Have you ever wondered about some of your favorite staples and their origins or the reason why they are named as such? Here are some interesting food facts that might get you more curious about what you put in your mouth.
10. Worcestershire Sauce
Worcestershire sauce, that savory condiment that elevates meats and vegetables equally well has origins that might not sit well with everyone. The main ingredients for Worcestershire sauce, perhaps one of England’s most enduring legacy to food, are completely melted full-bodied anchovies. The sauce actually comprises of anchovies dissolved in vinegar.
9. Hershey’s Kisses
Perhaps you have wondered at one time or another while waiting for the succulent chocolate blobs to melt in your mouth why Hershey’s Kisses are called kisses. Nothing in their physical form suggests a kiss no matter how you look at it. And that is because the brand name does not pertain to form or function at all. It got something to do with the machine that molds the chocolate – it appears to be kissing the conveyor belt. So, there is nothing romantic at all in the origin of the name, Hershey’s Kisses.
8. Junk food
Have you ever heard of corn dextrin? Well, it’s a compound that is used as glue on postage stamps and envelopes – the implements used by people of long ago to send messages to each other. Anyway, the point is, you might find corn dextrin (or one of its secret names) at the back of that bag of junk food you had just consumed because it is used as a food thickener.
7. Food poisoning
There are statistically significant reasons why food preparation and storage are important in our daily lives. Ill-prepared and improperly stored food is prone to bacterial and viral contamination. When people ingest contaminated food, they become part of the statistics of victims of food poisoning now tagged at 70 million annually. Though only 7 million of these reported cases are fatal, it’s still a huge number, don’t you think?
6. Baby food
The campaign for organic baby food has reached fever pitch and for good reason. You might consider spending more on organic preparations or take the time to buy the ingredients and prepare the food yourself after reading this: some baby foods that are commercially available contain more sugars and saturated fats than junk food. You actually might want to know more about that.
5. The avocado
The avocado may be a fruit and it is packed with vitamins much like all other fruits (and lots of protein, too). But before you consume bowl after bowl of sliced or pureed avocado flesh, there’s something you need to know about it. The avocado’s rich creaminess is due to its high content of unsaturated fats, and those are not very healthy.
4. Peanuts
Some people are already wary of peanuts because of the allergic reaction they experience upon ingesting, smelling, or coming in contact with a unique protein found in this legume. No, the peanut is not a tree nut at all but comes from the ground instead. Anyway, it might interest you to know that peanut oil may be processed for use in the making of dynamite. But don’t worry. You may use it to cook and there is no danger of it exploding like nitroglycerin.
3. Chewing Gum
Did you know that chewing gum (all kinds) is illegal in Singapore? Now you do. So if you’re going there on holiday, or even if you just have a stopover at Changi Airport (who knows what the extent of the law is?), check that you have no chewing gum on your person. The sale and import of gum has been banned in Singapore in 1992. Better review the revisions done to the legislation in 2004 and 2010 just to be sure.
2. Milk
Milk’s ability to give you a creamy white moustache is due to the protein called casein. There are four types of casein proteins that make up 13% of cow’s milk and so you might say that it’s the major contributor to milk’s whiteness. The solid part of milk distributes and diffuses light equally throughout the solution. Actually, milk is opaque and that is why it appears white to our eyes. Well, let’s hope you find use for that information someday.
1. Junk food (again)
Here are a number of reasons, all backed by scientific study, why you ought to rethink your preference for junk food and all its relatives. The fat content of junk food tells your brain to want more junk food. In that way it is like the nicotine in cigarettes and tobacco. Young females partial to junk food have higher risk of developing Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome later in life, and pregnant and lactating women who can’t stop eating junk food might bear children at higher risk for obesity, high cholesterol, and diabetes. And generally, high junk food intake is positively associated with hypertension, heart disease, some cancers, obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.
Whatever we put in our mouth becomes part of our body. Having an interest in the nature and origins of the food that we eat is part of a healthy lifestyle. We hope that you are now hungry for more interesting food facts.
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