Fun Food Facts

These food facts are sure to satiate your weird and fun food fact appetite!

WTF Fun Fact 12968 – Edible Burrito Tape

Do you love burritos but hate the mess they make when they’re not expertly rolled into a magical self-sealing pocket? Well, edible burrito tape could be the weirdest invention you never knew you needed.

What’s the deal with edible burrito tape?

Leave it to college students to solve this age-old conundrum.

It turns out that a group of Engineering majors at Johns Hopkins taking a product design course have found a way to make your burritos delicious and more convenient.

According to TODAY (cited below), “The all-female team of Tyler Guarino, Rachel Nie, Marie Eric and Erin Walsh came together and decided to solve one of life’s most frustrating problems: preventing a burrito from unraveling and making a mess. Their solution: an edible tape that keeps all the delicious ingredients inside the tortilla instead of on your plate or lap.”

The first step was to investigate what made tape, in general, work well (turns out the answer is twofold – a backbone and an adhesive compound). The next step was to make those components edible.

“Tastee” Tape

Student Tyler Guarino told TODAY: “We tried tons of different combinations, and formulations and really did a lot of trial and error until we were able to get a product that was clear in color, tasteless, didn’t have a noticeable texture, but was still strong enough to hold a big fat burrito together.”

It took the women a few months of trial and error to figure out how to make a cookable, edible burrito tape. After that, they set about making it pleasant to eat (not just edible). That meant playing around with the taste and texture.

They decided on a final product that carried little to none of it’s own taste or texture so people could just enjoy their burritos. The product is known as Tastee Tape.

“You simply just peel the piece off of the sheet,” Guarino said. “You wet it to activate it, and then you apply it to your tortilla.” 

The students aren’t keen to share their recipe, however. They’re looking to patent it. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Johns Hopkins students develop edible tape to make burritos easier to eat” — TODAY

WTF Fun Fact 12967 – Bats and Tequila

There’s a little-known but critical relationship between bats and tequila. In fact, without bats, we may not be able to create tequila at all!

How are bats and tequila connected?

If you’re a tequila fan, you probably know the crucial ingredient in the spirit is agave. This spiky plant is native to the desert regions of North and South America (but mostly Mexico). Agave nectar is also harvested to be used as a sweetener.

One of the many interesting things about the agave plant is that it has very few natural pollinators. (And you likely know that in order for plants to produce, they need to be pollinated by things like birds, bees, etc.)

The agave plant’s primary pollinator is bats. No bats, no agave. No agave, no tequila.

Is the tequila supply in danger?

To make matters even more complicated for agave plants, only a few species of bats are pollinators. These bats are being threatened by industrial farming and other threats to their natural habitats.

But while the bats and agave plants are increasingly threatened, our thirst for tequila has only gone up. According to NPR (cited below), the tequila industry has grown by 60% over the last decade. That means we need more agave plants than ever.

You might think that industrial farming would simply increase the amount of agave being grown, but it hasn’t worked out that way.

How do you solve a problem like agave?

NPR interviewed Micaela Jemison of Bat Conservation International, who said that the problem with commercial agave production is that agave stalks are harvested before they can reproduce. “That means no tasty pollen for hungry bats. And instead of plants that reproduce through bats spreading pollen from stem to stem, major tequila companies use cloned agave.”

If you only care about tequila, you might not think this is a big deal, but there are some major unintended consequences of handing a natural process over to a business.

“Growing genetically identical plants is easy and cheap for big companies, but cloned agave is vulnerable to fungus or disease that could wipe out entire crops. Bats can solve this problem by creating genetic diversity. Instead, their ecosystem has been disrupted. Fewer agave plants are allowed to flower and growers use powerful agrochemicals that can hurt the three kind of bats that feed on agave.”

The Mexican long-nosed bat and the lesser long-nosed bat are two of the major agave pollinators listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a third, the Mexican long-tongued bat, is a species of concern.

To help spread appreciation for the relationship between bats and tequila, the Tequila Interchange Project (which is made up of bartenders, scientists, industry consultants, and plain old tequila fans) is trying to promote Bat Friendly Tequila and Mezcal™. These approved brands give some of their proceeds to agave farmers who welcome the bats and help maintain their populations.

