Tomato Juice Tastes Better On Airplanes And Other Fun Facts Gallery

Ever been sitting on an airplane and thought, "A glass of tomato juice would really hit the spot right now"? You're not alone. What would seem on the surface like a freak phenomenon has a perfectly logical explanation. 

The Oldest Known Recipe is for Beer

A 3,900-year-old poem honoring the Babylonian goddess Ninkasi contains an ancient beer recipe, which happens to be the oldest known written recipe.

Dr Pepper Used to Be Medicine

Dr Pepper was probably so named because the original version contained a digestive aide called pepsin and was sold as a "brain tonic."

Tomato Juice Tastes Better on an Airplane

German scientists have recently discovered that most people who order tomato juice on an airplane would never have ordered it on the ground. But drinks taste different in low cabin pressure, giving a drink terrestrial folks usually shun for its mustiness a fruity, pleasant taste at 30,000 feet. This is because our perception of salty and sweet drops by about 30 percent at high altitude.

King Charles II Drank Skull Wine

King Charles II paid today's equivalent of ₤6,000 for a "skull wine" recipe, wherein a human skull was liquefied and distilled. He drank the distilled human remains for health purposes, as body parts were thought to be curatives at the time. 

Ginger Ale Really Does Settle Your Stomach

That is, as long as it's made with real ginger. Ginger is a known digestive aide, helping to relieve stomach ailments from motion sickness to morning sickness. The can of Canada Dry you reach for to calm your stomach? Basically just sugar water.

A Toast Used to Involve Actual Toast

In medieval Britain, a glass of alcohol flavored with a slice of spiced, cooked bread used to be passed around as guests drank to good health.

Coca-Cola is a Mystery

The Coca-Cola company keeps the 127-year-old recipe for its best selling soda locked inside a steel vault at its headquarters in Atlanta. Only a handful of employees have ever seen it.

Chocolate Milk is Better After a Workout Than Gatorade

 

A University of Texas study tested various post-workout drinks on cyclists and found that trained cyclists who drank low-fat chocolate milk toward the end of their rides improved their ride time by six minutes compared to those who drank sports drinks. 

Diet Soda May Get You More Drunk

A recent study showed that participants who mixed alcohol with diet soda had higher blood alcohol levels than those who drank the same amount of alcohol with regular soda mixers. That could be because the sugar in regular soda delays alcohol from entering the bloodstream.

Scurvy is Still Serious Business

The British Navy, to this day, requires each ship to carry enough lemons for each sailor to have one ounce of lemon juice per day to prevent scurvy. Histically, sailors caught scurvy from lack of vitamin C in their diets.

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