All Questions
66 questions
38
votes
1
answer
8k
views
Does scouring a stainless-steel pan cause it to release metals into food?
The cookbook "Let's Cook It Right", by Adelle Davis contains the following claim (on page 4 of at least one edition - I'm not sure which edition this is but it's likely from the late sixties ...
- 483
15
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Could bread be baked in a mailbox when the temperature is 100°F (37°C)?
Texan journalist
John-Carlos Estrada recently reported on Twitter
How hot is in Texas?? This woman BAKED BREAD IN HER MAILBOX!! Roberta Wright, who lives in a suburb of Houston, posted these photos ...
- 161
4
votes
1
answer
782
views
Does cooking eggs at high temperatures oxidise more fats than low temperatures?
Over the years, eggs have been vilified, then given a reprieve with regard to cholesterol, but when reading Srinivasan & Rose (2014), there is mention of lipid oxidation which can supposedly cause ...
- 2,648
8
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Do mango seed kernels contain Vitamin B-12?
There are a lot of blog posts and video channels claiming that mango seed kernels contain a high level of vitamin B12. I could find only one academic paper that claimed this:
Some nutrients and ...
- 181
2
votes
0
answers
950
views
Is the first pancake normally the worst?
It is a well-known piece of folk-wisdom that when making a batch of pancakes, the first one is always a dud.
It is widespread enough that Urban Dictionary and others use it as an analogy for dating.
...
- 145k
12
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Can an astronaut on Venus cook a 16-inch pepperoni pizza by holding it in the air for 4 seconds?
According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, one can cook a 16-inch pepperoni pizza on Venus by holding it in the air for 4 seconds. However, no detailed calculations were given to demonstrate this.
- 1,085
1
vote
1
answer
349
views
Does taking a daily multivitamin reduce chances of miscarriage?
Mayoclinic writes in it's Symptoms & causes of Miscarriage:
Prevention
[...]
Take a daily multivitamin.
I was under the impression that for the average person multivitatmins don't provide health ...
- 34k
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Do vacuum blenders preserve nutrients and flavour, and produce less foam?
Aldi Australia, a supermarket, recently stocked a vacuum blender - an appliance which blends food under lower pressure.
On the packaging, there are a number of claims about the benefits of vacuum ...
- 7,415
14
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Does rubbing the end of a cucumber improve its taste?
It's said that cutting off the end of a cucumber and rubbing it at the incision makes the cucumber less bitter. It would be very surprising to me if rubbing just one end of the cucumber could alter ...
- 243
12
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Did the restaurant chain Olive Garden have warranty terms for their pots that prevent salting the cooking water?
In 2014, the hedge fund Starboard Value published a presentation criticising the business of the restaurant chain Olive Garden, a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants. The presentation claimed that:
...
- 726
0
votes
1
answer
939
views
Are eggs safe to consume once they reach 70 degrees celsius
In the Homemade Eggnog {Non Alcoholic} eggnog recipe featured on the website Annie's Noms as part of the recipe the author makes the claim that at 70 celsius the eggs are safe to eat. As below
...
- 7,415
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Does Vitamin K2 MK-4 have a half-life of about one hour?
Mercola writes
MK-4 is a synthetic product, very similar to vitamin K1, and your body is capable of converting K1 into MK-4. However, MK-4 has a very short biological half-life of about one hour, ...
- 34k
11
votes
1
answer
920
views
Was the microwave discovered by finding food cooked in a pocket?
Percy Spencer, just after the end of World War II, was working on a power tube for the Raytheon Corporation. Nothing might have come of it, if it weren’t for one heroic chocolate bar that gave its ...
- 30.8k
7
votes
0
answers
734
views
Are angel food cakes cooked in tube pans because they need support?
According to Cooks Illustrated:
There’s a good reason angel food and chiffon cakes are always baked in tube pans, and it’s not just aesthetics. These specialty vessels actually help delicate cakes ...
- 179
20
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Does pricking eggs before boiling them reduce cracking?
All my life, I have pricked a little hole in the blunt end of an egg before boiling it. I was taught the reason is to let the pocket of air inside escape as the insides swell with the heat, to prevent ...
- 145k
4
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Does consuming Vitamin C after eating shrimp result in death by arsenic?
I get lots of spam from family and friends, but this one in particular called my attention. It claims that if you eat shrimp and the ingest anything with Vitamin C, in a short period of time you would ...
