36 Food Facts We’d Like to Remove from Our Brains

Food! We want it fast, we want it healthy and we want it delicious. But because we don’t have infinite time to comb through all of the realities that go into creating all of the things that we love (and need) to shove in our hungry gobs, we’re often left unaware of some of the truly gross things that go into it. There’s stuff that you’re probably aware of in the back of your mind, like fast-food places are rife with false advertisements and even falser ingredients. But what about all of the things you eat that are made out of bugs at best, and beaver butt glands at worst.

And that’s often not even the worst of it. Feeling brave? Keep scrolling.

34 Nope. No thank you. Pass.

36 Food Facts We’d Like to Remove from Our Brains — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

33 Dem bones, dem bones...

JELLO IS MADE FROM BONES. Gelatin, the stuff that puts the jiggle in jello, is derived from collagen, a protein extracted by boiling animal bones and skins. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

32 More bugs!

JELLY BEANS ARE SHINY BECAUSE OF BUG SECRETIONS. Hard-shelled candies are coated in shellac, a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in Thailand and India. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

31 Maybe wish we didn't know this one.

RANCH DRESSING IS MADE WITH SUNSCREEN. Titanium dioxide makes ranch dressing white. The same stuff is used in sunscreens to keep your skin white as well. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

30 Are we that far off from Timone and Pumba?

CRACKED.COM YOUR RASPBERRY YOGURT HAS CRUSHED INSECTS. If you're eating something colored red, chances are it's dyed with carmine, a pigment made by crushing little bugs called cochineals. — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

29 There's hair in your bed. Probably. Sort of.

YOU HAVE EATEN HAIR. (SORT OF.) L-cysteine is an amino acid used in baking and to make food flavorings. Its main sources are feathers and hair. (Not necessarily human hair, though.) CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

28 Oh. Oh no.

IF YOUR ORANGE IS BRIGHTLY COLORED, MAYBE DON'T LICK THE PEEL. Citrus Red 2 is an artificial dye classified as possibly carcinogenic, so it's banned in the U.S. - except for coloring the skin of oranges. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

27 Still love a McRib

HAVE YOU EVER EATEN A YOGA MAT? Well, maybe you have. We won't judge. Just pointing out that fast food buns sometimes contain azodicarbonamide, which is used to make mats. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

26 What's a little vermin between friends?

YOUR CHOCOLATE MAY CONTAIN A LIL' BIT OF VERMIN. The FDA considers chocolate acceptable if it contains up to 60 insect fragments and one rodent hair per 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces). CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

25 There really are no cheats.

SO LOW-FAT MEANS LOW-CALORIE, RIGHT? NOPE! Yes, they did remove the fat from that low-fat quesadilla - and then they replaced it with other stuff to make up for the lost flavor, ending up with a higher calorie count. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

24 You can be healthy, you just have to hate flavor

CRACKED.COM SUBWAY'S SANDWICHES ARE HEALTHY. JUST DON'T USE CONDIMENTS. Advertised nutritional values don't include any condiments, dressing, or cheese. Enjoy that healthy, bone-dry sandwich! — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

23 Sorry, Diet Coke.

LOW-SUGAR FOODS CAN STILL MAKE YOU FATTER. Many products are advertised as being low-sugar or diet. However, they contain sweeteners such as saccharine or aspartame, which have been linked to weight gain. CRACKED COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

22 That's... a lot of sugar.

CRACKED.COM WOULD YOU EAT 22 PACKETS OF SUGAR? You're kinda grossed out just thinking about it, aren't you? But that's how much sugar you get from a 20-ounce soda. — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

21 Is your beef what you think it is?

GROUND BEEF IS UP TO 15% SLIME. PINK SLIME. Lean finely textured beef, or pink slime, is made from meat trimmings that have had the fat separated from them, been cleaned with ammonia, and are then used as a filler. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

20 Salad isn't always healthier

CAN A SALAD BE WORSE THAN A BIG MAC? IT CAN. Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad has more calories, fat, and sodium than a Big Mac meal with French fries and a Coke. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

19 Good ol' meat glue

Works for Duing metal plastic, wood rubber. Super Glue cardboard, leather, and other smooth GEL surfaces CHEAP MEAT IS OFTEN GLUED TOGETHER. Transglutaminase, also called meat glue, is a substance used to build steaks and the like from cheap cuts. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

18 Nice try, twinkies.

TWINKIE FILLING IS CRISCO. It's creamy. It's yummy. It's mostly vegetable shortening. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

