Food is an essential part of living and whether you cook for enjoyment or just to cure your rumbling tummy, these facts are sure to interest and maybe even amaze you.
1. Cream is lighter than milk.
2. Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.
3. Apples are made up of 25% air, which is why they float.
4. TIPS were given by people in coffee houses in the 18th century who wanted good service and better seating by putting money in a tin labelled "To Insure Prompt Service".
5. Hamburgerology can be studied at Hamburger University, located in Elk Grove, Illinois.
6. Black pepper is the most popular spice in the world.
7. Coca-cola was originally green.
8. Lemon slices have been served with fish since the Middle Ages, when people believed that the fruit's juice would dissolve any bones accidentally swallowed.
9. Onions are named after a Latin word meaning large pearl.
10. Cabbage is 91% water.
11. Carrots were originally purple in colour, changing in the 17th Century to orange with newer varieties.
12. Almonds are a member of the peach family.
13. Avocado has the highest protein and oil content of all fruits but most of this is the healthier unsaturated type.
14. Beer of 375mL has fewer calories than two slices of bread and contains no fat.
15. Black-eyed peas are really beans.
16. Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite.
17. Butterflies taste with their feet.
18. Eggplants are actually fruits, and classified botanically as berries.
19. Celery requires more calories to eat and digest than it contains.
20. Champagne contains 49 million bubbles in a bottle and has a pressure 3 times that of a car tyre.
21. Cherries are a member of the rose family.
22. Coffee is the most recognized smell in the world.
23. Corn makes up about 8% of the weight in a box of corn flakes.
24. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.
25. Doughnuts were originally made of raised dough with a nut in the centre.
26. Eggs contain most of the recognised vitamins with the exception of vitamin C.
27. Eggs that float in water are considered to be “off” and should not be eaten; as eggs age, gases build up inside the shell making it more buoyant.
28. Fortune cookies are not Chinese, they were invented in Los Angeles around 1920.
29. Lettuce is the only vegetable or fruit which is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh.
30. Margarine was first called Butterine in England when it was introduced.
31. Mayonnaise will kill lice and also condition your hair.
32. Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
33. Orange does not rhyme with any other word.
34. Popsicles were invented by an 11 year old, Frank Epperson when he left his soda water drink with a stirring stick overnight on his porch.
35. Tomato used to be considered poisonous.
36. There are about 100,000 bacteria in one litre of drinking water.
37. Within 2 hours of standing in daylight, milk loses between half and two-thirds of its vitamin B content.
38. White chocolate is not really chocolate at all.
39. Carrots can really help you see in the dark.
40. Honey is the only edible food for humans that will never go bad.
41. Pear is a fruit that ripens from the inside out.
42. Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine when it was initially introduced.
43. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
44. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.
45. There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes.
46. The longest sausage made in Australia was 11 kilometers (6.9 miles) long.
47. An average woman consumes approximately 20 kg of lipstick in her life.
48. Seaweed is used to thicken icecream.
49. Bubble gum and fairy floss were invented by dentists.
50. The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.
51. China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year and 25 million trees are chopped down to make them.
52. Tequila is made from a cactus.
53. The “special sauce” in a Big Mac is actually thousand island dressing.
Matt Clark Culinary Consultant, Freelance Writer and Personal Chef Services.