All 50 states in the United States raise beef cattle, with Texas, Nebraska, and Kansas being the top three producers. It’s not surprising that beef cattle are such a widespread product. Annual revenue from cattle and calves is impressive. In 2020 alone, there were $62,013,996 in cash receipts. With so much money to be made, there’s often little question about the beef itself. But as delicious as it can be, it can be kind of gross…

If you have a weak stomach, maybe tread carefully with this one. Here are the top 10 grossest facts about beef.

10 Antibiotics in Beef Are Creating Superbugs 

Farmers commonly use antibiotics in their livestock to prevent, treat, and control diseases by stopping the growth of bacteria. They also use it to make cows grow bigger, faster. The use of antibiotics can increase the amount of meat by 1%-2%. Additionally, about 50% more antibiotics are used on pigs and cows than on humans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has even found traces of harmful veterinary drugs in beef, including:

• Penicillin: that can lead to life-threatening reactions for people allergic to it. 
• Flunixin: that can cause bloody stools, kidney damage, and stomach or colon ulcers in humans. 
• Ivermectin: that is an animal dewormer but can cause neurological damage in humans. 

A USDA study has also posed concern that routine use of antibiotics contributes to antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. These stronger pathogens are commonly called “superbugs” and can cause negative effects on human health. Superbugs can be deadly for infants, seniors, or people with compromised immune systems. So, why do farmers need antibiotics to prevent disease? It’s because the conditions of factory farms are usually unhygienic due to overcrowding. 

You know how you’re not supposed to go number two where you eat? Well…tell that to the cows. The cramped conditions mean diseases are easier to develop and spread among the cows. 

9 Red Meat Can Increase Risk of Cancer

In 2007, the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research reported that red or processed meat, such as beef, are probable sources of cancers. There are various reasons linking beef to cancer. All the drugs listed above and hormones pumped into cows can increase your risk of cancer. The heme iron found in meat can also lead to damaged body cells that eventually cause cancer. Lastly, cooking your meat at high temperatures, such as over a grill, can create carcinogens. A carcinogen is a cancer-causing chemical that is dangerous to eat.

The most common cancer that can develop from eating red or processed meat is colorectal cancer. However, there are also links to:

• Esophageal cancer
• Lung cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Endometrial cancer

Man, what a buzzkill. 

8 High Beef Consumption Can Also Lead to Heart Disease 

Many studies have found that consumption of red meats, such as beef, can lead to illnesses, including heart disease. High levels of saturated fat that exist in some red meats lead to increased blood cholesterol. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol is considered the “bad” type of cholesterol. It can increase the risk of heart disease. While eating leaner meat with less fat can help you avoid this, excess consumption of red meats is still risky.

Most manufacturers in the U.S. feed ractopamine to cows to produce leaner meat while speeding up weight gain. This drug ends up in our bodies when we eat beef. It’s actually so dangerous for humans that over 100 countries, including the European Union and China, banned ractopamine from animal farming and refuse to import U.S. meat. Health experts have linked ractopamine to health concerns in humans, such as anxiety and increased heart rates.

7 E. Coli Bacteria Can Stay Alive in Processed Meats

Since farmers pump so many antibiotics into cows, the meats they produce are often tough and chewy. Therefore, slaughterhouses mechanically tenderize the steaks and cuts of beef. The tenderizing process involves driving needles and blades into the meat. The gross thing is, this process pushes any bacteria on the meat’s surface into the flesh. So instead of cooking away bacteria when you sear your meat, you can end up with live bacteria still living inside of it. Blech.

Undercooked meat, such as rare or medium steaks, is especially risky to eat. 

A common bacteria living on beef is E.coli. While not all types of E.coli can make you sick, the ones that do, cause various illnesses such as diarrhea, UTIs, and pneumonia. E.coli cases are still prevalent today and mostly transfer to humans from food. This bacteria can end up on the meat during slaughter or processing and be harder to cook away because of the tenderizing methods mentioned above. In April 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a food safety alert on the following recalls for ground beef contaminated with E.coli:

• Approximately 53,200 pounds of raw ground beef from Grant Park Packing in Franklin Park, ILL.
• Approximately 113,424 pounds of raw ground beef from K2D Foods, doing business as Colorado Premium Foods, in Carrollton, GA.

