Interesting historical facts about food. Incredible food facts that open our eyes to what we eat

There are too many interesting and informative things in the world and it is simply physically impossible to know them all.
But we do not give up and want to offer you to replenish your knowledge base with a portion of the most interesting and most unexpected facts about our usual food, many of which will surely become a real discovery for you. Do not deny yourself the pleasure of learning a little more about this world!

Tomatoes used to be considered poisonous

Tomatoes have long been an integral part of our diet. We eat them both raw and used in cooking. Interestingly, even with heat treatment, they do not lose their useful properties.
However, earlier these berries were considered poisonous, and all because of the resemblance to the fruits of potatoes, which look very similar to small tomatoes and are really poisonous. They contain solanine, which, by the way, is also present in green tomatoes. So buy only red ripe fruits.

Sweet Peppers Have More Vitamin C Than Citrus Fruits

The fact that vitamin C is necessary for our body, we all know since childhood. It is a powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and helps fight infections. But are lemons and oranges really the best source of vitamin C?
The answer is clearly no. For comparison, a lemon has only 40 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams of product, and an orange has 60 milligrams, the same amount in strawberries. The leaders in the content of this most valuable vitamin are parsley (150 milligrams) and sweet bell peppers, especially red and green, where 300 milligrams of vitamin C are present.

Homeland of ketchup - China

Many people think that the tomato sauce that has become popular all over the world first appeared in America, but this is not true. This sauce was brought back in the 17th century from China to England and consisted of fish pickle, anchovies, mushrooms, walnuts and spices. Later, already in the 19th century, a tomato-based sauce with the same name appeared in America.

Carrots grown for greenery

In modern cooking, carrots are valued for their delicious, sweet root vegetable, but they were previously grown for their greens and seeds, which were used for medicinal purposes. But even now in Europe, not everyone uses carrots in the traditional way for us. In Portugal, for example, carrot jam is made from it.

Rice as a measure of weight

Rice dishes have long ceased to be associated only with Asian cuisine, although East Asia is considered its homeland. In Europe, this cereal appeared only in the 19th century, but in Muslim countries there is a measure of weight - aruzza, which is equal to one grain of rice, namely 0.0186 grams.

Coffee is a berry

When talking about coffee, we most often use the expression "coffee beans", but in fact these are the seeds of the berries of the coffee tree. The berries themselves ripen from 3 to 4 months and each berry can contain up to 3 grains.

Many fruit trees are relatives of the rose.

Admiring the flowering of apple trees, as well as pear, cherry and plum trees, you will now know that they all belong to the pink family. Also in this family are strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.

The almond is related to the plum

Since we are talking about the relationship of certain plants, here is another curious fact. Plum, cherry and almond belong to the plum subfamily, but with one fundamental difference - the almond seed is not poisonous, unlike plum and cherry.

In the Nordic countries they eat rotten fish

In the Scandinavian countries, dishes from rotten or fermented fish are common. For example, the Icelandic dish hakarl is made from rotten shark meat, and the Swedish surströmming is made from sour herring.

What is good for a Russian is death for a German

Once a young doctor, invited to a hopelessly ill Russian boy, allowed him to eat whatever he wanted. The boy ate pork with cabbage and, to the surprise of others, began to recover. After this incident, the doctor prescribed pork with cabbage to a sick German boy, but he, having eaten, died the next day. According to one version, it is this story that underlies the expression "what is good for a Russian, then death for a German."

Hippo Soup

The oldest discovered soup recipe dates back to 6000 BC. The main ingredient is hippopotamus meat.

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. It was freezing cold in San Francisco that night, 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 the 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 bundles of bananas that we sell are not clusters - 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 today 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?"

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 from the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, have succeeded in making 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 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.

