Leftover Pizza Is Healthier Than Fresh Thanks to Resistant Starch
That cold slice of leftover pizza in your refrigerator is actually healthier than it was when fresh. Cooling starchy foods creates…
Food
40 facts
Butter May Have Been Invented by Eurasian Nomads on Horseback
The origin of butter might be traced back to Eurasian nomads who carried mare's milk in skin bags during long journeys. The repeated…
Saffron Is the World's Most Expensive Spice by Weight
At prices exceeding $5,000 per kilogram, saffron costs more than gold. The staggering price comes from the labor-intensive harvesting…
Vanilla Orchid Flowers Bloom for Less Than a Day
Each vanilla orchid flower opens for just a single day, sometimes only a few hours, and must be pollinated during this brief window to…
Peanuts Grow Underground Like Root Vegetables
Despite their name, peanuts are not tree nuts. They are legumes that grow underground in a unique process called geocarpy, where the…
The Kiwi Fruit Was Named After the Kiwi Bird
The kiwi fruit was originally called the Chinese gooseberry but was renamed kiwifruit in 1959 as a marketing strategy to associate it with…
A Fig Is Actually an Inverted Flower Cluster Inside Out
What we call a fig fruit is actually an enclosed inflorescence containing hundreds of tiny flowers hidden inside. The flowers cannot be…
Apples Float Because They Are 25 Percent Air
Apples float in water because approximately 25 percent of their volume is air trapped between their cells. This makes them less dense than…
When You Eat Pineapple It Eats You Back
Pineapples contain bromelain, a powerful enzyme that breaks down proteins in your mouth as you eat, causing that familiar stinging…
Ancient Irish Butter Has Been Found Perfectly Preserved for 5,000 Years
Deep in Irish peat bogs, turf cutters regularly uncover ancient butter that is thousands of years old. The largest find was a 100-pound…
People Have Been Eating Curry for 4,500 Years
Curry is not just one of the world's most popular dishes—it may be the oldest continuously prepared cuisine on the planet. Archaeological…
Potatoes Evolved From a Hybrid of Tomatoes and Another Plant
The humble potato is the result of an ancient love affair between the ancestors of tomatoes and a plant called Etuberosum. This…
Natural Chocolate Was Originally a Deep Red Color
Before the 1800s, chocolate was not brown—it was a deep reddish color. The familiar brown hue we associate with chocolate today only…
Asparagus Can Grow an Inch Per Hour on Hot Days
Asparagus spears grow so fast that farmers sometimes struggle to keep up with the harvest. On particularly hot days, these green shoots can…
Cashews grow on the bottom of a fruit called the cashew apple
The cashew nut we eat is actually a seed that hangs from the bottom of a sweet, juicy fruit known as the cashew apple.
Sweet Potatoes Are Natural GMOs Created 8,000 Years Ago
Every sweet potato you have ever eaten is a genetically modified organism—but nature made it, not scientists. Soil bacteria inserted their…
Canned Peaches Can Be More Nutritious Than Fresh
Canned peaches from the grocery store might actually be better for you than fresh ones. Research shows they contain almost four times more…
Wild Almonds Were Deadly Poisonous Before a Genetic Mutation
Wild almonds were lethal—just 50 bitter almonds could kill an adult. A single genetic mutation thousands of years ago turned off the poison…