.

Ice lolly
Recently, in addition to the traditional ice cream, we have the opportunity to try fruit ice cream on a stick, which tastes like frozen juice. The inventor of this product is Frank Epperson, who in 1905 mixed powdered soda, water and juice, forgetting this mixture on the street. That night it was freezing in San Francisco, and waking up the next day, the "inventor" found that the mixture had solidified along with the stick in it, forming a delicious treat. After 18 years, he patented the product, calling it Popsicle.

Peanut Dynamite
Peanut butter is a raw material for the production of glycerin, which in turn is used to produce nitroglycerin, one of the components of dynamite. However, it should be said that nitroglycerin can be obtained using other raw materials - peanuts are only one of the options.

coconut water
It is believed that coconut water (not milk) can be used in extreme cases as a substitute for human blood plasma, and this is true. This liquid (not the coconut milk that comes out of the flesh of the coconut, but the clear liquid found in the fruit) is sterile and has an ideal pH. This liquid is used by the plant as a source of nutrients for the embryo.

Butter tea
Butter tea, or Po Cha, is a traditional Tibetan drink made from salt, tea, and butter obtained from yak milk. An ordinary Tibetan drinks up to 50-60 cups of this tea per day! Some gourmets add a little flour to the drink, as we add sugar.

Hot chocolate
The ancient Maya made the hottest chocolate - they added pepper and corn to it. The remains of the drink in the cups found by archaeologists showed that it was in the 5th century AD. It happened in the following way. Cocoa fruits were crushed to a paste-like state, after which they were mixed with water, hot pepper, corn and other spices.

Apple, potato, onion
If you cover your nose, you will not be able to distinguish the taste of apple, potato or onion. Scientists set up an experiment to confirm this. A group of volunteers had their eyes tightly closed, their noses covered, and then they were given a taste of one of these fruits. In most cases, a person could not understand WHAT of this he was eating. It's incredible, but this experience proves that the nose plays a big role in shaping the taste of food. Since an apple, potato, and onion are roughly the same consistency, the brain can't tell them apart. You can try to do this experiment at home, but I warn you - as soon as you open your nose, you will immediately understand what you ate.

Bananas
Banana trees are not actually trees, but giant grasses. The large trunk is the so-called herbal pseudo-trunk, on which a bunch of yellow, green or red bananas grows. After this pseudo-trunk dies, and a new one grows in its place. You catch the difference - in trees it is permanent, in grass it is “one-time”. The small bunches of bananas that we sell are not bunches - they are small fragments, and the mass of a bunch can reach up to 50 kilograms. The bananas we eat are special - they are specially bred so that there are no seeds inside, so you cannot grow a banana from a purchased one. The fruits of wild bananas contain many large seeds.

Ketchup from the East
It turns out that the famous ketchup is actually of Chinese origin! Two words from the Chinese province of Fujian are used to describe fish pickle and tomato sauce, and they are very similar in pronunciation to ketchup. These words are ke-tsap (ke-tsap) and kio-chiap (kio-chiap). Western ketchup was later made from fish and spices, or mushrooms. In fact, mushroom ketchup can still be bought in England and is considered a natural source of monosodium glutamate, the only known taste stimulant.

7-UP
The 7-up drink, invented in 1920, contained lithium, one of the drugs now prescribed for manic-depressive psychosis. 7-up was originally released as a hangover cure thanks to its lithium citrate content. It was released shortly after the Wall Street Panic (Great Depression), and was called "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" at the time. The name was soon changed, but lithium was part of the drink until the 1950s. Interesting myths exist regarding the name of the drink. Some argue that the original recipe had 7 components, others recall the atomic mass of lithium, which is seven.

fish ice cream
In Japan, octopus, buffalo tongue, cactus, chicken wings, and crab flavored ice cream is sold.

Again about Japan. To make the beef more tender, animals are killed there at night, in their sleep. Before that, they are given beer and massaged three times a day.

Legend has it that the French Roquefort cheese appeared by accident when a shepherd left his breakfast in a cave, chasing a pretty girl passing by. A few months later, he accidentally discovered an abandoned cheese, which by that time was moldy, but it turned out to be delicious.

A restaurant in Pennsylvania offers hamburger weighing 4 kilograms. So far, no one has eaten it completely ...

Drinking during the renaissance beer was safer than water: fermentation destroyed the bacteria that cause cholera and dysentery.

Dry wine called dry, because sugar is completely (“dry”) fermented in it.

Charles de Gaulle once remarked about France: "How can you govern a country that has 246 types of cheese?"

Food occupies an important place in the life of any person and animal. It is impossible to exist without food. We invite you to learn interesting facts about food and drink.

food facts

Let's start with the historical aspects. Food has always been of interest to all generations.