Bat-friendly tequila

The coalition notes that “Given that Tequila is a two billion USD a year industry, and that the economy of 40,000 families is linked to blue agaves (and to bats and other pollinators), it is in the best interest of all stakeholders, from producers to the government to the individual consumer and everyone in-between, to protect the future of tequila and mezcal agaves by adopting sustainable practices and protecting pollinators and genetic resources.”

According to the website, some of the bat-friendly brands include:
– Tequila 8
– Tequila Tapatio
– Tesoro de Don Felipe
– Siembra Valles Ancestral
– 7 Leguas
– Siembra Metl Cupreata
– TOCUZ Alto
– Don Mateo de la Sierra Cupreata
– Mezcal Vago Pechuga

— WTF fun facts

Source: “Bats And Tequila: A Once Boo-tiful Relationship Cursed By Growing Demands” — NPR

WTF Fun Fact 12964 – Our Obsession With Pumpkins

Pumpking beer, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin-spiced…you name it. Our obsession with pumpkins knows no bounds.

Even if you hate the taste of pumpkins, you might still be soothed by the sight of them. And there’s a reason for that.

What’s with our obsession with pumpkins?

Most pumpkin-flavored things don’t really taste like pumpkin or even contain pumpkin – in fact, most are made with a different type of squash altogether. We’re mostly in it for the spices.

Still, there’s a reason we market everything as “pumpkin flavored” – and it’s all about nostalgia.

According to NPR (cited below), a professor of American Studies at St. Louis University named Cindy Ott wrote a book titled Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon in which she describes why we’re so drawn to the round, orange gourds.

“It’s a vegetable that represents this idyllic farm life, and the best sort of moral virtue. And Americans have become attached to that,” she said.

“‘The rehab of pumpkin’s popularity began when 19th century Americans began to move away from rural life and into the city,’ Ott says. ‘People became stressed about… moving into the office and off the farms, and [the pumpkin] starts to appear in poems and in paintings,’ she says. ‘We’re celebrating the nostalgia for this old-fashioned, rural way of life that no one ever really wanted to stay on, but everyone’s always been romantic about.'”

Recycling pumpkin-flavored ideas

Did you know pumpkin beer isn’t a new phenomenon? Pumpkins were once the food of pure desperation.

NPR explains that “…pumpkin beers and pumpkin breads have been produced since colonial times, Ott says that they weren’t always the specialty foods that they are today. ‘Pumpkin beer was used when there was no barley. [If] there was no wheat for bread, they used pumpkin [for] bread,'”

If anyone mocks you for your pumpkin-flavored obsession, just tell them you’re helping the economy.

“Big corporations advertise many pumpkin-themed products, but due to their limited seasonal availability, many fresh pumpkins sold every fall still come from local family farms,” Ott told NPR. “And that’s actually helping to rejuvenate those farms.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Why Americans Go Crazy For Pumpkin And Pumpkin-Flavored Stuff” — NPR

WTF Fun Fact 12944 – The Hallucinogenic Effects of Nutmeg

When fall and winter come around each year, many of us are reminded of happy times by the smell of nutmeg (and the baked goods that act as a nutmeg vehicle). Well, it turns out we should all stick to the loaves of bread and cakes and stay away from nutmeg on its own. We weren’t aware until now of the hallucinogenic effects of nutmeg.

Don’t let your kids do nutmeg.

Nutmeg gets you high?

We all know the old saying by Galen that anything consumed in enough quantity is poisonous. But for nutmeg, that quantity is two tablespoons.

Of course, nutmeg toxicity probably isn’t going to get you if you eat a whole loaf of pumpkin bread or a whole pie (the stomach ache will be enough punishment). If that were true, we’d hear a lot more about it. But also, two teaspoons is over twice as much as anyone puts in a recipe (1/4 to 1/2 TEAspoon is usually the limit).

Sit down and eat two tablespoons of the stuff in one sitting and you’re in for a baaaad time thanks to a toxic compound called myristicin. Sure, it will give you hallucinations, but it will also make you yearn for better times as you lay on the bathroom floor and spend the rest of the day vomiting.

In other words, don’t try this at home. The risk far outweighs any interesting side effects.

Nutmeg has hallucinogenic effects if consumed in a high enough quantity. But toxicity begins at just two teaspoons (which you’d have to eat in one sitting). The compound myristicin is responsible for the effect, which can also lead to nausea and vomiting.