6 U.S. Beef Commonly Have Copper and Arsenic

When we say “heavy metal beef,” we don’t mean an argument between guitar-shredding Metallica fans. We actually mean there are literal heavy metals in the beef. 

The United States has no limits for heavy metals in its meat. For this reason, there are high levels of metals in beef, such as copper and arsenic. Because of this, most foreign countries refuse imported beef from America. For example, in 2008, due to high traces of copper, Mexico denied a shipment of U.S. beef.

While we need small amounts of copper to maintain good health, high traces can lead to liver damage. Our liver is crucial for filtering blood and detoxifying chemicals in our body. A severely damaged liver can lead to symptoms such as:

• Jaundice, which is the yellowing of the skin and eyes.
• Swelling in the feet, ankles, and legs caused by fluid build-up.
• Swelling in the abdomen, known as ascites.

Arsenic is also present in non-organic animal feeding operations. It is a carcinogen fed to cattle and thus found in the beef we consume. In humans, arsenic can increase the risks of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Scientists tracked the diets of 63,257 people aged 45 to 74 for 11 years and found that consumption of red meat increased the risk of diabetes. The study found 5,207 new cases of Type 2 diabetes in the group tracked.

5 Toxic Pesticides End Up in Beef

Many pesticides used on plants in the United States are toxic and end up in the food we eat. When animals, such as cows, eat pesticide-contaminated food in factory farms, it ends up in their system and part of their meat. Common pesticides found in beef include:

• 6.8% of DDE p,p’
• 2.4% of Cyhalothrin
• 1.7% of Diphenylamine (DPA)
• 0.7% of Endosulfan sulfate
• 0.3% of Bifenthrin
• 0.3% of Cyfluthrin

Pesticides can come with gross side effects. In the short term, it can cause symptoms such as rashes, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, blisters, and stinging eyes. In the long term, it can lead to:

• Blindness
• Reproductive harm 
• Neurological and developmental toxicity 
• Disruption of the endocrine system 
• Congenital disabilities 

4 Some Beef is Bound With Meat-Glue

Okay, really—meat-glue? Hey, we’re just presenting the facts here. 

Although banned in the European Union in 2010, transglutaminase, also known as “meat glue,” is still commonly used in the United States. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) classifies it as “generally recognized as safe.” Many processed food products will use meat glue to bind pieces of meat together. By creating more uniform pieces of meat, it can appear more appetizing to sell.

So what is meat glue? It is created using bacteria from a cow’s blood plasma. If that isn’t gross enough, there is also a greater risk of food poisoning from eating meat glued together. Not only do bacteria have a higher chance to grow on the separate pieces, but “glued beef” can also be harder to cook.

3 Carbon Monoxide Injected in Beef Can Mask Freshness

To keep the meat in supermarkets looking red, fresh-looking, and appetizing, manufacturers will treat the meat with carbon monoxide gas. This gas is injected into the meat to help prevent it from turning gray or brown. The FDA recognizes this gas as a color stabilizer to help maintain the typical red color of fresh meat. While it isn’t directly harmful to humans, it does mask how fresh the beef is. Without the naturally occurring discoloration, the beef might fool you into thinking it is fresh. 

What an unpleasant surprise.

Generally, stores can sell packaged ground meat 28 days after the slaughter and solid cuts up to 35 days after leaving the manufacturer’s plant. If you don’t trust the sell-by date on the package, other ways to identify if the meat is spoiled and shouldn’t be consumed include:

• Packages will bulge from multiplied bacteria.
• There will be a strong spoiled odor when opened. 
• Beef may have a slimy or slippery texture.

Packaged beef that is temperature abused could also spoil before the use-by date, so knowing these signs are important. Additionally, carbon monoxide-treated beef can have a higher risk of growing salmonella. Michel Doyle, the director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, found this out in a study with carbon monoxide treated meat stored in a refrigerator 10 degrees above the recommended temperature.

