10 Food and Nutrition Fun Facts to amuse your friends and family

These food and nutrition fun facts probably won't help you win any game shows, but will surely will amuse your family and friends.

FUN FACT #1 Strawberries technically is not even a berry!!

Strawberries come from the genus of plant called 'fragaria'. Despite its name, strawberries are not botanically berries, but an aggregate accessory fruit (1) ! What does it really matter? Strawberries have lots of vitamin C and so delicious!

FUN FACT #2 Eggplants is not a vegetable. It is botanically a fruit!!

Eggplant is a good source of Vitamin B6 for blood, brain and many tissues in the body. Some recipes advise salting sliced fruit (known as ‘degorging’) to soften it and to reduce the amount of fat absorbed during cooking. This treatment is not necessary with modern varieties of eggplant.(2)

FUN FACT #3 Cooking increases the anti-oxidant levels in tomatoes!

Whilst the amount of Vitamin C reduces somewhat with cooking, the amount of antioxidants such as lycopene increases! (3)

FUN FACT #4 Banana is a fruit and a herb!!!

The banana plant is called a 'banana tree' in popular use, but it's technically regarded as a herbaceous plant (or 'herb'), not a tree, because the stem does not contain true woody tissue. (4)

FUN FACT #5 Only one Brazil nut is enough for the daily requirement for the mineral Selenium!

Selenium is an antioxidant and also is important in thyroid metabolism. The main dietary source is animal derived foods such as meat, dairy and egg. For vegetarian and vegans, a couple of Brazil nuts in a day will help reaching the daily requirement for Selenium.