Top 10 Shocking Food Facts

Food is the one of the basic needs on the planet, other than love, that makes most of our world go round! However, there might be some things about food, that you never even knew; some that would make you flinch, and others that would even make your hair curl. Read on to enjoy 10 shocking food facts!

10. A Radioactive Fruit

Bananas contain extremely large amounts of the potassium isotope Potassium-40, which is a radioactive substance, and that makes bananas naturally radioactive.

9. Edible Forever

Honey, which is the only insect-produced food that humans eat, remains edible forever. It never goes stale, never gets infected by fungus and can be kept at room temperature for years. So much so, that there is a tomb in Egypt that is covered with honey, and people from around the world visit that tomb, and eat the honey off the walls.

8. Saliva Before Reaching the Mouth

Although it is not the only food that is made out of doubtful matter, since many of the world’s most expensive foods are suspicious, the bird’s nest soup is well amongst them. The soup is made from a distinct kind of nest that is created by bird saliva. You and I would probably flinch at the thought of trying this out; but this soup is one of the most expensive Chinese delicacies.

7. Purple Carrots

Before the 16th century when the Dutch took mutant strains on the original carrots, adding yellow and white carrots, and eventually turning them into the sweet, plum, orange carrots that we have today, they used to be purple!

6. Natural Breath-mint

Sometimes, after eating onions and especially garlic, we cannot find a way to get rid of the bad breath, and most of the time we cannot carry toothbrushes or visit the restroom. It may never have occurred to you, but coffee beans are the perfect solution. Chew on a roasted coffee bean and it will instantly stub out the bad breath.

5. A Life Saver

Coconut water is liquid endosperm, which is a liquid that supplies nutrition in the form of starch, by circling the embryo, but it can also hold protein and oils. It is sterile and has an ideal pH level, and therefore can be used as a substitute, in emergencies, for blood plasma, but at the same time is also used in IV drips for rehydration.

4. A Secret Treat

In 1905, Frank Epperson, when he was 11 years old and lived in San Francisco, left a mixture of water and fruit powder out on the terrace of his home. He also accidently left a whisking stick in it. The temperature that night went in minus and the next morning, he woke up to find out that the mixture had frozen to the whisking stick. Hence, he created an icy fruit treat and called it the epsicle. For 18 years he kept it a secret, after which he got the patent rights and it came to be known as the Popsicle.

3. A Religious Food

Folklore says that Pretzels were invented by monks in the seventh century France and were given to kids who remembered and said their prayers well, in order to reward them for it. The shape of the pretzel symbolizes arms folded across the chest, in a praying position. The Latin word for Pretzel, i.e. pretiola, means “reward” in English.

2. A World Without Chocolate

This may come to most people as the worst of news: the world’s chocolate may soon run out. The Ivory Coast is a place where a huge proportion of the world’s cocoa beans are grown. The farmers there seem to be in danger, owing to the political unrest, and many have run away, leaving the chocolate production to decline by large numbers. Predictions tell that supplies of sustainable chocolate may run out as the cocoa production hits rock bottom in 2014, bringing about a chocolate drought.

1. Too Much Stuffing

The largest meal that can be on a menu is Roast Camel. It is a tradition of the Bedouin tribes of Africa, where they stuff a fish with eggs and place that fish inside a chicken, which is stuffed inside a sheep, and that sheep is stuffed inside a camel which is then roasted to make a roast camel. This kind of feast is often a part of Bedouin weddings. Talk about being stuffed!