There are many things that bewilder us when we read about them. Take for example the fact that panda bears do not get dark circles even after fitful nights of sleep or the fact that a leech has 32 brains. However, while these are quite interesting, there are other facts that are simply too disgusting and should not be read while you are eating food. Or should be if you are looking to lose your appetite. Here are some of the grossest facts that will make your stomach churn.
1. Odori Don, A Dish With A Live Squid
Odori Don is quite a famous dish in Japan and Korea. The peculiar thing about this dish is that it is served while the squid is still alive. While the brain of the squid is removed, the tentacles come to life when something salty like soy sauce is poured over it.
2. Beaver’s Testicles Used As Contraceptives
Before modern contraceptives became mainstream, the people of the world used to mix dried testicles of a beaver in alcohol and drink it. The belief was that it will prevent the pregnancy in women and reduce the chances of insemination in men.
3. Human Toe In Cocktails
Scorpions and spiders are often seen in many alcoholic drinks. However, imagine a human toe floating in your glass of whisky. Yuck! However, this is a common drink that has been a tradition of Dawson City. People choose the drink as well as the toe that is preserved in salt.
4. Rodent Hair In Your Peanut Butter
The Food and Drug Association in USA allows one rodent hair in every 100 grams of peanut butter. The next time you are having your favorite PB&J, think about this fact.
5. The Shine In Jelly Beans
Have you seen the shine on the jelly beans? It is made out of shellac, a substance that is made out of the excreta of insects. This is one of the most heartbreaking moments for the candy lovers. The shellac is made out of the secretions of the female Kerria Lacca, an insect that is found only in Thailand.
6. The Source Of The Musk Scent
Are you one of the people who loves the scent of musk? The scent comes at quite a high cost and just a little of it would prevail for hours. The truth is that the scent is created from a gland that is located near the genitalia of the male deer.
7. Baby Mice Wine
There is a drink in the Chinese and Korean cultures known as Baby Mice Wine. The drink is made by dropping a baby mice in the rice wine before fermentation to give it the extra edge.
8. The Inuit Mother’s Love
A mother’s love is unconditional and we have all seen heroic acts of mothers from around the world to protect their children. However, there is something that the Inuit mothers do that is not known to be done by any other mother around the world. They suck the mucus out of their baby’s nose with their mouths.
9. Bat-Soup
If you are ever in the Palau Islands in the Pacific Oceans, you will see Bat-Soup being served at almost every diner. The soup is made by boiling and chopping a Fruit Bat and then mixing it up with coconut milk and vegetables.
10. The Unhygienic Coffee Mugs
A study conducted by the University of Arizona showed that nearly 20% of the coffee mugs in an office have been infected with bacteria that is usually found in fecal matter while the rest of the 80% cups have other germs in them. The next time you reach out for a coffee mug in your office, be sure to wash it in boiling water.
11. Swallowing Mucus
While you may shudder at the thought of swallowing your own mucus, a study shows that an average human being produces nearly 1.5 liters of mucus every day. The gross thing found out by the study was that an average human swallows most of the mucus that they produce.
12. Vultures Controlling Temperatures
The vultures do not have warm blood that does not allow them to adapt to the temperature outside. Instead, to cool down their bodies, they pee on their own legs. Interesting thing about the pee, a human can pee on themselves if they are stung by a jellyfish.
13. The Defence Of A Hagfish
The Hagfish is a blind and toothless fish that mainly eats the other dead fish in the sea. To protect itself from the predators, a typical hagfish can produce up to 17 pints of mucus at the other big fish in the sea.
14. A Banana Slug And His Genitalia
A banana slug can grow up to six to eight inches in length as an adult. The gross thing is that its genitalia can also grow up to a similar length and it grows out of its head.
15. The Source Of Natural Flavor Substitutes
The essential oils and natural flavor substitutes find their source in a gland near the anus of a beaver. The substance is known as Castoreum and gives perfume and flavor to the ingredients.
16. The Sweat Glands In The Feet
There are nearly 250,000 glands in the human feet that secrete nearly half a pint of sweat on a daily basis. This rounds up to nearly 278 gallons of sweat in the whole year. This is enough to fill the tank of an SUV three times over.
17. The Toothpaste Of The Ancient Romans
The ancient Romans were quite fluid with the use of animals in their daily lives. They created toothpaste out of the crushed brains of mice, adding sodium bicarbonate that gave it a little bit of consistency.
18. Eating Insects In Moderation
The FDA allows for the consumption of insects but only in moderation. The organization says that many of the items that we eat on a daily basis have insects in them. The total consumption allowed by the FDA is one or two pounds of insects. A cup of raisins, for instance, has nearly 33 fruit fly eggs in it.
19. The Cause Of Smelling
The way that smelling works is that the molecules of the things that you are smelling stick on the inside of your nose and the nerves take that signal to the brain and the human brain perceives smell.
