Pickle Power
When you're tempted to reach for a cold one in the hot summer months--make it a pickle! No fat, lo-cal (only 15 calories in a large dill), with a satisfying crunch, it's the perfect munchie. Even more so because the sourness helps curb cravings for sweets; only 1/8 cup qualifies as 1 of the USDA's recommended 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Like to pick a little at a time? Try cornichons--mini pickles you can eat like potato chips. May marks the perfect time to start rotating pickles into your veggie regimen: for more that 50 years, the 10 days at the end of the month celebrate International Pickle Week. So, repeat after me, Peter Piper picked a peck...oh, never mind. Eat a pickle!
Is the pickle technically a fruit or a vegetable? Fruit! According to the U.S. Supreme Court, who liken it to tomatoes--from the vine. Why do we call it a pickle?
A 14th century Dutch fisherman called William Beukelz
was known for pickling fish--someone mispronounced his name!
Who initiated the saying "I'm in a pickle"? Shakespeare! in his play, The Tempest. The original quotes: "How cam'st thou in this pickle?" and "I have been in such a pickle..."
For more fun acts about pickles, check out www.ilovepickles.org