- 159
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Do the vitamins in a smoothie degrade when put in the fridge?
I was discussing with a friend about my smoothies consumption and he argued that putting them in the fridge to consume them the next day was not good as the vitamin level/effect drops quickly.
...
- 973
13
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Are new born mice an available dish in Chinese restaurants?
A video of someone supposedly eating new born mice is currently doing the rounds on Facebook etcetera. Here is the video on Youtube. The Daily Mail showing this video states
The footage is believed ...
user22865
13
votes
2
answers
21k
views
Can a person submerge their hands in hot frying oil without adverse effects?
I've seen numerous videos claiming to show this without blistering effects, cringing pain, or skin burns as if it was a unique skill and not just trickery -- something anyone can do with practice,
...
- 30.8k
14
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is aluminum foil safe to use with food?
Prompted by comments in the family, help me clear this up. A Google search for is aluminum foil safe yields articles that claim it's dangerous, as well as articles that claim it's safe. So which one ...
4
votes
1
answer
195
views
Are the Vitamins L1 and L2 necessary for rats to lactate?
Nakahara et al write in Identification of Vitamin L1 (Anthranilic Acid):
In 1934, we demonstrated for the first time the existance of a specific dietary factor of lactation, since designated vitamin ...
- 34k
10
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is it possible to bake a cake with a phone inside, leaving the phone intact?
Recently the following picture has been circulating on some websites on the internet:
Imagine this scenario. You drop your phone in the cake batter. The cake bakes. The cake comes out looking great, ...
- 997
14
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Do fruits and vegetables sold in supermarkets taste worse than those grown on local farms?
It is a common belief that the produce sold at American supermarkets is "bland" and "tasteless". For example, the article "EVER WONDER WHY MODERN PRODUCE IS SO TASTELESS?"...
- 10.2k
3
votes
1
answer
607
views
Does Vitamin C in Indian Gooseberry have skincare benefits when applied directly to skin, or when eaten?
There are several health product sites making claims about Vitamin C and Indian Gooseberry. They say it helps with skin problems.
Note that "Amla" is one of the names for Indian Gooseberry.
...
- 141
10
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Is human hair used to make bread?
While browsing Facebook I came across a post on eDidYouKnow,
Is this something that actually happens on a regular basis or is it just one of possible ways to create L-cysteine?
- 213
14
votes
0
answers
244
views
Does shampoo containing pro-B5 affect the appearance of hair?
Many shampoos contain vitamins.
Elvive Vitamax shampoo for example, is variously promised to contain "Vitamin pro-B5" which
makes hair full of vitality.
Is this additive useful?
- 458
9
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Does boiling milk reduce the Vitamin B12 content?
Milk contains vitamin B12.
There appears to be conflicting advice over whether heating milk will reduce its B12 content.
For example, this healthcare site says:
Vitamin B12 is stable at room ...
- 191
7
votes
0
answers
694
views
Are soaked almonds easier to digest than unsoaked almonds?
Many people, especially in India, soak almonds overnight before eating them.
Some people claim this has health benefits. For example MD-Health claim:
when soaked, almonds release enzyme inhibitor ...
- 171
28
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Is it dangerous to use wooden cutlery and cutting boards with raw meat?
I have heard multiple times that "one should never cut raw meat on a wooden cutting board nor mix it using a wooden spoon."
The reason most often cited is that apparently bacteria can survive in the ...
- 380
4
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Does ethanol activate any taste or smell receptors?
I was reading about reducing wine and came across a claim that alcohol itself has no flavor.
But, what about the alcohol? Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol—the byproduct of yeast fermentation—has no flavor ...
- 141
22
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Are sharp knives safer to use than dull knives for preparing food when cooking?
There seems to be an agreement that sharp knives are much safer than dull ones when you are cutting vegetables, meat, anything you cut with a chefs knife when you cook and prepare food. The reason for ...
- 361
7
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Does contact with metal surfaces reduce the vitamin levels of vegetables?
I have heard that cutting or grating vegetables with metal tools somehow reduces the vitamin content (or as it is sometimes stated "it kills the vitamins"). There are also commercials, which advocate ...
- 71
14
votes
1
answer
8k
views
Can the explosion of a pressure cooker kill you?
According to this XKCD what-if?, the explosion of a pressure cooker is not dangerous in itself, the heat is the sole danger.
They can explode, in a sense, but not as violently as you might fear (or ...
