These surprising facts about food will give you a new perspective about food and will change the way you think about them.
1. Tomato Ketchup was used as a medicine to treat diarrhea in the 1800’s.
Ohio-based physician, John Cook Bennet stated a fact that Tomatoes were used to treat diarrhea, violent bilious attacks, and indigestion in 1834. He published recipes for tomato ketchup which was then concentrated and sold as pills across the country. (source)
2. Peanuts were used to create the dynamite, scientists now have found a way to turn peanut butter into diamonds.
Dynamite is based on nitroglycerine, which is procured from glycerol. Glycerol is obtained from processed peanut oil, however, this is not the only source of glycerol.
Dan Frost, a research scientist at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, Germany placed some peanut butter between two diamonds and compressed it resulting in the diamond. The peanut diamond, though not pure is still a diamond. According to the researchers of Edinburgh University, diamond can be manufactured from any carbon-containing materials, including peanut butter. (Source 1, Source 2)
3. Pozole, a traditional Mexican stew was originally made with human flesh by the Aztec people.
Pozole means ‘hominy’, it’s a traditional stew, which once had religious overtones. Since Maize was a sacred plant for the Aztecs, Pozole was made for special occasions.
According to research by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History) and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the meat used in the preparation was that of a human. After a prisoner was killed with his still-beating heart torn out in a ritual sacrifice, the rest of the body would not be buried rather they would be converted into meat for Pozole. The resulting meal would be shared by the whole community.(source)
4. Chicken today contains 266% more fat and 33% less protein than it did 50 years ago.
That isn’t always true. A research proves that nowadays chicken meat contains 266% more fat and 33% less protein than it did 40 years ago. This is caused by our modern farming methods. Instead of feeding them with natural, healthy food, they give them all sorts of supplements. (source)
5. Processed foods have disgusting ingredients.
- Titanium dioxide, which is commonly used in paints and sunscreens, is also found in many salad dressings, coffee creamers, and cake icing.
- One of the key ingredients in many canned and fast food chili is silicon dioxide, also known as sand.
- Lanolin, an oily substance found in sheep’s wool, is an additive used in chewing gum.
- Cellulose, which is actually ground-up wood pulp, is often used as an anti-caking agent in bagged cheeses.
- Sodium bisulfite, a toilet bowl cleaning chemical, is also used in potato chips.
6. A tablespoon of soy sauce has around 2.3g salt – that’s 38% of the daily maximum.
7. Honey is the only food that will never rot. It can last over 3000 years.
Archaeologists excavated old Egyptian tombs and found pots of honey, thousands of years old, and yet still preserved. Very few bacteria or microorganisms can survive in an environment like this, they just die. So if organisms can’t survive long enough in the honey, it doesn’t have the chance to spoil. Honey is also extremely acidic. It has a pH between 3 and 4,5 and that acid will kill almost everything that wants to grow there. The life expectancy inside of honey is just too low.
8. In the united states, nearly 40% of produced fruits and vegetables are never sold or eaten because it is too ugly.
According to a report, by the Natural Resources Defense Council, It is estimated six billion pounds of fruits and vegetables are wasted every year in the U.S. because they look imperfect. As people don’t want to buy imperfect shaped fruits and vegetables. (source)
9. A common ingredient in commercial bread is derived from human hair
Many commercial bread makers use L-Cysteine, a dough conditioner to speed up the industrial processing. While some L-cysteine is directly synthesized in laboratories, most of it is extracted from a cheap and abundant natural protein source: human hair. The hair is dissolved in acid and L-cysteine is isolated through a chemical process, then packaged and shipped off to commercial bread producers. Besides human hair, other sources of L-cysteine include chicken feathers, duck feathers, cow horns and petroleum byproducts. (source)
10. Regular consumption of Fast food has the same impact on the liver as hepatitis. Hepatitis can ultimately cause liver failure.
“The Doctors” revealed study findings that discovered that regular consumption of fried snacks can lead to a condition known as fatty liver. The liver enzymes undergo drastic changes within a month of consistently eating fast foods. The study found that french fries, in particular, was the most dangerous because of added ingredients.The changes in the liver enzymes are strikingly similar to the damage as seen in hepatitis.(source)