Food Facts for Kids
Tasty facts about the food we eat
In colonial America, lobsters were so plentiful and cheap they were considered food for the poor and were fed to prisoners and servants. Laws were eventually passed limiting how often servants could be forced to eat lobster.
Lemons contain citric acid, which conducts electricity. With the right metal electrodes inserted into a lemon, you can generate enough electrical current to power a small LED light — making lemons a real-life battery.
Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, which is where the word 'salary' comes from. Salt was so valuable in the ancient world that it was used as money and even traded for gold.
Cooked tomatoes actually contain more lycopene — a powerful antioxidant — than raw ones. Heating tomatoes breaks down cell walls and releases more of this beneficial compound, making tomato sauce especially good for you.
The holes in Swiss cheese are called 'eyes,' and they are made by bacteria that release carbon dioxide gas as the cheese matures. For a long time, scientists thought hay dust from the dairy fell into the milk and triggered the holes.
Strawberries are the only fruit that wear their seeds on the outside. What looks like a seed is actually a tiny fruit called an achene, and each strawberry has about 200 of them.
Cauliflower comes in white, orange, purple, and green varieties. The different colours come from different pigments — orange cauliflower has more beta-carotene than carrots.
The first commercially successful bubblegum, invented in 1928 by Walter Diemer, was made pink simply because that was the only food colouring available in the factory at the time. That's why most bubblegum is still pink today.
Coffee beans are actually the seeds of a cherry-like fruit called a coffee cherry. Two seeds sit inside each red or yellow fruit, and they are roasted to create the coffee beans we brew.
Pineapple contains an enzyme called bromelain that literally starts digesting the proteins in your mouth as you eat it. That slight tingling or soreness you feel after eating a lot of pineapple is the enzyme at work on your tongue and cheeks.