- 694
5
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Are harmful chemicals leached from ordinary Ziploc bags when used for sous vide cooking?
Sous vide cooking is a style of cooking where you seal meat in bags and soak it in water at a specific temperature for a very long time, sometimes days. Some worry that in this process, harmful ...
- 1,941
16
votes
2
answers
22k
views
Do onions become toxic or otherwise dangerous within a day of a being cut open?
I saw a new "health advice" meme on Facebook today:
Please remember it is dangerous to cut an onion and try to use it to cook the next day, it becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and ...
- 15.6k
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Do vitamin supplements have any health benefits?
According to some recent research,
Vitamin supplements almost never have health benefits, are a waste of
money and could even be harmful, a group of scientists said in a
damning indictment of ...
- 3,782
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is pouring liquor from a bottle onto a flambé an explosion risk?
Several TV chefs including, the late Julia Child, have advised against pouring liquor directly from the bottle to a pan to be ignited, as 'flames could travel up the stream and ignite the bottle' ...
Carl D
7
votes
1
answer
738
views
Do vitamin D supplements help against winter depression?
People like me who live in the northern part of the world, often get a bit depressed at this time of the year, when it's essentially dark when you leave for work and when you get home from work. This ...
- 79
16
votes
1
answer
9k
views
Is there any reason to tear basil instead of cutting it with a knife?
I've heard numerous times (especially in connection with Italian dishes) that you shouldn't cut basil with a knife, but rather tear it with your hands. I've heard two different reasons for this:
the ...
- 265
15
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Is there formaldehyde in the glue of bamboo cutting boards? Is it dangerous?
Many purveyors of bamboo cutting boards make a point to advertise that the cutting board is made from formaldehyde-free glues.
There seems to be fairly widespread advise to avoid formaldehyde in ...
- 408
6
votes
0
answers
222
views
Does milk sold in a store with good product turnover lose a significant amount of Vitamin B2 from light exposure?
Anchor New Zealand has just released a milk bottle with a black plastic layer to protect the milk from exposure to light, and thus from loss of "taste and goodness". Their chart:
from their website ...
- 1,266
7
votes
0
answers
362
views
Does rubbing hands on a steel block reduce the smell of garlic?
I read the question How do you remove garlic smells from your fingers? on Seasoned Advice and it reminded my of a claim I was always skeptical about. The accepted answer states:
The smell of garlic ...
- 1,538
7
votes
1
answer
736
views
Are heart attacks due to Vitamin C deficiency?
According to this book description
Matthias Rath, M.D., an internationally respected cardiovascular
researcher, asserts that high cholesterol is not the actual cause of
heart disease. Bears, ...
- 3,146
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Do earthenware pots contains lead?
I have heard somewhere that the earthenware pots contain lead, which can cause brain-damage.
Is this information correct?
- 51
16
votes
3
answers
14k
views
Does washing vegetables remove nutrients?
There are many people who cook vegetables without washing them (before cutting) because they think it removes important nutrients.
This claim is predominant in some Asian countries.
Is that true?
- 2,762
19
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Does lemon juice slow the oxidation of guacamole?
It is common belief that adding citrus juice (or in some claims, any acid, including ascorbic acid/vitamin C, vinegar, tomatoes, etc) to guacamole will reduce browning. Examples of the claim:
...
- 15.6k
13
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Does boiling vegetables wash away important vitamins?
I recently heard that you should steam vegetables instead of boiling them, because boiling washes away the vitamins.
Is this really true? Is there any scientific backing to this claim? Can you really ...
- 1,828
16
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Does briefly searing a steak on one side before flipping it over once "seal in the juices"?
As long as I can remember when people have fried steak, they have flipped it after the first say 20 seconds to sear it and "seal in the juices", then cooked the other side, then flipped it back to the ...
- 1,266
16
votes
1
answer
875
views
Can an extra internal refrigerator light increase the vitamin C content of fruit?
My wife yesterday bought a new refrigerator for our house. She choose a refrigerator which within the sales blurb has the following claim.
光波增鲜
生成5种仿自然光波，让采摘后的果蔬继续光合作用，叶绿素、VC含量比存放普通冰箱高30%以上。
...
- 852
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
Can air conditioner units emit vitamins?
I have seen many examples of air conditioning units that claim they can emit Vitamin C, D, E, etc.
For example, taken from a Gizmodo article:
Fujitsu have again come up with another world first, ...
- 31