250 Fun Facts
250 Interesting Facts: Animals, Human Body, Space, Food & History
Food & Drink Facts
Honey can last for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that were still preserved.
Bananas are berries, but strawberries aren't, at least according to botanists.
Peanuts aren't really nuts. They are legumes, which makes them relatives of peas and beans.
Tomatoes are fruits, because they grow from a flower and contain seeds.
Apples float in water because about a quarter of their volume is air.
The first cultivated carrots weren't orange. They were mostly purple and yellow, and orange carrots became popular in Europe in the 1600s.
India grows more mangoes than any other country in the world.
Cashew nuts grow on the outside of a fruit called the cashew apple.
The Aztecs valued cacao beans so highly that they used them as money.
Chillies only arrived in India about 500 years ago
It's hard to imagine Indian food without chillies, but they originally came from the Americas and were brought to India by Portuguese traders in the 1500s. Today India is one of the world's biggest chilli producers, and the Bhut Jolokia from northeast India was certified as the world's hottest chilli in 2007.
A pineapple plant takes about two years to produce a single pineapple.
Cucumbers are about 95% water.
Watermelons are about 92% water, which makes them one of the best fruits for staying hydrated.
In 1995, potatoes became the first vegetable grown in space.
Coffee beans are actually the seeds of a bright red fruit known as the coffee cherry.
Tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world after water.
In the 1830s, tomato ketchup was sold in America as a medicine.
A single strawberry has around 200 seeds on its outside.
Avocados are fruits, and botanically speaking, they're a type of berry.
Saffron is the world's most expensive spice
Each saffron crocus flower produces just three thin red threads, which must be picked by hand. It takes roughly 150 flowers to make a single gram of saffron. In India, saffron grown in Kashmir is famous for its deep colour and rich aroma.
Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world's population.
There are more than 7,500 varieties of apples grown around the world.
Almonds are the seeds of a fruit closely related to peaches and plums.
Popcorn pops because the water inside each kernel turns to steam and bursts the shell.
Ripe cranberries bounce, which is one way farmers test their quality.
Black pepper was once so valuable that it was called "black gold." Much of it came from the Malabar Coast in Kerala.
Turmeric gets its bright yellow colour from a natural compound called curcumin.
White chocolate isn't technically chocolate, because it contains cocoa butter but no cocoa solids.
Nutmeg and mace are two different spices that come from the very same fruit.
Tea has been enjoyed for thousands of years
According to Chinese legend, tea was discovered when leaves blew into Emperor Shen Nong's pot of boiling water nearly 5,000 years ago. Centuries later, tea plants were found growing wild in Assam, and today India is one of the largest tea producers in the world.
Vanilla comes from the pod of an orchid and is the second most expensive spice after saffron.
Fortune cookies were invented in the United States, not China.
The sandwich is named after the 4th Earl of Sandwich, an English nobleman in the 1700s.
Carrots won't give you super night vision. That idea was spread by British propaganda during World War II.
Pistachios belong to the same plant family as cashews and mangoes.
Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kale were all bred from the very same species of wild plant.
Pizza Margherita is said to be named after Queen Margherita of Italy, who visited Naples in 1889.
The ice cream cone became popular at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.
The colour of an egg's shell depends on the breed of hen, not how healthy the egg is.
Coffee may have been discovered by dancing goats
An old Ethiopian legend says a goat herder named Kaldi noticed his goats became unusually lively after eating red berries from a certain shrub. Curious, he tried the berries himself and felt energised, and the drink we now call coffee eventually spread around the world.
Green, yellow and red bell peppers are often the same plant. Red ones are simply left to ripen longer.
The mango is the national fruit of India.
India was one of the first places to turn sugarcane juice into crystal sugar. The English word "sugar" comes from the Sanskrit word "sharkara."
Dark chocolate contains small amounts of caffeine.
Onions make you cry because cutting them releases a sulphur-containing gas that irritates your eyes.
Raspberries belong to the rose family.
Canned food was invented in the early 1800s, but the can opener wasn't invented until decades later.
A coconut isn't a true nut. It's a type of fruit called a drupe.
Kiwi fruit was originally called the "Chinese gooseberry."
Chocolate started out as a bitter drink
More than 3,000 years ago, people in Mesoamerica were already making drinks from cacao beans. These early chocolate drinks were bitter and often spiced with chilli. Sweet chocolate bars came much later, after sugar was added in Europe.
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