17 Are potatoes poison?

CRACKED.COM Potato-based products like potato chips and French fries release a chemical known as acrylamide.when heated above 248°Fahrenheit. This chemical is a potential carcinogen, and is proven to cause neurological damage. — **Source:** **19 Facts About Food We'd Bet Anything You Didn't Know**

16 The reality of chicken farms

When you think of a chicken farm, you probably picture something like this Actually, most chickens raised for human consumption live in crowded housing. The guidelines of the United States' National Chicken Council allot 0.8 square feet of surface per bird, a little more than a letter-sized sheet of paper. GRACKED.COM — **Source:** **19 Facts About Food We'd Bet Anything You Didn't Know**

15 Cheese is actually addictive

Are you addicted to cheese? It's not entirely your fault, the blame is on Casomorphin which is derived from the digestion of the milk protein Casein. These casomorphins have opioid effects, and since producing one kilogram of cheese requires about 10 liters of milk you can imagine how much casomorphin is produced. So, you're basically just taking Dairy Crack $399 are MESANI GRAGKED.COM — **Source:** **19 Facts About Food We'd Bet Anything You Didn't Know**

14 Pigs fight back, we guess

It's common knowledge that all parts of a pig are edible, and this includes the animal's brains which used to be removed by inserting brains 90 psi compressed air the skull and a blasting the Foods into pink slurry which was then collected in buckets be to a shipped to food manufacturers worldwide. This method of removal aerosolized the brain matter and workers were covered in a fine red mist which never went away as over 1,350 pig heads were processed daily in one plant alone. Constant exposure to this mist was found to cause auto-immune diseases in workers and — **Source:** **19 Facts About Food We'd Bet Anything You Didn't Know**

13 The price of chewing gum

WHAT MAKES CHEWING GUM CHEWY? In order to make chewing gum more chewy some gum brands use Lanolin, an oily secretion found in sheep wool. When added to gum and other items the oil changes the texture of the item, making it softer. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **19 Facts About Food We'd Bet Anything You Didn't Know**

12 Fake grill marks

CRACKED COM Many fast food restaurants' hamburgers and chicken strips are imprinted with fake grill marks. — **Source:** **19 Facts About Food We'd Bet Anything You Didn't Know**

11 Airplane food... still the worst.

Think you hate Airline meals are hand prepared 8 hours before flight delays? a given flight. If the flight is delayed too long, hundreds of food trays are thrown out and remade by chefs working overtime. So you're not the UNITED only one who hates them. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **19 Facts About Food We'd Bet Anything You Didn't Know**

10 Beaver butts

YOU'VE BEEN SWALLOWING BEAVER ASS JUICE. Castoreum comes from sacs near a beaver's anus, and it's used as vanilla or raspberry flavoring in food and drinks. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

9 The burger is lie

YOU COULD NEVER EAT THAT DELICIOUS BURGER IN THE AD. The meat is undercooked, the lettuce is held in place with pins, and the sesame seeds are glued on the bun. Fancy a yummy torture sandwich for lunch? CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

8 More like "meat inspired"

ARE YOU SURE THAT TACO HAS ANY MEAT AT ALL? A lawsuit against Taco Bell alleged that the beef in their tacos was less than 35% actual meat. Taco Bell denied the allegations. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

7 Poop in your soda.

YOUR SODA MAY CONTAIN POOP BACTERIA. A 2009 study by Hollins University found fecal bacteria in nearly half the drink dispensers in fast food joints sampled by the researchers. GRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

6 They spaghettify horses, don't they?

Source: 26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made

5 Chicken has less protein today.

CHICKEN IS MUCH FATTIER TODAY. A study conducted by the London Metropolitan University found that chicken these days has over twice as much fat and a third less protein than a few decades ago. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

4 So... what is that cheese then?

The shredded cheddar cheese on Taco Bell's tacos doesn't melt; it burns. GRACKED.COM Real cheese is supposed to melt. — **Source:** **20 True (Unfortunate) Facts About Food**

3 Hoki? More like "Hok'ay, that's nasty."

MEET HOKI. YOU MAY HAVE EATEN IT WITHOUT KNOWING IT. This ugly fish, also known as blue grenadier, is used by McDonald's in their Filet-O-Fish sandwich. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

2 Carbon Monoxide and Meat

MEAT IS TREATED WITH CARBON MONOXIDE. The stuff that comes out of car exhausts is used in meat packaging to make it look fresh. CRACKED.COM — **Source:** **26 Foods You Wouldn't Eat If You Knew How They're Made**

1 What's really in Worcestershire Sauce?

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