When you were a kid, there were probably a lot of rumors floating around about your favorite candy, like gum can’t be digested, or too much candy will make your teeth fall out. That definitely didn’t stop you from eating it, and probably added to the fun, but which of these rumors are actually true?
Do Skittles all taste the same?
If you were to close your eyes and try to guess the skittles flavors, you’d definitely be able to do it, right? Yeah, the lemon one tastes all sour and the berry ones are all fruity and sweet. Plus, skittles come in a variety of flavor combos from tropical to crazy sour so they’re all pretty distinct…
Yep, they do
Yeah, you might not believe it, but all Skittles taste the same. The outer shell is scented to match the flavor that you think it is, plus the color backs up this idea, but the actual Skittle itself is not flavored. If you feel like you’ve been lied to your whole life, it’s totally understandable.
Was cotton candy really invented by a dentist?
The smell of cotton candy probably brings you right back to your childhood at carnivals and birthday parties, it probably also brings you right back to the memory of people telling you you shouldn’t eat it because you will damage your teeth. But wait, wasn’t it invented by a dentist?
This is half-true
A dentist was actually 50% responsible for inventing candy floss, along with a confectioner. William Morrison and John C Warton invented it in 1895 and called it fairy floss. Wonder if he got much more business after his invention became popular?
Is the hole in Life Savers to provide an airway?
Clarence Crane began making this peppermint candy in 1912. These minty treats have a small hole in the middle that makes them look like life preservers, hence why they got the name ‘Life Savers’. However, some say that the hole in the middle is another form of life preservation as it acts as an airway if the candy gets stuck in your throat. But, is that true?
Of course it isn’t
Although this would be kind of a clever idea, it is actually a myth. The hole in the middle of these sweets was simply to make them stand out in the market against other European peppermint candies that were just round, solid discs. The hole in the middle is fun though.
Is strawberry the most popular Skittle flavor?
Do you eat your skittles in handfuls of random flavor combinations? Or do you line them all up in little color coordinated piles and eat the flavors from your favorite to least favorite? Whatever way you do it, everyone has a favorite flavor of Skittle, even though you now know they technically all taste the same…
It is indeed
You might have guessed it, but the nation’s favorite Skittle flavor is the red one. 33% of people favor the strawberry one and lemon comes in as least favorite with only 6% naming it as their favorite flavor. Don’t trust anyone who says their favorite Skittle is the yellow one…
Are different colored Froot Loops different flavors?
Ah, Froot Loops. A bowl of those, Saturday morning, your cosy pyjamas and cartoons on repeat; it doesn’t get much better than that. Did you have a favorite Froot Loop? Did you fish around with your spoon in the bowl of milk seeking out the blue one because it tasted the best?
Sorry to disappoint
Well, if you did, you’ve been fooled by this commonly believed myth. All Froot Loops actually taste the same. The cereal’s flavor has remained the same since it was invented in 1963. They’re meant to taste like a blend of orange, lemon, lime, apple, cherry, raspberry, and blueberry and have no actual fruit in them.
Van Halen wouldn’t eat brown M&M’s?
It’s a tale as old as time: big hotshot rockstar makes ridiculous requests for dressing room, and staff have to obey otherwise the band refuses to play. We’ve all heard these rumors in different forms, but it rarely turns out to be turns out to be true and is just a way to paint rockstars as divas. However, this isn’t the case with Van Halen…
No, seriously, they really wouldn’t
In the 1980s, the party-rock superstars in Van Halen demanded, via a clause embedded in their tour rider, that no brown-colored M&Ms be allowed backstage at their concerts. This sounds pretty crazy, but it was literally written in a contract. Everyone wanted this band on their bill, so every venue carried out the strange request!
You can eat as much sugar-free candy as you want, right?
Sugar-free candy sounds like a real get-out-of-jail free card for those with a sweet tooth. Artificial sweeteners are super popular and some candy tastes so good you wouldn’t even notice that there wasn’t any sugar in it. They’re sugar-free and low in calories, so you can eat as much as you want, right?