2 Tested Ground Beef Packages Contained Poop

As disgusting as it may sound, your ground beef can definitely have poop. In 2015, Consumer Reports tested 300 packages of ground beef to see if there were bacteria in the meat. Meat from 103 stores in 26 cities across the United States tested positive for fecal contamination. 

I’m going to take a moment here… Everyone’s stomach okay? Okay, let’s continue.

Since producers had ground up the meat, the testers found fecal bacteria spread throughout the entirety of the package. If you don’t cook your meat properly or if you touch anything around you after handling the raw meat, you can contaminate your surroundings. Bacteria showing fecal contamination can cause various illnesses, including urinary and blood infections. So make sure to be cleaning conscious. 

How did the poop bacteria get in your meat, though? Well, the slaughtering and processing of large animals such as cows can be messy. For this reason, feces in the intestines or on hides can end up in the meat. 

1 It’s Legal to Have Rat Hair in Ground Beef 

If fecal bacteria in your ground beef wasn’t bad enough, you might also have eaten meat with rat hair in it. In the United States, to qualify as meat, ground beef must legally include at least 35% of actual meat. The other 65% can be anything else, such as cornstarch, water, soy, maltodextrin, food colorings, or rat hair. According to FDA regulations, it’s okay for four rodent hairs to be present in every 100 grams of processed food, such as ground beef. So, this means when you eat your next burger or beef taco, you could have a furry addition.

We’ve all been there. Just starting to show, maybe four or five months into your pregnancy—you’re finally over that gosh-awful first trimester. Ugh, the morning sickness, the food aversions, the smells! Well, maybe you still have the smell thing going on. You know, all of a sudden, your husband’s cologne smells like a nauseating wet donkey. Okay, and perhaps we haven’t all been there. But for people who have borne children, the second trimester is the start of the mostly fun, kind of terrifying, food-filled adventure that is pregnancy. 

With an emphasis on food. 

Around 50%-90% of women experience food cravings during their pregnancy. Some of these cravings are food they already enjoy. Some are things they would never have dreamed of eating. My craving was a cupcake the size of my head with a ton of strawberry buttercream frosting—which I never did get. But some food cravings are so strange, so out-of-the-ordinary, so, for lack of a better word, gross, that only science—maybe—could explain it. Pregnant women get kind of weird. Without further ado and without judgment—despite the label of the article—here are the top 10 grossest pregnancy cravings.

10 Dirt

The craving for dirt during pregnancy is not uncommon. But just because the craving happens doesn’t mean women take a spoon to their flower pot. The brain certainly tells them, “Hey, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea,” but hopefully, they refrain. The whole eating dirt thing is not so good for you.

Pica is the craving for non-food items that hold no nutritional value to the body. The word “pica” stems from the Latin for magpie. Magpies, though intelligent birds, will eat almost anything—fairly similar to pregnant people. People with pica have an insatiable craving for ice cubes or dry starches like cornstarch, dirt, paper, clay, laundry detergent, and charcoal. Though specialists don’t know the exact reason for it, they suspect that iron-deficient people are more at risk.

About 27%-68% of pregnant people suffer from pica, and its ill effects are pretty obvious. Those who ingest dirt or other chemical-based, non-nutritive substances may end up consuming toxic substances. This poses a risk both to the mother and the child. So though it’s funny to think of somebody pregnant digging into that bag of Miracle-Gro, it’s actually pretty dangerous.

9 Vinegar

You can wipe down windows with vinegar, remove foul odors from your Tupperware, make tasty salad dressings, and of course, brine cucumbers to make pickles. Vinegar is useful for so many things, even as a daily health regimen. But very rarely do you hear of people drinking straight vinegar—unless it’s midnight at a bar and you’re doing picklebacks with your very drunk friends. Obviously, you need more pregnant friends. They’ll gladly do picklebacks without the whiskey and are probably easier to deal with.

