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People are bonding over these supposedly weird food combos

It's way more than pineapple pizza—and a lot of it's down to geography

Photo credit: Canva

A prompt asking for people's favorite "weird" food combos yielded some fascinating results.

It’s become an Internet rite of passage: perplexing strangers with your unusual food takes. Last year, Upworthy stirred up one such conversation on Instagram, asking people to share their "favorite 'weird' food combo." The results ranged from "yeah, we’ve heard that one before" (pineapple on pizza) to "wait…what?"

Granted, I’m a man of somewhat "conventional" food tastes—the most adventurous I get with my burger is adding bacon to it, and I have no interest in startling my palate with peanut butter in this context. That said, I express no judgment toward any of these responses. if anything, I admire the willingness to live one’s truth. Here are the food combos that surprised me the most:

Surprise Seinfeld GIFGiphy

  • Macaroni and cheese with ketchup
  • Tuna fish sandwich with mustard
  • Refried beans and fried plantains
  • Steamed broccoli and mayonnaise
  • Sugar and mustard sandwich
  • Chocolate ice cream and Cool Ranch Doritos
  • Cold dill pickles and cold milk
  • Peanut butter, mayo, and tomato sandwich

It’s fine—take a minute to regroup.

Welcome back! One interesting thing about these food debates is that they make you reassess why certain combos sound "weird" in the first place. It’s might not be because the flavor profiles don't mesh; there's a good chance we just can’t imagine these foods on the same plate. One reason, as illustrated in the Instagram comments, might be geography. The example "French fries dipped in malt vinegar" also struck me as quirky, but other people clarified that it’s a common combo in both the U.K. and Canada. ("Clearly not been to England," one user wrote. Another: "How my Canadian family eats them!")

Someone else suggested "Apple pie with sharp cheddar cheese," but lots of people noted that it’s common where they grew up. "There’s an ice cream shop where I live that makes a cheddar apple pie [flavor] every September," one user wrote. "It’s incredible, and I wait all year for it!" Another called it "a classic [old-fashioned] treat, in New England anyway." Finally: "Growing up in Hawaii, I thought everyone ate apple pie this way. Got mocked for it when we moved to the mainland."

Thanksgiving Eating GIF by BuzzFeedGiphy

It was actually difficult to find any food combos that weirded people out. But one in particular ("corn flakes with orange juice") did rise to the occasion, especially after Upworthy clarified that the OJ is indeed being subbed in for milk. (It’s with no pulp, by the way.) Two favorite responses to culinary confusion: "I’m calling the police" and "I’ve dialed the 9 and the 1…"

Take a look at the full Instagram post and see which combos spark your curiosity. For me, it’s definitely "Louisiana hot sauce on popcorn"—I will definitely be trying this out next time, and I'm a little mad that I hadn't thought of it.

In other Internet food news: Last year, Upworthy rounded up 29 controversial food takes, as initiated by an X thread. Naturally, "pineapple on pizza" made an appearance, but there were also debates centered around sweet potatoes, candy corn, coffee, boneless chicken wings, and staple fast-food restaurants like Burger King, Taco Bell, and McDonald’s.

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Pop Culture

Video shows how Gummy Bears are made in reverse

You’ll never look at a gummy bear the same way again.

Photo by Amit Lahav on Unsplash

Ever wonder how these adorable treats are made?

The first gummy bears were created in the 1920s by Hans Riegel, owner of the Haribo candy company in Bonn, Germany. Since then, the somewhat controversial candies have become popular worldwide and evolved to take the shapes of fish, kids, frogs, worms, and just about anything a clever candy maker can imagine.

But unlike the popular Disney '80s Gummi Bears cartoon, these sweet little guys don't come from a hollow tree in the forest. Sadly, their creation is a bit more terrifying.

In the video below, Belgian filmmaker Alina Kneepkens shows how the colorful snacks you bought at the movie theater actually began as pigskin. Yes, an NFL football and a gummy bear have the same humble beginnings. But if you're a vegan or vegetarian, there's no need to worry; there are candy manufacturers that make gummy bears out of agar and pectin so you can enjoy these fruity delights minus the swine skin.

After watching this you know you want to sing along to the iconic tune.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Health

How Japan's '80%' philosophy of eating may help us all be healthier

It's not about losing weight, though that may be a byproduct.

Photo credit: Canva

Japanese food tends to be healthy, but there's more to healthy eating than the food itself.

Many Americans were told to "clean your plate" growing up, meaning to eat everything you were served at mealtime. To leave food on your plate was considered rude, ungrateful or otherwise undesirable behavior, and the habit of eating everything in front of you became ingrained.

Kids raised in Japan may have been brought up with an entirely different philosophy, one that tells them to stop eating before they are full. It's called hara hachi bu (or sometimes hara hachi bun me).

Stop eating when you're 80% full

Hara hachi bu literally translates to "belly 80% full" and on it's face that's literally what it means—stop eating when your stomach feels 80% full. Asako Miyashita, RDN, a New York-based dietitian who grew up in Japan, told Women's Health that the phrase comes from a 300-year-old book by Japanese philosopher and botanist Ekiken Kaibara, "Yojokun: Life Lessons From A Samurai." The book is about listening to your body, and its author lived to 83, which was a remarkably long life at a time when the life expectancy in Japan was 50.