Unfortunately not…
Nope, seriously, don’t do that. Stevia, and other popularly used artificial sweeteners may save your teeth from decay, but eating too much of them will lead to tummy issues and can have a laxative effect. Unless you want to embarrass yourself at the candy store, steer clear of too much sugar-free candy.
White chocolate isn’t actually chocolate?
You probably already know that chocolate comes from cocoa beans. But did you know that different parts of the bean are used in varying degrees to create different types of chocolate? Super dark chocolate that says 70% cocoa on the label is made mainly out of the bean itself, whereas milk chocolate is a mix of pure cocoa from the bean and cocoa butter.
It isn’t actually chocolate
But, white chocolate is made entirely from cocoa butter, meaning that it doesn’t have any chocolate solids in it. So, technically, it isn’t actually chocolate at all. On top of this, white chocolate products often contain additives like palm oil and sweetener. That doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious though.
Bubble Yum contains spiders
Before the 1970s, bubble gum products had one problem – they were hard to chew and customers generally weren’t happy with the texture or the prospect of allowing their children to have the chewy candy. Bubble Yum came into the market with a new, softer texture, and people started to say it was because it contained spider parts…
Did you seriously think that this was true?
This myth may sound ridiculous, but lots of people thought it was true. So much so that Bubble Yum had to put an ad in national newspapers stating that this was just a myth. They ended up having to spend over $100,000 dollars to spread the word and save their company.
Finding a star on a Tootsie Pop wrapper will earn you a free lollipop?
This classic candy apparently used to come with an extra fun game that could earn you some free candy. If you found an image of a shooting star inside your wrapper, people believed that you could bring it to the store and get a second Tootsie Pop for free. Nice idea, but is it true?
No, unfortunately, it won’t
Although this sounds like a lot of fun, it isn’t actually true. The Tootsie roll company did capitalize off of the legend a bit though by helping the rumor spread, but there’s nothing wrong with that. They even had a special letter that they sent out to those disappointed kids who thought they were in for a treat…
Eating pop rocks and drinking coke isn’t possible
Pop rocks are a lot of fun, but the fizzy candy alarmed some parents back in the 1980s when it hit shelves and there were some rumors that a famous kid from cereal commercials had died from trying to consume these two things at once. This was so widespread that the FDA had to set up a hotline for anxious parents about the candy.
Anything is possible if you try hard enough
But, no one died and pop rocks and coke won’t make your stomach explode. It will, however, create a lot of gas in your stomach that needs to be released somehow so expect to be doing a lot of burps for the next few days. Again, this is another urban myth.
Candy causes more tooth decay than other foods
If you had a quarter for every time one of your parents said this to you as a child, you’d have had a lot more money to buy more candy. We all know that eating too much sugar and not brushing your teeth properly can lead to tooth decay, but does candy decay your teeth faster than other foods?
Some good news for candy lovers
No, it doesn’t. Although candy will decay your teeth, so will any other foods that contain sugar or carbohydrates that will eventually break down into sugars. This includes things we see as harmless for our teeth such as fruit and bread. The moral of the story is, just brush your teeth properly all the time.
It takes seven years to digest a piece of gum
This is one that everyone has heard at some point in their childhood after they accidentally swallow a piece of gum. Some have even gone further and suggested that if you swallow a piece of gum, it will get stuck to your heart and stay there forever. Hopefully, as an adult, you can now realise that that one isn’t even physically possible…
No, it doesn’t…
This is probably just a crazy tale started by parents to make sure that children remember to pit out their gum when they are done with it rather than swallow it like other candy. Gum, similar to most other unprocessed foods, will travel through your tummy and intestines within 24–48 hours.
Eating candy encourages hyperactivity
We’ve all heard parents say that their kids go crazy after they’ve had candy because of the e-numbers in the food or the artificial dyes used to make candy colorful. Although there are other studies to say that e-numbers and certain food dyes are bad for your health, there is no proof that they cause hyperactivity.
Another win for the kids
This myth came from one study conducted in the 1980s where a doctor cut candy from his son’s diet and found that his behaviour improved. Subsequent studies have found no evidence of this and the poor kid probably just though that if he was well-behaved he would be allowed to have his candy back.
