Goofy stories behind famous foods

Monday, February 10, 2014 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: famous foods, goofy stories, BuzzFeed

(NaturalNews) Here at Natural News, our readers know that we are all about healthy food choices (meaning organic and non-GMO, for starters). Fresh, wholesome, pure and chemical-free.

But that doesn't mean that we weren't a bit mystified - and amused - by some little-known facts about some of the world's most famous foods. Check out some of the goofiest stories behind a number of the world's most well-known concoctions (hat tip BuzzFeed):

The snack food Doritos was first featured at Disneyland. That's right. These tasty, but not-so-good-for-you, chips were first sold in the 1950s at a little place called Casa de Fritos in the "Frontierland" section of the park.

Breakfast cereal Corn Flakes was supposed to help control your libido. Kellogg's signature cereal, developed by John Harvey Kelly in the 1800s, was intentionally plain and, as such, thought to be, um, an anti-self-pleasure cure. It wasn't.

Speaking of controlling libido... Graham crackers were also aimed at getting people to control their sexual urges (remember, this was during a much simpler time in American society).

The soda brand Fanta was a product of Nazi Germany. Stung by a loss of ingredients and supplies from the U.S. when war was declared in 1941, Coca-Cola's German CEO, Max Keith, had to come up with replacement soda. Fanta flavors were born out of mixing leftover ingredients.

Back in the day, 7-Up was drugged. The original formula contained a mood-inhibiting drug, lithium citrate, which was a popular mood stabilizer in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Don't you just love the irony? A dentist actually invented the cotton candy machine. Talk about drumming up repeat business. Oh, it's first iteration - developed by former Tennessee State Dental Association president William J. Morrison, was called "Fairy Floss."

"Flamin' Hot Cheetos" were developed by... a janitor. Richard Montanez, a janitor at a California Frito-Lay plant, decided that regular Cheetos needed extra spice, so he took some home and conjured up his own seasonings. He took them back to work and everyone loved them, so he pitched the idea to Frito-Lay bosses and the rest is history.

The White Castle burger franchise. It was founded by a couple of guys in response to author Upton Sinclair's epic book The Jungle, which exposed Americans to the horrific conditions of urban slaughterhouses. The white in White Castle was supposed to convey purity.

Be careful when you drink Snapple. Well, not anymore, but originally, lids on the first recipe of the brand's carbonated apple juice would explode when the liquid inside fermented. Hence the brand's name - a combination of the words snap and apple.

Millions of Americans would disagree, but the chocolate chip cookie was actually a mistake. "Ruth Graves Wakefield and her husband ran the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts, where she cooked homestyle meals for the guests. One day while making cookies she ran out of baking chocolate and decided to use semi-sweet chocolate instead. To her surprise, the chocolate didn't fully melt in the batter and the cookies were a hit with guests and future generations of Americans," BuzzFeed reported.

The ubiquitous Pez candy dispensers. Don't you just love the variety? Batman, Spiderman, Kermit the Frog, Chewbacca and other Star Wars characters. The candy was initially developed as a smoking alternative by a German company. The dispensers were made to look like lighters.

German chocolate cake - isn't.. German, that is. It's named after Samuel German, developer of the baking chocolate that goes into the cake.

Popsicles were a mistake. Frank Epperson, at the ripe old age of 11, left a mixture of powdered sugar, water and a stick outside on one particular chilly night. The next morning, the concoction was frozen; the Popsicle was born.

Read the rest of the goofy food facts here: BuzzFeed.com.

Sources:

http://www.buzzfeed.com

http://www.ocweekly.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com