Sounds gross, but pregnant populations who crave straight vinegar are onto something. Pregnancy can result in morning sickness, aka nausea from h-e-double hockey sticks. For most, it settles down after the first trimester, but it can last the entire pregnancy. Because pregnant people can’t take any old over-the-counter medication to help with their nausea, they tend to look for holistic alternatives. One of those alternatives is apple cider vinegar.

Apple cider vinegar balances out your stomach’s pH, neutralizing the amount of acid sloshing around in there. Hard core people drink the vinegar straight, but it’s much more tolerable cut with some water and honey. 

Then there are those people who just want to drink the brine from the pickle jar. No nausea, just because. Straight-up savages.

8 Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Dipped in Lemon Meringue Pie

No, we didn’t just come up with this combo on the spot for the shock factor. We’ve known a lot of pregnant people, and this is just a crazy craving one of them happened to have. There are two layers to this craving that justify dipping the obviously manufactured hot Cheeto dusted crunchy thing—it could just be fried pasta, who knows?—into a goop that looks similar to vaseline. The first is spice. The second is sweet.

Both spice and sweet trigger the release of endorphins. Endorphins are the body’s happy hormones. Since pregnant bodies are constantly at odds with their fluctuating hormones, any chance at happiness is completely welcome—even if it’s in the form of junk food capsaicin and sugary calories. Unfortunately, spicy foods can upset anyone’s stomach, especially a pregnant person in the third trimester. You may have to stick to the lemon meringue pie.

7 Onions

Did you ever want to bite into a raw onion just to know what it’s like? I have. I’m not ashamed to admit that. No, I didn’t do it. But some pregnant people have! Craving onions, sauteed or otherwise, isn’t gross in itself, but the pungent nature of onions can result in some stinky breath. It’s a stink you can’t get rid of just by brushing your teeth, either. Once you invite onion breath into your home, it’s there.

Still, despite the odor, onions can be beneficial for pregnant people. Onions prove that your body knows best. It knows what it needs and signals you to eat things to fulfill that need, ergo, cravings. In the case of onions, they are full of quercetin, which helps aid the body’s immune system, and contains anti-inflammatory properties. They are also rich in key nutrients for pregnant women: vitamin C, B6, folate, and more.

So if you see a pregnant person biting into a raw onion like an apple, watch your gag response. They’re actually eating a strange sort of multivitamin. And giving themselves wicked bad breath.

6 Hot Dogs Out of the Package

Hot dogs are processed like bologna. It’s essentially deli meat in an intestinal casing. We usually eat them piping hot, wrapped in a fluffy bun, and topped with mustard and, for the controversial, ketchup. Sometimes, though, when you’re pregnant, you just want to eat it cold. Your body wants that iron, protein, and B-vitamins, even in this floppy, slimy, and who is anybody kidding, obscene form.

But no matter what you do, no matter how intense the craving, do not eat a “raw” hot dog. There’s a reason so many food restrictions are placed on pregnant people, and uncooked hot dogs are a really good example. Hot dogs are breeding grounds for Listeria. A pregnant body that contracts Listeria means potentially severe consequences for both the mother and child. 

But wait, aren’t hot dogs precooked before they’re packaged? Yeah, they are, but that means nothing. Even after processed and packaged, those little wieners can get Listeria. This is the same reason pregnant people should avoid deli meats. Listeria hot spots. It’s a gross fact of modern-day, Westernized eating, but true. Listeria is not fun and not worth indulging in a pregnancy craving.

5 Mayonnaise on Everything

For the “five golden rings” topic, we have mayonnaise. Personally, I don’t think craving mayonnaise is evil. Eating mayonnaise, unless it’s homemade, is safe for pregnant people as well. But there are plenty who think the condiment is one of the grossest things ever. 

Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s made from oil and eggs, or that it’s gloopy and makes an odd crackling noise when you spread it on bread? Or perhaps it’s because of its naturally euphemistic nature—who knows? But I guess that when you’re craving spoonfuls of it or putting it on anything you can chew, the craving does get a little out there.

