A Few Tidbits of Information

There are so many tidbits of information that are interesting. I ran across a few today.

* During the 1500s, rich people had plates made of pewter. They didn't realize that high acidic foods allowed the lead to leech into their food, causing sickness and death. Tomatoes are very high in acid and for over 400 years, they were thought to be poisonous because of this.

*When your mother told you to eat your carrots because they were good for your eyes, she was right. Why? Because carrots are high in Vitamin A, which is known to improve eyesight.

* Salt, our oldest preservative, was extremely rare in the past. So rare, in fact, that it was often used as pay. Imagine...earning a couple of tablespoons of salt for a hard-days work. Today, salt is so common that restaurants give it away for free, and packaged food contains so much that it's far too easy to eat too much salt.

* During the Middle Ages, people put lemon on fish because they thought the juice would dissolve fish bones swallowed accidentally. Lemon juice is still used on fish today.

* During the Klondike gold rush in Alaska, potatoes were worth their weight in gold. Miners actually traded gold for potatoes because they needed the Vitamin C.

* The colour of a chilli is no indication of its spiciness, but size usually is - the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is.

* The largest living organism ever found is a honey mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae. It covers 3.4 square miles of land in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, and it's still growing.


It's very interesting the facts you can dig up if you take the time to look. Hope you have a great weekend.