[1] Here are some interesting facts about food that will blow your mind. Technically, bananas are berries. So are watermelons and cucumbers. However, strawberries are not, and neither are cherries, which are considered stone fruits or drupes. Meanwhile, pistachios aren’t nuts; they are fruit. And while we’re at it, almonds are seeds, not nuts.
[2] Bananas are curved because they hang down when they grow, but they curve up to seek the sun. And they do not grow on trees. They actually grow on plants that do not have wood and die off to the ground every year before regrowing. Do you know what else doesn’t grow on trees? Pineapples. Pineapples grow just a few inches off the ground on a plant that can only produce one pineapple at a time – and it takes around two years to grow one.
[3] Carrots were originally purple, white or yellow, not orange. Dutch farmers began crossbreeding them in the 17th century until they became an enticing bright orange. No one knows for certain why they did this, but one popular theory is that they wanted to honour the royal family, the House of Orange.
[4] Applesauce was the first food eaten in space. John Glenn had it as a snack on his 1962 flight as the first American to orbit the Earth.
[5] Lemons float. float. Limes do not. The difference is in the thickness of the peel. Lemon peels are thicker than lime peels because they have more air pockets. Oranges float for the same reason. Rotten eggs also float. Eggs that tilt or stand upright in water, but do not float, are older but are still safe to eat.
[6] True wasabi is considered the hardest plant to grow and is one of the most expensive to cultivate. What is served at an estimated 95 per cent of Japanese restaurants around the world is a combination of European horseradish (which is related to wasabi), mustard and food colouring.
[7] Flamingos are pink for the same reason salmon is pink: They both eat small crustaceans, such as brine shrimp and krill, that eat smaller things that contain carotenoids, which turn them pink.
Source: Tribune News Service, April 13