1. Many ancient cultures believed that a cut apple in an upright position resembled the female genitalia.
2. Some scientists believe that they arose as a result of mothers passing chewed food to babies from mouth to mouth.
3. Seafood, such as oysters, are considered aphrodisiacs. Casanova treated his future partners with seafood.
4. In ancient times, fresh milk was considered a luxury and abundance item due to the difficulty of preserving it.
5. The first soup appeared more than five thousand years ago. It was made from hippopotamus meat.
6. Decorating food with herbs began in ancient Rome. It was considered a talisman against the intrigues of the devil.
7. It was believed that lemon juice could dissolve swallowed fish bones. That is why in the Middle Ages, fish was always served with lemon.
8. 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.
9. Cosmonauts believe that the most delicious freeze-dried product is cottage cheese with cranberries.
10. Surprisingly, a banana is not a fruit, but a berry.
11. Neil Armstrong ate bagged turkey for the first time on the moon.
12. 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

1. Eating poppy seed buns frequently can result in a positive drug test result.
2. In the Scandinavian countries, their dried fish dishes are considered a delicacy.
3. Sugar used to be a luxury in Europe. Then the rich had a strange fashion to demonstrate their position, they painted their teeth black.
4. Fugu fish is a delicacy in Japanese cuisine. This fish is poisonous, and improper preparation can cause death.
5. Cranberry in translation from English means "crane berry".
6. 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.

Food is the most important component of human life, the main source of energy and strength. Nutrients supply the cells of the human body with vitamins and minerals, supporting life, and some foods help the body cope with depression. Such products include chocolate, ice cream and other sweets.

Of course, the food consumed should be healthy and fresh, since the problem for a modern person lies precisely in the quality of food, and not in its assortment. In this article, we will share interesting facts about food for both children and adults, myths about healthy eating and information about the chemistry contained even in harmless products.

10 most interesting facts about food

1. Over the past 30 years, the amount of useful and nutritious substances in similar products has been significantly reduced. It was found that the content of vitamin B2 decreased by 39%, the content of calcium - by 15%, and proteins - by 5%.
2. One product is known in the world, the shelf life of which is 3000 years, and this is honey.

1. It is worth noting that after going to a fast food restaurant, ordering french fries, a hamburger and cola, you will have to lose calories from this meal for 7 hours.
2. Few people know that bananas attract mosquitoes the most, and garlic can instantly scare them away. This fact should be taken into account when going outdoors in the summer.
3. The systematic addition of fish and seafood dishes to the diet will reduce the risk of developing diseases associated with the heart muscle by 30%.
4. The first soup was made 5,000 years ago. Its main ingredient was hippopotamus meat.

1. Scientists have proven that food dyes (red and yellow) cause increased activity in children when consumed.
2. Surprisingly, but a fact: a banana is not a fruit, but a berry.
3. A common Japanese delicacy, puffer fish is poisonous and will cause fatal accidents if not cooked properly.
4. Not only does lemon juice go great with fish dishes, but it can even dissolve fish bones.

All the most amazing about space food

Today, the diet of an astronaut cannot be called meager; rather, it is equated to a restaurant level. Astronauts eat an average of 1.5 kg of food per day, because the calorie intake in space should not be inferior to the calorie intake on Earth.

Of course, they try to diversify the astronaut's diet as much as possible, at one time they even tried to include wine in it, but it wandered in space. They also abandoned soda, whose reaction outside the Earth turned out to be unpredictable. But today, the space menu already includes 200 dishes and drinks, repeated every week.

Astronauts have privileges for the holidays - they choose those dishes that they like more than others, or that evoke pleasant associations in them. But although the menu looks varied, the food itself is still different from the usual taste. And the main goal of food developers is not to increase the number of dishes, but to achieve maximum similarity with earthly food.

Today, astronauts recognize freeze-dried (dehydrated) cottage cheese with cranberries and nuts as the most delicious dish, since it does not differ in taste from the usual one.

Sublimation is a mandatory procedure that food undergoes before a space flight. It includes dehydration, achieved by freezing, and then by drying. Therefore, before using freeze-dried products, astronauts dilute them with water. It will seem ridiculous, but tea is considered the most difficult sublimated product to prepare.

The consumption of bread by astronauts is a very unusual procedure. The fact is that space bread is packaged in such a way that 1 package is enough for exactly 1 bite. This is done for safety reasons, as flying crumbs, getting into the respiratory tract, lead to accidents.

Also, space products are considered the safest and most natural in the world. They are carefully tested for the absence of additives and chemicals in the composition, because no one knows how untested and synthetic substances will behave in space.

Curious facts about dishes, drinks and table etiquette of different countries

Chile

Chile has a very strict attitude to table etiquette. Chileans do not have dishes that could be eaten with their hands. Even french fries and any snacks are consumed with the help of appliances, otherwise you will be considered devoid of education.

