Being today, June 4 is national Doughnut Day. I thought about those little tasty treats that American enjoy and Homer Simson craves.
The origin of the name “doughnut” is unclear. Some researchers suggest the name refers to the nuts that were placed inside the ball of dough to compensate for the uncooked center. Other researchers claim it refers to “dough knots,” which was the shape for early doughnuts.[1]
A “cruller” is a fried pastry that traditionally looked like “small, braided torpedo.” It was considered a staple of the New England diet since the pilgrims. Aunt Em in The Wizard of Oz offers crullers to Hunk, Hickory, and Zeke after scolding them for being useless farmhands.[8][10]
Adolph Levitt, a Russian-born immigrant, invented the first automated doughnut machine in 1920. He called it the “Wonderful Almost Human Automatic Donut Machine.”[11]
The origin of the doughnut is unknown, though different nationalities have had their own version of the treat throughout history. A type of doughnut is even mentioned in the Bible. Specifically, Chapter 7 and verse 12 of Leviticus says that a thanksgiving to God should be made of “cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.”[3]
Over 10 billion doughnuts are made in the U.S. each year.[14]
On December 12, 2010, Shamus Petherick of Australia set the record for the most powdered doughnuts eaten in 3 minutes when he ate six of the treats.[13]
Ten people in the United States have the last name Doughnut or Donut. Ninety-five people have the name Longjohn (the name of a long doughnut). Twelve people have the name Bearclaw, 498 people have the name Sprinkles, 470 people in the U.S. have the name Fritter, and 1,634 have the name Sugar.[4]
Some unique doughnut flavors/names include Wasabi Cheese, Champagne, Poi (a common Hawaiian starch paste from the taro root), Southern Spice (made with Southern spices, green chilies, and thyme), Rosemary Olive Oil, Bubble Gum, Chicken & Waffle, and Psycho Psushi.[12]
One of Cosmopolitan magazine’s most infamous sex tips was “doughnut on a penis,” which suggested that a woman place a doughnut on a man’s penis while giving oral sex.[7]
The first recorded use of the word “donut” is found in the 1900 story “Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa” by George W. Peck. A character is quoted as saying, “Pa said he guessed he hadn’t got much appetite and he would just drink a cup of coffee and eat a donut.”[3]
“Doughnut” is the more traditional spelling, although its shortened form, “donut,” is also acceptable.[1]
Most historians believe that the Dutch were the first to introduce the modern doughnut to North America in the form of olykoeks, or “oil cakes” as early as the mid-19th century. These early doughnuts were balls of cake fried in pork fat. Because the center of the cake did not cook as fast as the outside, the gooey center was replaced with fruit or nuts.[1]
Hansen Gregory, an American ship captain, is the man credited with inventing the classic hole-in-the-middle shape of the modern doughnut in 1847 by simply punching out the middle. Other versions of the story describe Gregory piercing the middle of the doughnut on the ship’s steering wheel so he could use both hands to steer. Yet another version claims that he received the idea of punching out the middle from angels.[16]
A glazed doughnut has about 240 calories, of which 120 are from fat. A Krispy Kreme raspberry jam-filled doughnut has about 300 calories, and a Krispy Kreme chocolate iced doughnut has about 350 calories.[2]
Eating a doughnut a day can add an extra pound every 10 days
If a person added a doughnut a day to their regular diet, they would gain about one extra pound every 10 days.[2]
Because doughnuts are fried, they contain a large amount of saturated and trans fat. According to one report, doughnuts have more trans fat than chocolate, peanut butter chocolate bars, and chips. A single doughnut will meet the maximum amount of trans fat for one day. (Some companies such as Dunkin Donuts have phased out trans fat in their doughnuts).[2]
A chocolate glazed doughnut has about 5 teaspoons of sugar. According to the American Heart Association, women should eat no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day.[2]
National Donut Day is on the first Friday of every June. The holiday was established in 1938 to celebrate the Salvation Army Workers (“Doughnut Girls”) who supplied free donuts to American troops during WWI. Another holiday celebrating the ubiquitous fried treat is National Doughnut Appreciation Day, which falls on November 5.[9]
The longest line of donuts ever recorded stretched 1,841 feet 10 inches in Berlin on April 27, 2014.[9]
The largest donut mosaic ever recorded was in Ukraine on January 7, 2012. The exhibit featured 7,040 donuts and was held to promote traditional Ukrainian donuts, called a pampukh, which is also a symbol of Christmas.[9]
The largest serving of donuts weighed a whopping 1,470 pounds in Kazakhstan on November 2, 2013. Traditional Kazakhstan donuts are called baursaks.[9]
The largest box of doughnuts ever recorded was a Krispy Kreme box weighing 297 pounds 10 ounces. Produced by the Kuwait Food Co. Americana in Kuwait City in May 2009, the enlarged box was an exact replica of the original Krispy Kreme box and was filled with 2,700 Krispy Kreme donuts. The box itself was 19 feet 4 inches long, 13 feet 5 inches wide, and 2 feet 10 inches deep.[9]