One of the more popular applications of “pregnancy mayo” is with french fries. Some pregnant people like it on pizza. But why? Why put mayo on everything? A craving for mayonnaise during pregnancy could indicate the body’s need for increased stores of fat and calories. Pregnant people need to take in 500 extra calories on average. 

It could also be your body telling you to consume some vitamin K. A serving of mayonnaise has 25% of your required daily intake of Vitamin K. Vitamin K is essential for normal clotting and, therefore, safe labor.

4 A Mashed Potato Sundae 

Oh, this one sounds good! Except that it’s not really. Instead of substituting chocolate sauce with gravy, and a cherry on top for a side of cranberry sauce, this one uses caramel sauce. Yup! Mashed potatoes and caramel sauce. 

This gross combination comes from a book intended to appeal to pregnant people’s odd cravings. Mashed potatoes are a common pregnancy craving on their own. They are carb-loaded and easy to eat if you’re feeling queasy. Potatoes in themselves also have impressive levels of Vitamin C and B, important nutrients for the pregnant. 

But any potential health benefits mashed potatoes can provide seem to be offset by all that sugar. Eh, whatever, you’re pregnant and you deserve some caramel sauce over your…um…potatoes.

3 A Cottage Cheese Swirl

One pregnant Instagram user posted a picture of her craving that got all the “odd pregnancy cravings” lists talking. It is a cup of cottage cheese with a yellow mustard swirl. I mean, whatever floats your boat, but couldn’t you just say you drank mustard from the container instead? Anyway, let’s see why this combo would exist in the first place, starting with cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese, being a dairy product, is a great source of calcium. Someone who is pregnant should get at least 1,000 mg of calcium a day—the minimum recommended dosage for anyone. If you don’t meet this requirement every day, it’s not the end of the world, but since you’re growing a whole new set of bones inside of you, you should really try. The body is going to prioritize the growing baby’s needs so make sure you’re getting enough calcium for yourself, too.

2 Mustard

Mustard deserves its own category. And if you’re eating the condiment by itself, yeah, it’s kind of gross. Yes, pregnant people eat mustard by itself. Not all, silly, just the ones who are craving it! The second half of our combo mentioned above, mustard, despite being unfortunately paired with a chunky, creamy cheese substance, has some benefits for pregnant women.

Mustard seeds contain minerals like iron, copper, and manganese that help boost immunity. There’s also sulfur, which is a natural antibacterial. Another benefit to mustard is its anti-inflammatory properties and metabolism-regulating vitamins—folate for one. 

Those horse pills your OB/GYN tells you to take when you’re pregnant are full of folate. It’s a crucial vitamin during pregnancy and aids in your baby’s brain development. Adding a little mustard to your meal here and there can be a great way to help that along. And adding a little to your cottage cheese is enough to make the internet get morning sickness.

1 Hot Sauce and Milk

Whenever I think of milk as a craving, I think of that scene from “Anchorman” where Ron Burgundy is walking along the streets of San Diego on a sweltering hot day, depressed, and drinking a container of milk. “Milk was a bad choice!” Hot sauce is the equivalent of this hot day.

One woman on a women’s forum wrote that she used to go to Roy Rogers and ask for handfuls of hot sauce packets. She’d put the hot sauce on everything! On top of that, she’d drink a half-gallon of milk every day. Something to neutralize the spicy, I guess? Between the endorphins from the hot sauce and the calcium and fat intake of the milk, the combo must have totally satisfied a craving.

But at the same time, the idea of the two things mixing in her stomach just hurts mine.

The period between the 1980s and 2000s was considered the golden age for breakfast cereals. It was during this time that companies produced endless varieties, shapes, colors, and especially some questionable flavors. Whether you preferred something sweet, healthy, or anything in between, there was something for everyone.

We all have our favorite cereals (ahem… Peanut Butter Captain Crunch), but this category is full of cereal you purchase once and never try again. Here are ten of the grossest cereal flavors that got canceled.

