10 fascinating food facts

1. Brain freeze was invented in 1994 by 7-Eleven to explain the pain you feel when drinking a Slurpee too fast. The medical term is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.

2. Almonds are a member of the peach family.

3. Chilli heat is measured in Scoville units, after the pharmacist, Thomas Scoville.

4. Corn always has an even number of ears.

5. Apples are more efficient than caffeine at waking you up in the morning.

6. Corn makes up about eight percent of the weight of a box of corn flakes.

7. Carrots were originally purple, changing in the 17th century to new orange varieties.

8. Fortune cookies are not Chinese, they were invented in Los Angeles around 1920.

9. Vanilla can be mildly addictive as it increases the adrenaline and epinephrine levels.

10. Rice paper does not contain one grain of rice – it’s made from either rice straw, bamboo, hemp, mulberry leaves, wingceltis or gampi.


Image: Simon Howden