There’s plenty of food for thought

• The French eat over 200 million frogs a year


• Italy leads the world in pasta consumption with 28 kilos eaten per person per year. Venezuela comes second with 12.5 kilos consumption per person annually.


• The literal meaning of the Italian word linguine is “little tongues”.


• A common custom in Spain is to eat one grape for each of the last 12 seconds of every year for good luck.


• The ancient Greeks thought that if they ate parsley, they would not get drunk.


• Bakers in ancient Rome were required to bake their names into loaves of bread.


• The Bagel gets its name from the German for “stirrup”.


• A piece of French toast that was partially eaten by Justin Timberlake sold on eBay.


• What was margarine was initially called Butterine when it was first marketed in England.


• Cottage cheese was developed after a long camel ride by an Arab trader, who found that milk he was carrying in goatskin bag had turned.


• Oyster were a major part of life in New York in the late 1800s. They were eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner; they were pickled, stewed, baked, roasted, fried, scalloped and used in soups, patties and puddings. Oystering in New York supported large numbers of families, and oyster theft was a prevalent problem.


• A bowl of lime Jell-O, when hooked up to an EGG machine, exhibits movement which is virtually identical to the brain waves of a healthy adult man or woman.


• Potatoes were banned in Burgundy in 1910 because it was said, “frequent use causes leprosy”.


• Of all the potatoes grown in the United States, only 8 percent are used to make potato chips. Special varieties referred to as “chipping potatoes” are grown for this purpose.
  In ancient Egypt a man placed his right hand on an onion when taking an oath. Its round shape symbolized eternity.


• The old myth that eating carrots will improve eyesight is true. Carrots contain carotene which our body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A is necessary for the production of visual purple, which helps you see in the dark. Without vitamin A, you could develop night blindness.


• All bananas start out as female flowers on a banana tree. The male flowers don’t amount to anything.


• The liquid inside of young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.


• Tabasco Sauce is made by fermenting vinegar and hot peppers in a French oak barrel which has 7.5 cm of salt on top is aged for three years until all the salt is diffused through barrel.


• Heinz catsup leaves the bottle at a rate of 25 miles per year.


• It takes 40 minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg.


• Marshmallows were once used to celebrate Easter in China.


• A one kilogram packet of sugar has about five million grains of sugar.


• The first bubble gum flavors ever produces were wintergreen, vanilla and cassia.


• It takes the same amount of time to age a cigar as it does wine.


• According to the King James Version of the Bible, the fruit Eve gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden was the fruit of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:17)