Many ancient cultures believed that a cut apple in an upright position resembled the female genitalia.
Some scientists believe that they arose as a result of mothers passing chewed food to babies from mouth to mouth.
Seafood, such as oysters, are considered aphrodisiacs. Casanova treated his future partners with seafood.
In ancient times, fresh milk was considered a luxury and abundance item due to the difficulty of preserving it.
The first soup appeared more than five thousand years ago. It was made from hippopotamus meat.
Decorating food with herbs began in ancient Rome. It was considered a talisman against the intrigues of the devil.
It was believed that lemon juice could dissolve swallowed fish bones. That is why in the Middle Ages, fish was always served with lemon.
An unusual fact about the food is that Hippocrates considered the broth of a young dog to be a good and healthy dish for sick people.
Cosmonauts believe that the most delicious freeze-dried product is cottage cheese with cranberries.
Surprisingly, a banana is not a fruit, but a berry.
Neil Armstrong ate bagged turkey for the first time on the moon.
Avocados should not ripen on the tree. To be edible, they need to lie down and ripen. At the same time, the tree is used as a warehouse - avocados are stored after ripening for several months.

Interesting facts about food in different countries

Eating poppy seed buns frequently can result in a positive drug test result.
In the Scandinavian countries, their dried fish dishes are considered a delicacy.
Sugar used to be a luxury in Europe. Then the rich had a strange fashion to demonstrate their position, they painted their teeth black.
Fugu fish is a delicacy in Japanese cuisine. This fish is poisonous, and improper preparation can cause death.
Cranberry in translation from English means "crane berry".
In the 16th century, peas appeared in France. It was brought from Italy by Catherine de Medici after her marriage to Henry II. Thanks to her, peas have become a delicacy.

Some of the weirdest and most interesting food facts you probably never knew.

Green, yellow, and red bell peppers are not actually the same vegetable.

These vegetables are not always the same plant. Although some green peppers are unripe red peppers; green, yellow, orange and red peppers are all unique plants with their own seeds.

A typical corncob has an even number of rows.

Corn cobs have an even number of rows, usually 16.

One cutlet contains meat from different cows

The ground beef we buy at the supermarket is from an unknown collection of meat from different cows.

White chocolate isn't really chocolate.

Despite its name, white chocolate does not actually contain any real chocolate ingredients. It consists of a blend of sugar, dairy, vanilla, lecithin and cocoa butter - no chocolate solids.

Fruit candies and cars are covered with the same type of wax

Have you ever wondered how gummy candies get that glossy sheen? They are coated with carnauba wax, the same wax used on cars to make them shine.

Ripe cranberries will bounce like rubber balls

Cranberries are commonly referred to as "jumping berries" because they bounce when they're ripe. In fact, jumping cranberries are a common maturity test for farmers and consumers alike.

Farm raised salmon is naturally white and then dyed pink

While wild salmon are naturally pink due to the high amount of shrimp in their diet, farmed salmon eat differently. To achieve this pleasing pink color, farmers add carotenoids (plant pigments) to the feed to mimic the natural color of wild salmon.

Potatoes can absorb and reflect Wi-Fi signals.

When Boeing wanted to test their wireless signals on new aircraft in 2012, they placed giant piles of potatoes on the seats. Due to their high water content and chemical composition, potatoes absorb and reflect radio and wireless signals, just as humans do.

The red food coloring used in the candy is made from boiled beetles.

Carmine, also known as carminic acid, is a common red food coloring found in candy and even lipstick.
Carminic acid is obtained from the crushed carcasses of the beetle known as Dactylopius.

Raw oysters are still alive when you eat them.

Chances are raw oysters are still alive when you eat them. Oysters decompose so quickly that cooks have to cook them very quickly - while they are still alive. Some varieties of clams can survive up to two weeks without water, so oysters are kept under highly regulated conditions. Once they die, they are dangerous to eat.
So yes: if you have a good plate of fresh oysters, you'll probably be munching on them while they're still alive. Luckily, oysters don't have a central nervous system, so they don't feel pain.

Every banana you eat is a clone.

Even though there are 1,000 varieties of bananas worldwide, the common yellow fruits you see in the supermarket are genetic clones of the Cavendish variety. 'Cavendish' has no seeds - a desirable trait for consumers - and survives longer than its banana relatives.
Since the Cavendish does not have seeds, farmers must clone it in order to continue production. Recently, scientists have been concerned that the lack of genetic diversity could soon make the banana vulnerable and lead to its extinction.

Grapes will explode if you put them in the microwave.

The grape itself then acts as an antenna and conducts electricity in the microwave, turning into small fireballs.