In the 1934 movie It Happened One Night, Clark Gable gave birth to the trend of dunking donuts in milk when he showed a fellow actor the “right way to do it.”[14]
Among Americans of German descent, jelly donuts have long been thought to bring good luck to those who eat them on New Year’s Eve.[3]
Even before people would trick or treat for candy, Halloween was celebrated by bobbing for donuts hung from a string.[3]
Doughnuts are actually addictive due to the ingredient saccharine
One reason doughnuts are so addictive is that they have lots of saccharine. In one study, rats overwhelming prefer water sweetened with saccharin to cocaine, which demonstrates the addictiveness of sweets in general and doughnuts in particular.[5]
The largest donut ever made weighed 1.7 tons. It was a jelly doughnut made in New York on January 21, 1993.[16]
The world’s most expensive donut is made of 24k edible gold, edible diamonds, and aged chocolate balsamic vinegar. The remaining ingredients are top secret. They sell for $100 a piece.[16]
Whalers sometimes would celebrate the 1,000th barrel of whale oil by frying donuts in—not surprisingly—whale oil.[1]
During the 1940s, stars such as Johnny Carson, Pearl Buck, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and Martha Graham were members of the National Dunking Association for doughnuts. The association even provided membership cards.[1]
The author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Washington Irving was one of the first to use the word “doughnut.” His 1809 History of New York describes “balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called doughnuts.” Today, the “nuts” of fried dough are called “doughnut holes.”[1]
To go from a size 6 to a size 14 in just 3 months to portray Bridget Jones, Renee Zellweger said she ate 20 doughnuts a day.[1]
Doughnuts can be up to 25% fat because they absorb so much of the fat they are fried in.[2]
Jews have embraced sufganiyot, jelly-filled donuts, as ceremonial food of Hanukkah. Their rationale is that sufganiyot are cooked in hot oil and thus pay homage to the second century B.C. rededication of the Holy Temple, during which the oil in the temple lamp lasted eight nights instead of the expected one.[3]
John Haight holds the record for doughnut eating after he ate 52 ounces of them (29 doughnuts) in just over 6 minutes in 1981.[9]
Admiral Richard E. Byrd took 100 barrels of donut flour (enough for two years) on one of his South Pole expeditions.[16]
The enduring stereotype of the police officer with a donut emerged in the 1940s and 1950s when the only places open during the graveyard shift were donut shops. Donut shops were typically open late at night or very early in the morning as they prepared fresh donuts for the morning rush.[3]
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The city with the most doughnut shops per person is Boston, MA. Rounding out the top five are Long Beach, CA; Dallas, TX; Sacramento, CA; and Fort Worth, TX.[16]
When President John F. Kennedy announced in Berlin, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” he did not say, as is commonly believed, that he was a jelly doughnut. The phrase is not only correct, but it is the only way to express what the president had intended to say. To state, “Ich bin Berliner” would imply that he was born in Berlin, whereas the word ein implied he was a Berliner in spirit.[15]
Researchers have noted that the size of the hole in a doughnut correlates with the quality of the economy. Specifically, the worse the economy, the bigger the doughnut hole.[1]
The French used to call their doughnuts Pet de Nonne, which means “Nun’s Farts.”[6]
References:
1Conradt, Stacy. “The Quick 10: 10 Details about Doughnuts.” Mental Floss. June 5, 2009. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
2Covelli, Grace. “How Many Calories Does a Doughnut Have?” Live Strong. Updated April 22, 2015. Accessed: April 24, 2015.
3Edge, John T. Donut: An American Passion. New York, NY: G.P. Penguin Group, 2006.
4Fink, Jameson. “Infographic: How Many People Have Donut Related Names?” Foodista. June 7, 2013. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
5Gellene, Denise. “This Explains Your Doughnut Addiction.” LA Times. November 10, 2007. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
6Green, Anna. "15 Delicious Facts about Doughnuts." Mental Floss. March 10, 2016. Accessed: July 16, 2016.&n
7Hess, Amanda. “The Weird history of Cosmo’s Most Infamous Sex Tip.” Slate. February 26, 2014. Accessed: April 24, 2015.
8Hogan, David J. The Wizard of Oz FAQ: All That’s Left to Know about Life, According to Oz. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2014.
9Janela, Mike. “Happy National Donut Day.” Guinness World Records. June 6, 2014. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
10Kahn, Joseph P. “With Progress, a Cruel Twist.” Boston. October 25, 2003. Accessed: May 1, 2015.
11Krondl, Michael. The Donut: History, Recipes, and Lore from Boston to Berlin. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 2014.
