Daily, we come across a lot of facts distributed through the Internet, some of which I have discovered are just not true. I’ll bet you’re not surprised about that. The latest ones were so interesting that I thought each one might be false. But it turns out, after doing some research, I learned these are all true to some extent.
First we will deal with the banana fact or some research done by Japanese scientists. They say, really ripe bananas are better for you. They discovered that a fully ripe banana, you know, the one with the dark patches on the yellow skin, basically the ones we think are too soft to eat, produce a substance called TNF (Tumor Necrosis Factor), which has the ability to combat abnormal tumor cells in the body. They say the darker the patches the higher will be the immunity enhancement quality.
Heaven knows we are all looking for that. According to them, a yellow skin banana with dark spots on it is eight times more effective in enhancing the property of white blood cells than a group of the green skin version. In other words, eating a very ripe banana is good for you and the riper it is the more the antioxidants increase. I think we’ve all heard that term – antioxidants.
Now for the drawback, in this case the very ripe banana has higher starch content because it changes to simple sugars that are easier to digest and may raise your blood glucose level quickly. It could be harmful to some people with diabetes, but eating one to two bananas a day increases your immunity to everything. Such good news!
Both green and yellow bananas are high in fiber and are rich in potassium. Something we all need.
This fact I was sure couldn’t be true. Brass doorknobs automatically disinfect themselves in about eight hours. How could that be correct? It seems there’s a process called the Oligodynamic effect. It comes from Greek and actually the effect or action was discovered in 1893, so it really shouldn’t be news to us. It encompasses a toxic effect of metal ions on bacteria, viruses and living cells like algae, mold, spores, and fungus. The anti-microbial effect involves ions of mercury, silver, copper, iron, lead, zinc, brass, gold, aluminum and other metals.
We have been washing off our doorknobs all this time trying to stay well. It turns out that nearly all bacteria are affected. Viruses are not quite as sensitive, but often the virus is our biggest problem around the house. Some metals are known to be more poisonous to bacteria than others. My research told me that the metal, silver, is capable of rendering our drinking water potable for several months. Often water tanks on ships and airplanes are silvered inside.
So, I’m not saying you shouldn’t wipe off your doorknobs with a disinfectant, but maybe they’re not carrying as many germs as we thought.
Nearly everyone of every age wears denim jeans now at sometime during the week. If you have traditional jeans, called five pocket, you have two in the back, two in the front and then there’s that little one inside. The small pocket in the larger pocket in your jeans is for what?
Guesses by some ranged from a place to keep a key, to storage for tickets and finally a lighter. Others mentioned it was a good place for a little change.
Originally, it was called a fob pocket and was meant for a pocket watch. Before that, men put their watches in their vest pockets. So use it for whatever fits in there now, not too many watch fobs around these days!
Now for a really interesting fact — the Netherlands is closing 19 prisons due to a serious prisoner shortage. This is in a time when many of ours are full. Part of the reason they are closing is due to declining crime rates. But the other reason is that many inmates are choosing to be electronically tagged instead of incarceration. They can continue to work and be a part of society, while being monitored. The saves about $50,000 a year per inmate and is $50 million per thousand inmates. Think of the money that is saved there.
Much of the crime in the U.S. is due to drug use. People need money for drugs so why work for it? They just steal. In the Netherlands they have what we would call progressive drug laws. They are much more liberal in drug use in their country. Also, the Chief Justice Minister in the Netherlands reported they are also interested in deterring crime and not just punishing people after it happens. Hmmm, that’s something to think about.
Now, for what might be the tip of the day. Did you know that a Chinese takeout container unfolds into a dish? I believe it because I have seen it in a video. Just remove the little metal handle and the sides will open up and lay down for easy consumption of the food. This way you don’t have to get your hands all greasy reaching into the container. Oh my goodness this will probably change your life.
So, these are just a few facts for the day. My mother used to say, you learn something every day and here we have some interesting facts about our world.
(Melanie Behrens-melb@marysvillejt.com)