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The 13 Wackiest Food Facts

There are some truly strange facts about food that people often don’t know, even when they particularly like the food. This amounts to trivia of a rather fascinating sort. After all, we all eat, don’t we?

Whether you actually enjoy chowing down or not, these are among the top 13 wackiest food facts.

#1 Lemons

Few people should be surprised that California produces more lemons than any other state in the US. Which state would you think produces the second most lemons in the US, though?

If you said Florida, you be a bit off. The second leading producer of lemons in the US is actually Arizona.

#2 Boiled eggs

Just looking at it, it is hard to tell the difference between a soft boiled egg and a hardboiled egg without cracking the shell. There is a way to tell the difference, though. Try to spin the egg. If it spins, the egg is hard boiled. If it doesn't, it is soft boiled.

Go ahead, try it for yourself. Hardboiled eggs will spin and soft boiled eggs won't.

#3 Pizza

There is little doubt that pizza is popular in the US. Most people don't realize just how popular it is, though. If all the pizza consumed in a single day in the US was laid out together, it would cover a 100-acre field.

Oh, and about half of those pizzas have pepperoni on them.

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#4 Brown sugar and bread

A lot of people know that if you have brown sugar that is hard, you can soften it by putting it in an air-tight container along with with a slice of bread. Do you know why this works?

Brown sugar is simply granulated, processed sugar to which molasses has been added. You can even make your own by adding a tablespoon of molasses to a cup of granulated sugar. Molasses is syrupy because it contains moisture. When brown sugar dries out, the moisture evaporates and the brown sugar gets hard.

Bread contains roughly 20-30% moisture, so adding the slice of bread means that the brown sugar can draw the moisture out of the bread. As it does so, it gets soft again.

#5 Globe artichokes

Castroville, California, is well-known for the production of globe artichokes. In fact, it is known as the artichoke capital of the world. In 1947, the first competition was held for the "artichoke queen of Castroville". The contest was won by a young woman named Norma Jean. Several years later, the artichoke queen of Castroville took on the name most people now remember her by: Marilyn Monroe.

#6 Coffee

If you think that the price of coffee is high, consider this little fact. A coffee tree produces about a pound of coffee beans per year.

Incidentally, coffee beans aren't beans. They are the seeds of fruits.

#7 Mushrooms

Button mushrooms, crimini mushrooms, white mushrooms, table mushrooms, portabello mushrooms, Italian mushrooms, Swiss mushrooms, chestnut mushrooms, and common mushrooms are all names that refer to exactly the same kind of mushroom; Agaricus bisporus. These are the most commercially grown and sold mushrooms in the world. They also grow wild in Europe and North America, where they are often known as field mushrooms.

#8 Lentils

What state would you guess is the leading producer of lentils in the US? Although best known for its production of potatoes, Idaho produces more lentils than any other state.

#9 Apples

If you are struggling with staying awake, don't drink coffee, eat an apple. Apples are better than coffee or  caffeine at keeping people awake.

#10 Cooking oil

Canola oil is better for health than vegetable oil. It is also made from the seeds of a species of the mustard family, known as rapeseed. Naturally, 'rapeseed oil' would have been hard to sell, so the name was changed to Canola. The 'Can' in 'Canola' comes from "Canada", the leader in the production of rapeseed oil.

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Written by Rex Trulove

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