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35 Interesting Food Facts That I Haven't Been Able To Stop Thinking About

I was today years old when I learned...

1. The only difference between Pepsi and Coke is that Pepsi is made with citric acid while Coke is not.

Screenshot of Pepsi's nutrition facts, including an entire list of its ingredients with the "Citric Acid" circled in red

2. Mountain Dew is largely orange juice.

Mountain Dew nutrition facts with orange yellow pointing to "Concentrated orange juice," which is third in its list of ingredients

3. Cranberries grow in marshes, not on trees.

A cranberry marsh in Wisconsin

4. And asparagus grows straight outta the ground.

Asparagus growing out of the ground

5. The white gunk that comes out of cooked salmon isn't fat — it's protein.

A cooked salmon filet with white gunk visible on top

6. Experts agree you usually don't need to wash chicken before you cook it.

A bowl of raw chicken

7. Out of all the popular alcoholic drinks, red wine makes you the sleepiest.

8. Take 5 bars are filled with Reese's peanut butter.

Two pictures, side-by-side: The first one is a close-up of a Take-5 bar, with a red arrow pointing to the peanut butter filling. The second picture is a Reese's bar, pointing to the same exact peanut butter filling inside it.

9. The filling in Kit Kats is made with broken Kit Kats.

Broken bar of Kit Kat with yellow arrow pointing to the filling

10. European chocolate generally tastes better because it's required by law to have a higher percentage of milk fats and dry milk solids.

Grocery store shelf stocked with various German Ritter chocolate bar flavors

11. Hershey's chocolate gets its unique flavor from butyric acid — an acid that makes chocolate last longer on shelves but gives it a "tangy" flavor that many Europeans find totally off-putting.

Messy pile of various Hershey's fun-size bars

12. Potatoes are mostly water.

Picture of potato next to two glasses filled with potato water

13. A few years ago, Nabisco redesigned its iconic animal crackers box cover after receiving criticism from PETA.

The "before" and "after" designs on the iconic animal crackers box.

14. Butter can be stored outside the fridge for up to ten days.

Slice of bread roll smeared thickly with a butter knife

15. The seeds of stone fruits contain deadly cyanide.

A bowl of cherries

16. The cookies that the Cookie Monster enjoys on Sesame Street are actually painted rice cakes.

The cookie monster about to eat a chocolate chip cookie

17. The word "cookie" comes from the Dutch "koekje," meaning little cake.

White table organized with a cup of coffee and tray of sugar cubes, as well as a tray of neatly stacked plain cookies

18. You won't actually find many fortune cookies in mainland China.

A broken fortune cookie with fortune visible

19. Parmesan cheese contains an almost negligible amount of lactose.

Rows of wooden shelves stacked with aging wheels of Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese

20. Flamin' Hot Cheetos were invented by a janitor who worked at the Frito-Lay plant.

21. According to the FDA, you should never double-dip.

22. Drinking milk a few days after its past-due date is probably fine.

Two opened cartons of milk

23. It's perfectly fine to drink a glass of water that's been left out overnight.

Water being poured into a glass

24. You know those loofahs you used to lather yourself with in the shower? They're actually grown in gourds.

Neon green lofah gourds hanging in rows

25. President John Adams — who lived to 90 years old — drank about a quarter pint of cider every morning.

A bartender pouring a pint of cider

26. The white spots on an old piece of chocolate are just fat blooms — not mold.

27. All fruit and vegetables should be washed before eating.

Close-up of mix of cut strawberries and whole blueberries

28. La Croix produces its flavors by heating the skins or rinds of fruits.

Image of a bowl of fruit being heated by a cartoonish fire

29. Straight whiskey is actually clear — and gets its color from the oak barrels in which it's aged.

Barrels of whiskey stacked at a distillery

30. Pineapples take two to three years to grow.

A hand holding a small pneapple

31. And by the way, did you know a single pineapple is actually made up of up to 200 flowers that bloomed and formed a single mass?

32. Milk helps you eat spicy foods because capsaicin (a compound in chili peppers) is fat-soluble.

33. Cellulose is a common ingredient in foods like shredded cheese and cereal.

A pile of pre-shredded cheese

34. Bananas looked very different before humans domesticated them into the sweet, peelable fruits they now are.

Cut wild-type banana, depicted with thick, hard green flesh and hard seeds

35. Green Haribo gummy bears are actually strawberry-flavored in the U.S. — and apple-flavored in the UK and Germany.

A shelf of Haribo gummies at the grocery store

What's the most interesting food fact you know? Share in the comments!