Fast forward to today, and the people of Okinawa, Japan, where hara hachi bu is a popular phrase, have some of the longest life expectancies on Earth. But can eating only until you're 80% full actually help you live longer?

It's possible. One reason may be calorie restriction. According to longevity researcher Dan Buettner, Okinawans eat about 1,900 calories per day on average. Compare that to Americans who eat over 3,500 calories per day on average. Caloric restriction has been shown to increase the lifespan of multiple animal species and has also been shown to slow the aging process in healthy human adults, so simply not pushing our caloric intake by filling our bellies all the way full may be something to consider if we're looking to live a long life.

Hara hachi bu encouraged mindful eating

Another benefit of the 80% full idea is that it forces you to be mindful about how your body's feeling while you're eating, which may contribute to better physical health. According to Harvard University, mindless or distracted eating—the opposite of mindful eating—is associated with anxiety, overeating, and weight gain.

"Hara hachi bu is not a diet, but a lifestyle that can help promote a sustainable approach to eating," dietician Kouka Webb, RN, told Women's Health. "It encourages mindful eating and portion control without the need for strict calorie counting or eliminating certain food groups."

family eating dinner in JapanA family eats dinner in Japan.Photo credit: Canva

Harvard shares that a literature review of 68 intervention and observational studies found that mindfulness and mindful eating slowed down the pace of people's eating and improved people's recognition of when they were full. Mindful eating also reduced binge eating and emotional eating.

Overeating can lead to weight gain, of course, but it can also disrupt your hunger regulation, increase your risk for certain types of disease, cause stomach issues like nausea, gas and bloating, and can even impair your brain function. If you stop eating when you're 80% full means you're far less likely to overeat.

But does that mean you're always left 20% hungry? Not necessarily. According to the Cleveland Clinic, it takes up to 30 minutes for your brain to actually process that your stomach is full, so if you stop when you feel 80% full, you'll most likely feel 100% full just a short while later.

Eat until you're not hungry, not until you're full

“There’s a huge gap between being physically satisfied and realizing in your mind that you’re full,” psychologist Susan Albers, PsyD. tells the Cleveland Clinic. “The connection between them is more like old-school dialup speed than instantaneous WiFi.”

Eating to 80% full is probably closer to the "eat until you're no longer hungry" advice that she gives her patients to feel satiated without actually feeling "full."

“When we think about the word ‘full,’ it’s often like filling up a cup or occupying every inch of a space,” Dr. Albers says. “But the fullness that we can feel and perceive in our stomachs is often being overly full. ‘Satiated’ is different, though. Satiated is meeting a need.”

As Buettner writes, "There is a significant calorie gap between when an American says, ‘I’m full’ and an Okinawan says, ‘I’m no longer hungry.’"

Of course, the traditional Japanese diet also tends to be quite healthy in terms of what they eat, but mindful eating, paying attention to how your stomach feels and stopping before getting full, is worth applying no matter what cuisine you're eating. Next time you sit down for a meal, give hara hachi bu a try and see how you feel. It definitely can't hurt.

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Joy

Here are 29 food takes that are so controversial people think they'll be canceled for them

"People who don't like avocado should be thrown in jail."

via Carl Mikoy/Flickr, Albert Lynn /Flickr and Canva

Pizza with pineapple, a filet o' fish and candy corn.

If there’s one thing that just about everyone is passionate about, it’s food. Everyone has their own unique palate and if they don’t think something tastes good, it’s impossible to convince them otherwise. People also have strong preferences over where they like to eat. Are they a Taco Bell or Del Taco person? Denny’s or Waffle House? Starbucks or Dunkin’?

People also have a sense of mortality about what they eat. Some are omnivores, others are Vegans. Some feel it’s wrong to eat food unless it died or fell off the tree naturally, while others are willing to eat fish that are still alive.

That’s why a recent post by Araaa, also known as @Shawntifying on X, was so fun. She asked people to share their most “cancellable food take,” and people gave some extremely passionate opinions on food. The X thread was extremely popular, receiving over 42 million views.


Here are some of the most “cancellable” food opinions to get your blood pumping and mouth-watering.



Some people jumped into the thread to take shots at other people’s tastes and habits.


Do people like pineapple on pizza?

Many people showed up to defend their love for pineapple on pizza. That’s been a heated debate on social media over the past few years. So, what do most people think about pineapple on pizza? A recent YouGov poll found that most people are fans. A poll of over 1,000 people found that 22% love it and 37% like it. That means 59% or more than half of those polled like pineapple on pizza. On the other side of the debate, 18% dislike it and 19% hate pineapple on pizza.



Some people were passionate about the first meal of the day.



Strangely, many people shared their thoughts on candy corn. The polls show that people either love the Halloween treat or think it’s an abomination. Food flavor specialist Marie Wright tells Today that our opinion of the candy is closely tied to our experiences with it as children.

"The area of the brain where we process smell (which has a major impact on how we process taste) … is in the same part of the brain where we store memories and evoke emotion," said Wright. "In that primitive part of the brain, often there is a strong connection between an event, especially when it's food, especially childhood."



Sweet potatoes were also controversial, with people swearing by them or wanting them eradicated from the planet.



There were also some extremely hot takes about fast food restaurants.



Many people don’t like shellfish, which will save them thousands of dollars over a lifetime.



Not everyone finds coffee delicious.



The bone-in versus boneless-wing debate was also a big issue among the people in the thread.



And, of course, some people in the thread were just 100% wrong.


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