237
votes
Why are so few foods blue?
Short answer
Blue color is not only rare in edible organisms - Blue color is rare in both the animal and plant Kingdoms in general. In animals, blue coloring is generated through structural optic ...
- 52.4k
129
votes
Why are so few foods blue?
Although @AliceD's answer is a great simple demonstration of the rarity of blue in our natural world, there's likely a more nuanced/technical reason.
Short answer
Blue light was the most available ...
- 29.9k
81
votes
Why shouldn't dogs eat chocolate?
The reason is simple: Chocolate contains cocoa which contains Theobromine. The darker the chocolate is (meaning the more cocoa it contains) the more theobromine it contains. This is a bitter alkaloid ...
- 51.6k
47
votes
Accepted
Why are sugars in whole fruits not digested the same way sugars in juice are?
Sugars in 100% natural fruit juices are chemically the same as in whole fruits. They mainly include glucose, fructose and sucrose:
Apple nutrition data (expand the carbohydrate section)
Apple juice ...
- 8,079
42
votes
Accepted
What do butterflies eat?
Adult butterflies don't eat! I mean.... not in the sense of chewing on food. They rather drink. They get their nutrients via ingestion of liquid substances. Their mouth consists of a long tube called ...
- 68.1k
37
votes
Accepted
What is 'protein' in food?
When we say "protein" with respect to food, what is generally meant is material that contains amino acids. Every protein is, at its heart, a long string of amino acids, which then gets ...
- 6,977
26
votes
Accepted
How can a drink contain 1.8 kcal energy while 0 g fat/carbs/protein?
The list of ingredients on the can mentions "Zuckerkulör," which is caramel colour, which can have 2 kcal/g, according to one producer.
Next, there is "Citronensäure," which is citric acid, which can,...
- 8,079
25
votes
Why shouldn't dogs eat chocolate?
The toxic ingredient in chocolate is in the mythylxanine class, a substance called theobromine. It is much like theophylline; overdoses of theophylline used to be very common before the advent of ...
- 25k
23
votes
What do butterflies eat?
Several species of the order Lepidoptera don't feed at all in adult form, surviving entirely on the reserves made while they were larva. Two examples I'm aware of are the Atlas moth (as well as most ...
- 863
20
votes
Accepted
Is agriculture really a net contributor of greenhouse gases?
The issue is that it is not always a cycle, when you drain wetlands or burn forests to make more farmland that's not a cycle that is permanent change. A change that can continue having effects for ...
- 14.7k
15
votes
What is 'protein' in food?
It's a mix of all the proteins in whatever organism the food is coming from. Some (especially vegetable/grain) sources might have fairly specific proteins present because you are eating a specific ...
- 45.6k
14
votes
Accepted
Why do carnivores evolve?
I'm going to focus on the why do carnivores exist part of this question, which should be extendible to answer why humans eat meat.
Let's start a thought experiment in which we only allow the ...
- 16.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Why do Hot/Cold drinks taste sweeter once returning to room temperature?
Generally, cold suppresses sweetness. As an example, consider soft drinks that are usually served cold: they taste sweeter when warm (like you said with your examples of drinks).
Our taste receptors ...
- 2,603
11
votes
Accepted
Why is carotene in carrots?
Carrot (Daucus carota) is a biannual plant that accumulates massive
amounts of carotenoid pigments in the storage root.
The root of the carrot was not orange before domestication.
Although the ...
- 2,380
10
votes
What kinds of bacteria live in water bottles?
In addition to the cracks providing a better place for bacteria to grow, all plastic bottles, when reused, are subjected to high levels of bacteria due to contact with hands and mouths. So your water ...
- 29.9k
9
votes
Can any other animal choke on food?
There are different kinds of choking on food. All non-gilled animals also choke when they fall in the water. Drowning is choking. insects asphyxiate and fish asphyxiate in air but technically insects ...
- 10.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't sugar spoil?
Our food mostly gets spoiled by bacteria and / or fungi. There are 2 main reasons for sugar crystals not getting spoiled.
1- Lack of sufficient amount of water to sustain metabolic processes by ...
- 4,796
9
votes
Accepted
Is hydrochloric acid suitable for pickling food?
Short answer
Weak organic acids are more effective for food preservation then strong mineral acids, mainly because undissociated weak acids can cross the cell membrane and disrupt cell physiology from ...
- 52.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Why don't we feel hungry after waking up?
I will try to keep the answer as simple as possible, but feel free to point out if I make this too simple.
Well, you are not alone with this observation. This is quite a common, but rather complex, ...
- 14.1k
9
votes
Can someone help me to identify what kind of pear is this?
Plu Code 4413 is a bosc pear (a cultivar of Pyrus communis).
From the PLU search tool available via the International Federation for Produce Standards
FYI: take a close look at the pear you're ...
- 29.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Are chilies technically peppers?
Chili is a common reference to chili peppers in an abundance of countries, but they fall within the same designation as other so-called "peppers" such as bell pepper, cayenne, jalapeno, etc. because ...
- 8,109
8
votes
How Does Green Tea Increase Metabolic Rate?
Interesting question! Green tea increases metabolic rate of body because it contains antioxidants known as catechins1. Catechins are actually polyphenol flavonoids, and have been shown by Wang et al ...
- 14.1k
8
votes
Accepted
What fruit did I just accidentally buy?
Looks like a papaya that isn't ripe yet. Being said, if you already cut it in half it probably isn't going to ripen any further. A ripe papaya has pink/orange flesh and the seeds turn black.
- 8,109
7
votes
Accepted
What is this white stuff inside apples?
I am pretty sure that it is a moldy core rot which would be caused by a fungus that infects the apple during the flowering stage. The fungi is also referred to as "apple fuzz".
From SF Gate
...
- 2,603
7
votes
Accepted
Rust on kettle dangerous to consume?
Background:
Iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, −2 to +6, although +2 and +3 are the most common.
How is Iron Handled by the Body:
According to Wikipedia:
After uptake in human ...
- 29.9k
7
votes
What do bloodsucking animals actually feed on?
Lets find out how much calories are there in the blood. I am using this site for main reference, but will also add more references where needed. But before that, we should know that one donation of ...
- 14.1k
7
votes
Why are so few foods blue?
It is not that there are no blue foods, it is that the English language does not like calling foods "blue".
There are no natural borders between "colors" in a colorspace, all colors we name (and ...
- 3,364
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