1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (3 page)

Stephanie Bailey, “Bug Food: Edible Insects,” University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Entomology Department,
www.ca.uky.edu
.

“Food Defect Action Levels,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, last updated November 2005,
www.cfsan.fda.gov
.

7

FACT :
One in five office coffee mugs contains
fecal bacteria and E. coli
, which can cause diarrhea, food poisoning, and infections.
Not surprising, since most office coffee tastes like shit. Related fact: Three of five office coffee mugs feature sayings that are meant to be funny but aren’t, like “Bean me up, Scotty” and “No coffee, no workee.”

Stephanie Muller, “Stay Healthy with Tips from a Germ Freak,” Health Communications Quarterly, October 19, 2005,
www.usjt.com
.

“Dr. Germ,” Information for News Media, University of Arizona College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, February 17, 2005,
www.cals.arizona.edu
.

8

FACT :
Vegetarians beware: many low-fat and nonfat yogurts and sweets contain gelatin, which is made from
animal tendons, ligaments, and bones
.
You’d think the crunching would give it away. It must be drowned out by the sound of all those vegetarians patting themselves on the back for being vegetarians.

Ayami Chin, “Gross Facts You May Have Never Wanted to Know,” Associated Content, May 24, 2007,
www.associatedcontent.com
.

Ernest R. Vieira and Louis J. Ronsivalli, Elementary Food Science, 4th ed. (Springer, 1999), 237.

Audrey Ensminger, Foods and Nutrition Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. (CRC Press, 1994), 1057.

9

FACT :
Fining is a process used by most wineries to
remove particles and impurities
from wine. Typical fining agents include isinglass (a collagen from sturgeon bladders), gelatin, and ox blood.
Whatever impurities are removed by fining, are they worse than fish urine, animal bones and ox blood?

Thor Iverson, “Ladybug Marmalade,” Stuff Boston, January 12, 2009,
www.stuffboston.com
.

Emile Peynaud, Knowing and Making Wine, trans. Alan Spencer, 2nd ed. (Wiley-IEEE, 1984), 291–294.

10

FACT :
Even when grapes are harvested by hand, some
insects wind up
in the pickers’ baskets. Workers simply don’t have time to inspect every grape individually as they work.
Consider it fiber. We all need fiber.

Thor Iverson, “Ladybug Marmalade,” Stuff Boston, January 12, 2009,
www.stuffboston.com
.

G. L. Creasy, G. I. Creasey, and Leroy L. Creasy, Grapes (CABI, 2009), 180.