Twinkies stay fresh forever
Will Twinkies carry us through the apocalypse? The basic story goes that Twinkies are made with all chemical ingredients and no actual food products, so they will stay fresh for decades. Some even go so far as to say that a Twinkie can survive a nuclear war.
Nothing lasts forever
This is another widespread myth! There is no Eternal Twinkie. Some ingredients in Twinkies are eggs, milk, and butter, which is stuff that will eventually go bad. It’s not artificially processed food. It will expire at one point, which is about three months or so.
Malt milkshakes were invented to help soldiers
Originally, malt sugar was prescribed as a dietary supplement because it was easy to digest. In 1882, William Horlick found a way to make malt into a powder and combined it with evaporated milk to create the signature powder used for malted milk drinks.
Nope, they weren’t
Although malt milkshakes were used as a dietary supplement to help people gain weight, they were popularised in diners and malt shops not because of soldiers, but because these drinks allowed teenagers to form their own drinking culture without getting in trouble for drinking alcohol.
Chocolate has a high amount of caffeine in it
Chocolate is a delicious accompaniment to any cup of coffee, but does it really have caffeine in it all by itself? It is said that a one-and-a-half ounce milk chocolate bar contains 9 milligrams of caffeine, which is equal to the amount in a cup of decaffeinated coffee. So this is, mostly, a myth.
Mostly a myth
Chocolate is made from liquified cocoa beans, which contain both cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Cocoa solids are what contain caffeine. So, white chocolate—made from only cocoa butter—is a caffeine-free treat.
The five second rule
Almost everyone has dropped some food on the floor and still wanted to eat it. If someone saw you drop it, he or she might have yelled, “5-second rule!” This so-called rule says food is OK to eat if you pick it up in 5 seconds or less.
This applies to all your food
If you dropped that piece of candy, you probably shouldn’t put it back in your mouth, even if you pick it up in one second. The minute that your food touches the floor, bacteria sticks to it. However, the longer that you leave it the more bacteria will gather, scientists say.
Candy was invented 2000 years ago
You might find it hard to believe that 2000 years ago people were able to enjoy sweet treats that weren’t just berries. So, is it true that candy was invented 2000 years ago? Most historians credit ancient Egyptians with the invention of candy, going as far back as 1500 BC.
100% true
Ancient Egyptians created candy from any sweet, local ingredient they could find. They would often combine honey, nuts, and fruits to make a delicious treat that they could share with their community. Sounds delicious.
The average kid in the US eats 3 pounds of candy on Halloween
Ah, Halloween – the time to go trick or treating and eat so much candy that you throw up. But, how much candy do you reckon a child actually eats on Halloween? The average American kids consumes approximately three point four pounds of candy on Halloween.
It sounds like a lot, but it’s true
On average, children eat around 7,000 calories, which equals three cups of sugar on Halloween. This may seem like a lot, but at least it’s only once a year. That’s if you don’t include Christmas candy, Easter eggs and candy corn at Thanksgiving – actually, all of our holidays revolve around candy…
The longest candy cane ever made was 50 feet long
The biggest candy cane ever made was crafted by Swiss chef Alain Roby in 2011. He beat his previous record of 36 feet, seven inches and also holds the record for the tallest chocolate structure ever made. A list of achievements that would make Willy Wonka jealous.
False….
The longest candy cane wasn’t 50 feet long, it was actually 51 feet long. Gotcha. What an achievement, we can only assume that this guy lives in a house made of gingerbread and gumdrops and that he shares it with a wife made of chocolate.
M&M’s turned down a role in E.T.
E.T was the most popular film for over a decade. Spielberg’s people approached the makers of M&M’s, Mars Inc., with a deal to use the candy in the film. Notoriously frugal, unpredictable, and tyrannical in their business dealings, chief executives John & Forrest Mars flatly rejected Spielberg’s offer.
Yeah, they really did…
What was M&M’s loss was Hershey’s gain, though. When Mars turned Spielberg down, the film used Reese’s Pieces for product placement and the candy quickly became a bestseller and even beat out M&M’s in sales at one point. The power of the silver screen!