10 Ice Cream Cones

In 1986, General Mills decided that if parents could serve their children cookies for breakfast, they might as well serve them ice cream. So, what did they do? They created ice cream cone cereal that was nothing short of gross. The breakfast food came in two flavors: chocolate and chocolate chip.

It’s fair to say these cereals didn’t live long enough to see the light of day. They were discontinued the same year they debuted. Parents couldn’t stand the idea of serving their children ice cream for breakfast. What seemed like a great idea from the start turned out to be a miscalculated move.

There were plans to bring the ice cream cones back in 2003, but that also failed. Today, we can only remember Ice Cream Cones as one of the grossest cereals that melted before consumers ate it.

9 Cupcake Pebbles

The classic Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles are a true staple in many homes. But, thankfully, Cupcake Pebbles bit the dust. Popular between 2010 and 2011, Cupcake Pebbles came in boxes scripted with words sweeter than the cereals themselves. “Good old wholesome sweetened rice cereal with artificial flavor.” Yikes! If you’re going to inadvertently sell artificial flavors, you don’t advertise them.

Cupcake Pebbles were so bad that even Barney and Fred weren’t touching them. Their kids, Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles, were the chosen cereal box character reps. It doesn’t matter if you loved or hated this cereal. There’s one thing we can agree on—that slogan is just poor marketing.

8 Batman Cereal

Everything about the Batman cereal was iconic. From the bat-inspired shapes to having an iconic superhero name, Batman cereal was destined for greatness… except for its awful taste.

The first few months after its release saw tremendous sales with the inclusion of a plastic Batman collectible bank. Children everywhere nagged their parents to buy them the Dark Knight’s breakfast cereal, and they did.

However, the cereal’s “greatness” started and ended with its shape. It turns out that the “natural honey nut flavor” described on the box couldn’t convince consumers. They tasted nothing like their overhyped commercial promises, which prompted a backlash that led to its cancellation in 1990.

I guess you just can’t beat the Honey Nut Cheerios invented back in the ’70s.

7 Nickelodeon Green Slime Cereal

Speaking of the ’70s, the Nickelodeon channel started late in this decade as well. Still, it wasn’t until the early ’80s that it hit the ground running. One of the shows aired on the network was You Can’t Do That on Television. Here, participants would participate in trivia, and whenever someone mentioned the word “water,” they would have water poured on their heads.

Here is where it gets interesting, whenever someone said “I don’t know,” they would have slime poured on their head. Despite being a simple gimmick, the challenge was exciting since nobody in the show was immune to it.

Following the show’s popularity, Nickelodeon decided to create and sell slime-related products, including Green Slime cereal. In a partnership with General Mills in 2003, Nickelodeon introduced the first batch of Green Slime cereal to the public to promote the upcoming Kids’ Choice Awards.

There was just one problem: the cereal was nothing close to the show’s success that inspired it. Besides the awful taste, the smell and color alone were just about how you’d imagine slime. Not very appetizing. It wasn’t long before Nickelodeon’s cereal was off the shelves to pave the way for other healthier, sweeter, and less disgusting cereals.

6 Sour Patch Kids

The Sour Patch Kids cereal was so awful that there was no official announcement about its discontinuation. If you’ve been wondering where it went, now you have your answer! While many factors contributed to the rainbow sugar pellets’ cancellation, one thing was constant: they were definitely considered a “novelty” cereal.

Sour Patch Kids cereal had appetizing and alluring commercials that many people loved. But most families wouldn’t dare eat the cereal every day. Ironically, they were named “Sour” Patch Kids cereal yet contained a whopping 40% sugar. And anybody who wants to live more than 40 years would most likely avoid that kind of sugar content.

Yet, somehow, the cereal wasn’t really that sweet at all. You know a product has failed when its commercials are sweeter than the cereal.

5 Nintendo Cereal System

If you are a Super Mario super fan, you might have heard about the Nintendo Cereal System produced by Ralston Cereals in 1988. The cereal had its basis in two of the most popular video games at the time: The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.

However, as with many other franchise-inspired kinds of cereal, the Nintendo Cereal System didn’t last long, thanks (again) to its terrible flavor.