20. The Air Inside The Subway
A study conducted by the biologists over at the University of Colorado showed that nearly 15% of the air that you breathe in consists of dead skin. This is usually from the skin on the heads, heels, armpits, and bellybuttons of the people that ride the subway everyday.
21. Broccoli Contains Mites
Every 100 grams of broccoli contains nearly 60 mites, thrips, and aphids. The delicious salads that you love so much is not so much healthy as you think. The insects in the salads are not so much of a healthy snack that you think that it is.
22. Ginger Contains Mammalian Excreta
Farmer’s market does not sound so cool anymore does it? Each time that you go around looking for that fresh ginger, you will be participating in the shopping of the mammalian feces along with it. Always wash your veggies in boiling water.
23. Fast Food Contains Public Hair
The burgers and fries that you love so much contain a lot of hair strands in them. A study estimates that a human eating fast food on a regular basis consumes nearly 12 public hair every year. The study also said that the hair could be infected with dandruff or lice.
24. Toilet Paper Contains Fecal Germs
When you wipe with a toilet paper, you might think that as long as the paper has multiple layers, your hands stay clean. However, a research shows that the germs in the human fecal matter can pass through ten layers of toilet paper.
25. Snake Wine As Medicine
The Vietnamese believe that snake venom has many healing properties. They have developed a snake wine that basically is rice wine with a cobra in it. The Vietnamese believe that the poison is inactivated by the dilution in the bottle and they use the snake wine as a medicine.
26. Gut Bacteria Can Eat Us
If the human immune system was not present in the body, the body would be open to attack from a lot of germs. Most people forget that there are a lot of microorganisms living inside our body as well. Without the presence of our immune system, the bacteria in our stomach alone would eat us from the inside out within a matter of 48 hours.
27. People Eat Sea Urchin Gonads
There are many people who just love seafood. The Japanese make the most out of all the sea animals that are available to them. One of the dishes that they eat so much is sea urchins, specifically their gonads.
28. Kim Jong Un Nuclear Bomb
Do not worry. This is not an actual nuclear bomb developed by the North Korean Supreme Leader. It is actually the name of a drink containing a Big Mac, a large portion of McDonald’s fries, a pouch of McDonald’s tangy BBQ sauce, a McDonald’s milkshake, a McDonald’s apple pie, and vodka.
29. Why Do Mattresses Get Heavier With Time?
A decade old mattress can have around 10,000 to 10 million mites in it which causes it to get heavier. A study also found out that a two-year old pillow is basically dead mites and their feces making up 10% of its weight.
30. Earwax And Unpleasant Body Odor
A survey found out that people with wet earwax tend to have a rather more unpleasant body odor than the rest of the people with dry and flaky earwax. This is because the ABCC11 gene in the body determines the earwax as well as the armpit odor.
31. Frogs Living In Elephant Dung
There is a species of frog called the ornate narrow-mouthed frog that builds its home out of the sticky elephant dung. This method of building homes is adopted only by this species and not by any other known species of frogs.
32. Toast And Palolo Worms For Breakfast
There is a Samoan and Southern Pacific Island delicacy that is made out of toast and palolo worms. These are coral worms that are only found during certain times of the year when the temperature of the sea is suitable for the corals to be plucked.
33. Bird Nest Soup
This is not your typical grass and sticks bird nest. Instead, the entire nest is made out of the saliva of a swiftlet. The soup is quite expensive and eaten in only a few South-Asian countries and it has a rich gooey texture.
34. The Cannibal Ducks
While you may think of ducks to be docile creatures, they are quite the opposite. In order to kill boredom, the ducks turn into cannibals and start to murder and eat their fellow ducks. Humans have found a way to stop the ducks from turning into cannibals and that is by breaking their beaks.
35. Wasp Crackers
This is a cracker that has replaced the chocolate chips with wasps. They are quite crunchy and are quite a big deal in Japan. The Japanese consider this delicacy to be a rich source of protein.
36. Scorpions Can Die Of Constipation
The stringers at the end of the tails of the scorpions often get caught in things. However, they can just shake it off and their tail falls off. However, they also become incapable of excreting out their feces and eventually die of constipation.
37. Corn Delicacy Made Out Of Fungal Disease
Corn smut is both a fungal disease and a delicacy in many places. This is one of the most popular dishes in some of the tribes of Mexico. The Mexicans love the soft and mushy texture of the fungus on the corncob.
38. Eating Tuna Eyeballs
The Japanese love this dish too much and they love eating Tuna eyeballs. According to them, the taste of the eyeballs is just like that of an octopus or a squid. If this was in your plate, you would puke immediately.
39. The Short-Horned Lizard Blood
The short-horned lizard has a defense mechanism that allows it to squirt blood out of its eyes. They can also splatter the blood out of their eyes up to a distance of 1.2 meters to scare off their attackers.
40. Shirako
This is yet another Asian dish that goes by the name of Shirako. The dish consists of the sperm sac of a fish that is dipped in tempura batter and then deep fried to make it more delicious. It is by far the grossest thing that I have ever heard.