China

The favorite dish of the Chinese is noodles. Moreover, in China it is not customary to cut it, even for convenience. Locals associate noodles with longevity and health, and cutting noodles, in their opinion, leads to a "shortening" of one's own life.

Japan

In Japan, it is customary to slurp while eating. This is especially true for soups and noodles. The louder the Japanese champs, the more respect he expresses to the cook.

Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, it is not customary for guests to pour a full mug of tea. A mug filled to the brim is a sign that you are not welcome in this house and the owner wants you to leave as soon as possible. And the less tea in the mug, the more respect is shown to the guest. In Kazakhstan, it is also not customary to ask for supplements, this is a sign of bad taste.

Georgia

In Georgia, it is not customary to drink wine in small sips throughout the evening. Wine is drunk only in one gulp and to the bottom.

France

In France, it is considered bad manners to eat bread before the main course. But putting it on the table, and not on the edge of the plate, is an indicator of your upbringing.

Facts about the effects of chemicals in foods on the human body

Today, most products contain preservatives, dyes and flavor enhancers aimed at increasing the shelf life of food and developing addiction and even addiction in humans.

It is already almost impossible to find a product that does not contain the E index. True, not all E are harmful. For example, E100 and E363, E504 and E250, E251 and E252 are considered safe for humans. The remaining indices have a negative impact on the human body.

For example, food preservatives E (E2), aimed at increasing the shelf life of the product, contribute to the development of kidney stones and intestinal problems. These preservatives are difficult to excrete from the body, having a negative effect for a long time.

Flavor and odor enhancers E (E6) emit the freshness of the product lost during industrial processing. They are also difficult to excrete from the body, almost not digested and cause inflammatory processes in the tissues, and if you do not use the daily intake of liquid, then E6 can lead to thickening of the blood, which will lead to serious health problems.

In addition to dyes and preservatives, harmful substances can also enter the product during its manufacture, for example, from contaminated containers and in the presence of toxic waste in industry and the household.

Of course, the market today is filled with industrially processed foods and drinks. But it is important to properly balance your diet so that the percentage of harmful substances consumed is not too high, and consume as many healthy foods as possible that do not contain preservatives and flavor enhancers.

Myths about healthy and unhealthy eating

• Eating right is too expensive. Of course, some manufacturers of especially ecological and healthy products artificially inflate prices, and it seems that not everyone can afford proper nutrition. But studies have shown that a healthy food diet is even cheaper than a processed food diet.
• Diet soda is not harmful. Although diet soda has replaced sugar with sweetener, this does not reduce the calorie content of the product. In addition, sweeteners also cause headaches and slow down metabolism, so the use of this drink cannot be called harmless.

• If there are no fats in the product, this is a plus. The absence of fats in the daily diet will only lead to health problems, since the normal functioning of the body requires both proteins and fats and carbohydrates in a ratio of 1:1:4. It is only important to observe the proportions and not to abuse food containing fats, but it is absolutely impossible to refuse them completely.
• Raw fruits and vegetables aid digestion. Food processing, according to raw foodists, leads to the destruction of enzymes and, accordingly, to the loss of beneficial properties. But in fact, food entering the stomach is immediately broken down into these enzymes. Therefore, raw food does not help digestion, unlike foods rich in dietary fiber.

• Daytime calories do not turn into fat, unlike evening and nighttime ones. This myth pushes people to refuse dinner and even a light snack in the evening. But in fact, calories consumed throughout the day can also turn into fat, regardless of when they are consumed. In the evening, dinner is necessary for the body, just like breakfast, given that at night the brain works intensively and it simply needs calories to function. The main thing is to try to lead a mobile lifestyle, using the energy consumed correctly.

• Another interesting myth that is indirectly related to the topic of healthy food is food heated in a microwave becomes carcinogenic. This, of course, is not true. If carcinogens were not present in the product before heating, then they will not appear after. The microwaves in the oven only cause the water molecules in the food to vibrate, heating it up. In the heated product, there are no changes.
• Taking care of your diet is the responsibility of every person. Health and mood depend on nutrition, so doctors and nutritionists advise paying due attention to the daily diet. The main thing is the balance in the body and a mobile lifestyle that helps to correctly spend the energy that enters our body when eating.