The hallucinogenic effects of nutmeg are not like visions of sugarplums

Let’s put it this way – if there were any sort of traditional high you could get from something as common as nutmeg, we’d be seeing a lot of bad TikToks of ill-conceived “nutmeg challenges.”

According to Healthline (cited below – and fact-checked by experts), the toxic compound in nutmeg can be found elsewhere. “Myristicin is a compound found naturally in the essential oils of certain plants, such as parsley, dill, and nutmeg,” but it’s found in the highest concentration in nutmeg.

The myristicin in nutmeg acts a bit like the compound in peyote (called mescaline) in that it acts on the central nervous system (CNS) and enhances the neurotransmitter called norepinephrine. But unlike peyote, there are no special nutmeg rituals…for a reason. That’s because myristicin also affects the sympathetic nervous system and that’s a system you really don’t want to mess with since overstimulation produces anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, jitteriness, poor digestion, and even high blood pressure.

That’s not a fun time. And in that sense, it’s not at all going to be like a peyote trip. Besides, stimulating the CNS can also cause nausea, dizziness, and other side effects.

In other words, you’re just poisoning yourself if you try to take nutmeg to get “high.”

The history of nutmeg intoxication

There aren’t many studies on this phenomenon (thankfully, not many people have been misguided enough to do this to themselves). But some people didn’t know any better – like a woman who put FAR too much nutmeg in a milkshake and experienced “nausea, dizziness, heart palpitations, and dry mouth, among other symptoms. Although she didn’t report any hallucinations, she did mention feeling as if she was in a trance-like state,” according to Healthline.

More recently, a 37-year-old woman did try two tablespoons of nutmeg – she missed out on any hallucinations or trance-like states and just felt “dizziness, confusion, grogginess, and an extremely dry mouth” for about 10 hours. Not a great way to spend a day, if you ask us.

A 10-year review of cases from the Illinois Poison Center “revealed over 30 documented cases of nutmeg poisoning,” “both intentional and unintentional exposures, as well as drug interactions leading to toxicity.” 50% of those cases were from people trying to get high from nutmeg, mostly kids under 13. They experienced hallucinations, drowsiness, dizziness, dry mouth, confusion, and – in two cases – seizures. Oh, and then there was some respiratory, cardiovascular, and gastric distress.

If nutmeg seems like an easy way to get high, you might also want to know it can potentially cause organ failure, in some cases, and it can kill you when combined with other drugs.

Mind-bogglingly, some people have tried to smoke or inject nutmeg to get high. But “Like any other drugs, the dangers of nutmeg overdose can occur no matter the method of delivery.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Can You Get High on Nutmeg? Why This Isn’t a Good Idea” — Healthline

WTF Fun Fact 12942 – You Can Hear Rhubarb Growing

When we plant something, it feels like it takes forever to start growing. But that’s not the case with rhubarb. Once this vegetable gets going, it can develop so fast you can hear rhubarb growing.

How to hear rhubarb growing

According to Atlas Obscura (cited below), this is mostly the case with forced rhubarb – the kind you give a little extra effort to in order to get it to develop faster.

“Forced rhubarb, which is made to mature in near total darkness, grows at such an alarming rate—as much as an inch a day—that it actually makes squeaks, creaks, and pops as it gets bigger. It makes for sweeter rhubarb, growers say, and sick beats.”

Of course, if you’re forcing rhubarb to grow in a facility, it can be hard to hear over the sound of any machines you have running to keep the conditions ideal.

Rhubarb’s unique growing characteristics

Atlas Obscura states that “The method of growing forced rhubarb dates back to the early 1800s, and continues in much the same way today. Farmers let the rhubarb grow out in the open for two years, as the roots collect and store calories. Then the plants are transplanted to lightless growing sheds around November, where they continue to grow—warm, but out of season and in the dark. The rhubarb grows without photosynthesis, which normally makes the plant tough and fibrous…The process also results in deep, red stalks, without the normal green shading.”

The loudest noise you’ll hear is the forced rhubarb bursting out of its bud with a pop. Then, it makes a fainter noise as the stalks rub up against each other and squeak. That’s because forced rhubarb isn’t planted far apart.

