No Stupid Questions

You are what you eat... calories

What is the definition of a calorie?
   The word calorie is everywhere you turn in todays society. It is on nearly every food package, the front cover of so many magazines ('How to burn calories faster!'), but does anyone know the real definition of the word calorie? We know we are supposed to reduce our intake of calories, but how do we do that when many don’t even know what a calorie is?
After researching the definition of a calorie we found according to dictionary.com a calorie is “the unit of heat equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degrees celsius at 1 atmosphere pressure”. 
    Wow. If that doesn’t clear things up for you, here is better example: one pound of body fat is the equivalent of 3500 calories. By reducing the amount of calories in your diet by 500 a week you will be able to lose one pound a week, say nutritionists.

You won't believe olive the uses

What household uses does olive oil have, beyond cooking?

According to the Filippo Berio olive oil company site, uses include:

• A massage oil resulting in soft, silky skin;
• Rubbing oil onto nails prior to a manicure;
• An "excellent" hair conditioner; apply after shampoo and rinse well;
• After polishing copper and brass, rubbing the item with olive oil will retard tarnish;
• A homemade furniture polish,  by mixing three parts olive oil with one part vinegar;
• And, rub oil into butcher block surfaces to give them a nice  finish and help prevent unsightly marks.

Coke's tasty little secret

Q: Is it true there's just two Coca-Cola executives who know the formula to the drink and each only knows half of it?
We went to our favourite myth debunking site to find out this legend is false.
Snopes.com says "for three quarters of a century, rumors about the measures  the Coca-Cola Company has employed to keep the formula of its flagship product a secret have been used to enhance consumer perception of Coca-Cola's  specialness. The company has courted the media on this issue, establishing through repetition the belief that anything so closely guarded must be special indeed."
Siting several published sources to back this up, the website adds "Coca-Cola does have a rule about only two executives' being privy to the formula, but each of those men knows how to formulate the syrup independent of the other, not just half of an ingredients list."

Very rich chocolate

What is the world's most expensive chocolate?

Ah, such delicious research, and the mouth waters. We found a list of the world's priciest, most decadent bonbons on the vintage Louis Vuitton dealer page, where the discussion of ingredients gets the taste buds doing the macarena. Get out the wallet. The world's most expensive chocolate includes:

• Chocopologie by Knipschildt, at $2,600 per pound, in Norwalk, Conn. The most expensive truffle is priced at $250, pre-ordered.

• Noka, $854 per pound, Dallas, Tex.

• Delafee, $508 per pound, Neuchatel, Switzerland. This chocolate includes edible, 24-karat gold applied by hand to each praline.

• Richart, $120 per pound, Lyons, France.

• Godiva G Collection, $120 per pound, New York, N.Y.

• Pierre Marcolini, $102.50 per pound, Brussels, Belgium.

The list continues right down to a (by now), affordable-sounding $65 per pound box of chocolates from La Maison du Chocolat, Paris, France.

Water: The tap vs. the bottle

We were asked: Is bottled water safer than tap water?
    Well, surprisingly, there's no real proof that it is.
    According to some recent news programs like CBC's Marketplace there's evidence out there that there's very little difference in what you get from many bottled water products as opposed to the tap.
    Basically, what it boils down to in Canada, is that tap water is monitored by the government, while bottled water is  classed as a food product and governed by Health Canada standards that the manufacturer must meet.
    Although tap water has its horror story, see the Walkerton tragedy, bottled water isn't perfect either. In 1990, Perrier had a                         worldwide recall of its water due to high benzene levels.
    But of all the advice experts offer out there, a collection of bottled water tips from the Thunder Bay District Health Unit make a lot of sense, available at this site.
    Health Canada warns that bottled water is not immune to bacteria just because it's in a sealed bottle. For more, check out their facts and figures on bottled water.

Bottoms up with 7 Up

How did 7 Up get its name?

No one seems to know!

According to wikipedia, The origin of the 7 Up name is not clear. The most popular story is that its creator, C.L. Grigg, named the soft drink after seeing a cattle brand with the number "7" and the letter "u". Other rumors suggest that the name reflects the drink's seven flavors and carbonation, or that its creator came up with the name while playing dice.

Brandchannel repeats those speculations, and says the original name was Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda. "By all accounts, 7 UP should never have made it past its first year. Introduced two weeks before the stock market crash in 1929, the drink was more expensive than the hundreds of other similar drinks in the market. But by the 1940s 7 UP was the third bestselling soft drink in America. "

What does 'wet your whistle' mean?

According to failedsuccess.com this expression, referring to enjoying a beverage, is commonly believed to have begun many years ago in England. Pub owners had a whistle baked into the ceramic cups that drinks were served in.  When a patron of the pub finished their drink and desired a refill, they used the whistle to call for the barmaid indicating that they wanted another drink.