12McAuliffe, Annelise. “8 Outlandish Donuts.” Honest Cooking. February 24, 2014. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
13“Most Powdered Doughnuts Eaten in Three Minutes.” Guinness World. Records. 2015. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
14“On National Donut Day, a Tribute to the Delicious and Addicting Treat.” The Huffington Post. Updated June 7, 2013. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
15Putnam, Thomas. “The Real Meaning of Ich Bin ein Berliner.” The Atlantic. 2015. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
16“The History of the Donut.” Mel-O-Crème Donuts International. 2002. Accessed: April 29, 2015.
I have lost a lot of faith with the Medical Community and the Governments over the last several years, but there are a few good things that can raise above the corruption and the pushing of drugs a new approach to heal people. The following is from www.gaia.com and written by Hunter Parsons that does not involve any drug or pushing an ineffective so called vaccine that the drug company is not held accountable in any way but they use sound! The use of sound can regrow bone tissue! Here is the story:
"The future of regenerative medicine could be found within sound healing by regrowing bone cells with sound waves.
The use of sound as a healing modality has an ancient tradition all over the world. The ancient Greeks used sound to cure mental disorders; Australian Aborigines reportedly use the didgeridoo to heal; and Tibetan or Himalayan singing bowls were, and still are, used for spiritual healing ceremonies.
Recently, a study showed an hour-long sound bowl meditation reduced anger, fatigue, anxiety, and ...
Not a fan of a Defense Agency studying Anti-Gravity and other Exotic Tech, but if the commercial world and make this technology cheap that will change our world yet again. The following is about three minute read and from www.gaia.com. The below was written by Hunter Parsons:
"Wormholes, invisibility cloaks, and anti-gravity — it’s not science fiction, it’s just some of the exotic things the U.S. government has been researching.
A massive document dump by the Defense Intelligence Agency shows some of the wild research projects the United States government was, at least, funding through the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program known as AATIP.
And another lesser-known entity called the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program or AAWSAP
The Defense Intelligence Agency has recently released a large number of documents to different news outlets and individuals who have filed Freedom of Information Act requests.
Of particular interest are some 1,600 pages released to Vice News, which ...
As our technology gets better we are discovering more about the history of mankind and pushing the timeline back further and further. The following article is from www.gaia.com and written by Michael Chary that discusses this new find that changes the historical timeline:
"Over the past decade, there have been a number of archeological revelations pushing back the timeline of human evolution and our ancient ancestors’ various diasporas. Initially, these discoveries elicit some resistance as archeologists bemoan the daunting prospect of rewriting the history books, though once enough evidence is presented to established institutions, a new chronology becomes accepted.
But this really only pertains to the era of human development that predates civilization — the epochs of our past in which we were merely hunter-gatherers and nomads roaming the savannahs. Try challenging the consensus timeline of human civilization and it’s likely you’ll be met with derision and rigidity.
Conversely, someone of an alternative...
Not sure if you have heard of a show on YouTube called "The Why Files". If not you should check it out it is interesting and has some humor with it on different subjects. Last weeks was on a different theory how the Universe works and how main stream Science is attempting to shut it down like is always seems to do if it goes aguest some special interest. Today it is akin to what happened to those who questioned the Earth was the Center of the Universe that main stream so called Science all believed during the Renaissance period, They called any theory that the Earth was not the Center of the Universe misinformation. Does this sound familiar today? People laughed and mocked people like Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Georg Purbach as crack-pots, conspiracy theorists, nut-jobs and they were suppressed and even imprisoned for their radical thoughts and observations. Again it sounds like today in so many ways. In any event this is a good one to ponder and see even if a bad idea ...
Seemingly chaotic systems like the weather and the financial markets are governed by the laws of chaos theory.
We all have heard about chaos theory, but if you have not or have forgotten what chaos theory is well here you go from interestingengineering.com:
"Chaos theory deals with dynamic systems, which are highly sensitive to initial conditions, making it almost impossible to track the resulting unpredictable behavior. Chaos theory seeks to find patterns in systems that appear random, such as weather, fluid turbulence, and the stock market.
Since the smallest of changes can lead to vastly different outcomes, the long-term behavior of chaotic systems is difficult to predict despite their inherently deterministic nature.
As Edward Lorenz, who first proposed what became commonly known as the Butterfly Effect, eloquently said, "Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.""
You may have heard the term about chaos theory as a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil,...
I for one have lost trust in Medical Doctors due to COVID and reflection that they seem to push pills for everything and untested so called vaccines that is using a unproven technology because the Government and the Medical Boards of the State told them to. There are a very few exceptions. Thus they do not address the key problem just prescribe more and more pills to keep you alive an sick longer for them and Big Phama to profit from you. Will AI do any better? Well that depends on what was used for the training of AI. If it also pushes pills and vaccines without question then you have the same problems noted above. However, if the AI Training includes all possible forms of treatment and they zero in on the right issues for the true problem then there is possibilities they would be way better than most of the current Medical Doctors today.
The following is from an article from interestingengineering.com and written by Paul Ratner:
"A new study looks at how accurately AI can diagnose patients. We interview the researcher, who weighs in on AI's role ...