There aren’t many forced rhubarb growers anymore, though you can still find some in Michigan and Washington state if you want to hear a vegetable grow. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Listen to the Sick Beats of Rhubarb Growing in the Dark” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 12935 – Pumpkin Spice Taste Mystery

Traditionally, pumpkin spice flavorings have not contained pumpkin at all. Of course, pumpkin spice lovers have been mocked for their “fake flavor,” even though there are plenty of flavors that have no real foodstuffs in them. That pumpkin spice taste so many of us like is really just cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc.

Starting around 2015, things changed for Starbucks fans. They actually got pumpkin in their pumpkin spice drinks.

The new pumpkin spice taste

Even though Starbucks’ pumpkin spice drinks are sold in the fall and winter, they are the chain’s most popular offerings, with the pumpkin spice latte (or PSL) maintaining the #1 spot. In fact, Starbucks sells around 20 million of them per year. We don’t drink them, but we can’t deny there’s a certain tastiness there (thanks to lots of sugar and fat and stimulating spices like cinnamon and clove).

According to Newsweek (cited below): “On August 30, Starbucks officially ushered coffee lovers into the fall season with the return of its pumpkin spice latte; however, the return has left some customers feeling disappointed, as they believe the iconic drink tastes different this year than in years past.
Posting to TikTok on Thursday, a purported Starbucks barista named Maria confirmed that the drink does, in fact, taste different this year because the company “changed” its pumpkin spice recipe. The video has amassed over 860,000 views and more than 1,400 comments.”

How could they change such an iconic flavor?! Well, it turns out that some stores are getting an updated recipe, but pumpkin has been part of it for around 8 years.

Now with real pumpkin (kind of)

The newer Starbucks syrup contains “real pumpkin ingredient” – whatever that means.

While PSL fans on TikTok are insisting there’s something different about the 2022 lattes, Starbucks has maintained that they are using the same recipe as in previous years.

So what is pumpkin spice?

Until Starbucks relented and added some sort of pumpkin-derived flavoring, no pumpkin spice actually contained pumpkin. Even the pumpkin pie spice we buy in stores is simply a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and ginger.

Regardless of whether it’s “real” or not, the flavor is now iconic. In fact, Merriam-Webster added the phrase “pumpkin spice” to their dictionary in 2022. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Why Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Tastes Different This Year: Barista Explains” — Newsweek

WTF Fun Fact 12904 – The Popularity of Guinness in Nigeria

If you go to Lagos, Nigeria, you’re just as likely to hear about how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness beer as you are in Ireland. In Nigeria and throughout the African continent, Guinness is one of the most popular beers around.

Guinness in Africa

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “The dark brew makes up about 45 percent of beer sold by Diageo, the company that owns Guinness, on the continent, and Diageo is one of four companies that split about 90 percent of the African beer market. Popularity varies from country to country, and Guinness is a particular favorite in Nigeria.”

In the US and UK, we tend to get a slightly different type of Guinness depending on whether we have it on draught or in a bottle. But the Foreign Extra Stout in Nigeria is the Foreign Extra Stout, which has the same formula as the beer the British colonies got in the 18th century.

And there’s definitely something special about it for fans in African since the continent (which is, admittedly, enormous and diverse) now rivals the UK in stout consumption.

“In 2007, Africa surpassed Ireland as the second largest market for Guinness worldwide, behind the United Kingdom, and sales have only climbed since then (by about 13 percent each year),” according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Guinness in Nigeria

In 1803, Arthur Guinness II inherited the brewery from his father and began exporting the beer to England. But after that, the British colonies were the next obvious place to export the beer. First, Guinness’ “West Indies Porter” went to Barbados and Trinidad. Then, it became known as Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and arrived in Sierra Leone in 1827.

While the beer went to soldiers of the British Empire, breweries were eventually built on the continent itself in order to bottle beer for Africans. Even as colonies gained their freedom, the beer remained. And when Nigeria won its independence in 1960, Lagos (the capital) got the first long-term Guinness brewery outside of Ireland. Now, 13 breweries produce Guinness in Africa.

Smithsonian notes: “In his book Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint, historian Bill Yenne discussed the popularity of Guinness abroad with brewmaster Fergal Murray, who worked at the Guinness brewery in Nigeria in the 1980s. ‘I’ve talked to Nigerians who think of Guinness as their national beer,’ Murray recalled. ‘They wonder why Guinness is sold in Ireland. You can talk to Nigerians in Lagos who will tell you as many stories about their perfect pint as an Irishman will. They’ll tell about how they’ve had the perfect bottle of foreign extra stout at a particular bar on their way home from work.'”

