We all eat to survive, but apart from food’s nutritional value, most of us tend to choose our favorites based on how they taste and how they look. Just for the fun of it, nutritionists offer a gallery of fun food facts, some of which may come as a surprise:
- Apples can give you more energy than coffee – Next time you’re low on energy, grab an apple. Thanks to their high carbohydrate, fiber, vitamin C, and mineral content, apples actually provide more energy than coffee.
- Chocolate was once used as currency – Known for their love of chocolate, the Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency – and even used cocoa to pay their taxes.
- Broccoli has more protein than steak – Plus, it doesn’t come with saturated and trans fats or cholesterol.
- Gummies are coated with car wax – That glossy sheen on gummy candies comes from carnauba wax, the same stuff used on cars to make them look shiny. But unless you lower them by the carload, there’s not enough there to harm you.
- Carrots were originally purple – Before the 16th century, almost all cultivated carrots were purple, with mutated versions occasionally yellow and white. Orange carrots are believed to have been cultivated by Dutch growers who took mutant strains of the purple carrot and developed them into the modern-day variety.
- Farm-raised salmon is really white – Wild salmon are naturally pinkish orange because they feed on a lot of shrimp. Farm-raised salmon only achieve their pink color because farmers add carotenoids, a plant pigment, to their food.
- Peanut butter is healthy food – High in healthy fat, peanut butter eaten on a regular basis can lower cholesterol, aid in weight loss, and help prevent type 2 diabetes.
- Tomatoes were once thought poisonous – In 18th-century Europe, tomatoes were called ‘poison apples’ because aristocrats would sometimes fall ill and die after eating them. Eventually, people realized this happened because the high acidity in tomatoes could cause lead to be released from the pewter tableware of the time.
