Birthday cake lovers, beware. If you’ve ever taken part of the classic birthday ritual — you know: dimmed lights, loud singing of “Happy Birthday” followed by candle blowing — you’ve participated in a very disgusting tradition. Researchers at Clemson University recently conducted a study to find out whether significant bacteria is transferred to the cake when someone blows out their candles. Mimicking a traditional child’s birthday party, participants ate several slices of pizza before volunteering to blow out candles on top of an ordinary birthday cake. A control group cake had no party-goers blow on it. Then the two were compared. Researchers found that the cake where the candles had been blown out had more than 1,400% more bacteria than the cake that was left alone. Interestingly, people blew greatly varied number of bacteria — some didn’t transfer any, and some, for whatever reason, transferred a lot. (Maybe a germaphobic researcher out…
Office workers consume a shocking number of extra calories in snacks every year
Glazed donuts, pretzels, salted peanuts. What is it about a 9-5 desk job that makes you want to eat all the darn time? You barely finish breakfast before your stomach is rumbling for a mid-morning snack or lunch. And let’s not even talk about those late afternoon hunger pangs. Whether it’s boredom or temptation that has you giving in to the slice of cake, the calories consumed present a huge cause for concern. According to a recent survey by Dutch food brand Kallø, all of those extra calories add up to a shocking 100,000 extra calories every year for the average woman. Your eyes probably just popped a little bit, and you might have even put down that potato chip — and that’s a good thing. All those extra calories are, of course, seriously adding to your waistline. 100,000 calories is the equivalent to eating 193 double cheeseburgers or 502 bars of chocolate. If you go…