Wow...hard to believe this is my fourth Thanksgiving post. It's that time of year again for us Americans to cook for 18 hours, then stuff ourselves in under 15 minutes, and then unbutton the front of our pants in order to pass out in front of a football game.
In the meantime, enjoy some of the lesser-known scientific Thanksgiving tidbits that I've gathered:
That big dude sucking down the turkey and stuffing isn't the only one that could possibly suffer a coronary. Turkeys can have heartattacks too! Decades ago, when the Air Force was conducting tests involving jets breaking the sound barrier, turkeys below would have heart attacks and keel over.
The Guinness Book of Records states that the greatest dressed weight recorded for a turkey is 86 lbs - which was weighed-in at the annual "heaviest turkey" competition held in London, England on December 12, 1989.
More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving. I wonder how much Beano or Gas-X is served afterwards.
A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. A wild turkey can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds. That's one fast butterball!
Studies done by the University of Georgia show that the average person eats between 2,000 and 3,000 calories at a holiday meal. That is more calories than the average person needs on a daily basis. I'm betting that the number of gym memberships skyrocket too.
As I had posted back in 2005, tryptophan (an amino acid found in turkey) is often blamed for that Thanksgiving Coma many of us experience. Truth is, we get sleepy from consuming all of those starchy carbs. That, and many of us partake in the consumption of alcohol too.
Finally...
46 million turkeys will be eaten on Thanksgiving. And I personally plan on contributing to that statistic.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving...and I'm so very thankful to all you continue to visit my little blog.
Labels: science of thanksgiving, thanksgiving, turkey facts