– WTF fun facts

Source: “How Guinness Became an African Favorite” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12901 – Blue Whale Calorie Intake

It’s no surprise that a blue whale’s calorie intake is massive – after all, they’re the largest creatures on Earth (and the largest animal to ever live). But half a MILLION calories is a lot to take in – especially in just one mouthful of food!

Blue whale feeding

The majority of a blue whale’s diet consists of tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill (interestingly, one of the smallest ocean creatures). According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “A foraging whale lunges into a swarm of these shrimp-like animals, accelerating to high speed with its mouth open at a right angle. Pushed back by the rush of water, its mouth expands and its tongue (itself the size of an elephant) inverts to create more room. The whale engulfs up to 110 tonnes of water and any krill within is filtered out and swallowed.”

Jeremy Goldbogen studies blue whales at the University of British Columbia. He tagged 265 of the massive creatures to log the amount of energy they expended while lunging to eat. His devices recorded information for 650 feeding lunges.

“The data-loggers recorded the whales’ position, their acceleration, and the noise and pressure of the surrounding water. The noise was important – by measuring the sound of water rushing past the animal, Goldbergen could work out how fast it was travelling.”

Blue whales can move up to 8 mph in less than a minute and 770 to 1900 calories just to work up the momentum to take that big gulp of ocean water. An average feeding dive takes about 10 minutes, and the whales take around 3 to 4 gulps in that time. But they consume from 6 to 240 times the amount of calories they expend.

Blue whale calorie counting

If a blue whale expends so much energy simply diving for food, it makes sense that they would have to take in an enormous number of calories to make it worth the trouble. But it’s hard to believe just how many calories they can take in.

Smithsonian Magazine states: “If a big whale attacks a particularly dense swarm, it can swallow up to 500 kilograms of krill, eating 457,000 calories in a single monster mouthful and getting back almost 200 times the amount it burned in the attempt. A smaller whale lunging at a sparse collection of krill would only get around 8,000 calories, but that’s still 8 times more than what it burned. Even when Goldbogen accounted for the energy needed to dive in search of prey, the whales still regained 3 to 90 times as much energy as they spent.”

This makes it easier to think of all of the rest of our meals as relatively low-calorie, by comparison. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Blue whales can eat half a million calories in a single mouthful” — National Geographic

WTF Fun Fact 12898 – A Restaurant Run By Deaf Staff

Sid Nouar is deaf. The unemployment rate for deaf people in Europe is over 50%. So when Nouar opened his restaurant,1000&1 Signes in Paris, he was committed to hiring deaf staff. And he’s not the only “deaf cafe” in the world.

1000&1 Signes

When Nouar first opened his Moroccan restaurant, he couldn’t find deaf staff trained in the restaurant business (something very necessary for Parisian restaurants, where restaurant positions are careers). As a result, he ended up performing the roles of the whole front-of-house staff while his mother cooked in the kitchen.

As you might imagine, he burned out as a result.

Luckily, he was able to reopen at an even larger location a few years later and hire a full staff of deaf people.

Deaf cafes around the world

According to Atlas Obscura (cited below): “Although every country has its own unique sign language, Deaf people across the globe share many common experiences, especially the frustration of primarily communicating in a language not shared by the majority. Instead of focusing on what they cannot access, however, many Deaf people take pride in their rich sign languages, plus the arts, athletics, folklore, values, and history that make up what is known as Deaf Culture.”

Now, there is a “Deaf Ecosystem” that employs the deaf community whenever possible. And deaf travelers seek out these deaf entrepreneurs. Still, 80% of the clientele at deaf cafes are hearing people. But they’re required to adapt to their surroundings rather than the other way around.

Atlas Obscura offered an example: “When visiting Austin, Texas, Deaf travelers are sure to visit Crêpe Crazy. The birth of this popular crêpe restaurant evokes the quintessential American fairytale: two Deaf immigrants turn a secret family recipe into a pair of successful central Texas restaurants, serving an American take on a European classic.” – WTF fun facts

Source: “Deaf-Owned Restaurants Offer Cuisine and Community” — Atlas Obscura