Of course, the first few months saw tremendous sales. But it was only because Super Mario fans wanted a cereal to match their favorite game. It didn’t take long for people to discover that the cereal was essentially a red turtle shell, knocking them off track during the most important meal of the day.

The flavor was so bad that it led to its discontinuation, but that didn’t stop super fans from hunting down this lost piece of history. The cereal has been sold as memorabilia for collectors over the years. One box was sold for over $200, but there’s no way someone paid that much for the flavor.

4 Urkel-Os

The Urkel-Os was a super sweet strawberry and banana-flavored cereal that millennials loved but Gen Z found repulsive. This breakfast meal was inspired by the sitcom Family Matters, a popular show aired throughout the ’90s.

The cereal paid homage to Urkel, the quirky yet lovable nerd who often donned shirts similar in color to the cereal created in his image. Unlike the other nasty cereals we’ve covered, Urkel-Os managed to appear on many breakfast tables before being exposed as a cereal wannabe. The taste just couldn’t keep up with other circular-shaped brands like Froot Loops.

I guess Urkel can still say, “Did I do that?”

3 Banana Frosted Flakes

This pick is likely to spark a debate. But yes, many people found the Banana Frosted Flakes to be terrible. I’m not surprised that Kellogg discontinued the flavor. The idea of having actual bananas built into your breakfast was cool. But the bananas in the Banana Frosted Flakes were crunchy and extra sweet, which, if you’ve ever had a real banana, is a little disconcerting.

The cereal was introduced in 1981, and it wasn’t long before the brand canceled it in 1984. Recently, though, Kellogg introduced the Banana Crème Frosted Flakes, which, in my opinion, are better than the original ones. Who knows? Maybe this version will be around longer.

2 Mr. T

Wrestler and actor Laurence “Mr. T” Tureaud was trendy in the ’80s. He played critical roles in the TV series The A-Team<.em> (1983–1987) and the film Rocky III (1982), making him even more popular. In fact, he was so famous that Mt. T cereal was introduced to feed the ever-hungry Mr. T fraternity.

The cereal assumed the shape of the letter “T” to symbolize the great actor’s prowess. However, the cereal’s taste wasn’t as great as the person who inspired it. Since this cereal was universally considered inedible by many, it was canceled shortly after it was released.

Even the cereal’s memorable appearance in the film Pee Wee’s Big Adventure didn’t save it from discontinuation. From its creation to production and marketing, it was destined for success, but I guess they forgot to do a taste test.

Maybe this time we really can pity the fool… who purchased this awful cereal.

1 Frute Brute

Frute Brute was introduced in 1974 but was canceled in 1982. It was a frosted, cherry-flavored version of Monster Cereal with a werewolf mascot. General Mills is among the industry’s heavy hitters but with this particular cereal, they got their calculations all wrong.

Frute Brute was nothing short of a total disaster, and it’s only by chance that it managed to stay on the shelves for as long as it did. If anything, the cereal was only popular because of its numerous film appearances that became memorable. This cereal had cameos in classic films like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

But its sales were a work of pulp fiction too. Cherry cereal? I don’t know about you, but I prefer not to eat breakfast that tastes like cough syrup.

I’ve got news for you: in physical terms, you’re just a walking sack of meat that keeps threatening to rot unless you constantly clean it and replace it with new meat. It’s not just the wet, lumpy contents of the sack that are gross. The sack itself is its own special brand of flaky, oozing, bacterial meat specifically designed to constantly die so you can replace it with new flaky, oozing, bacterial meat. That sack, the slimy trash-bag of an organ we call skin, is the largest organ in/on your body, and it’ll wrap you up tight until the day you die (and a few years afterward). 

Aside from fire or Buffalo Bill, there’s no escaping it. So it’s best to know everything you can about it. Here are ten facts about your skin to get you started, and like every fact about skin there is—they’re gross.

10 Your Feet are Fungus Heaven

At any given time, your body is covered in fungus. And not just one or two (literal) hotspots; it’s almost every inch of you. It’s also not just one or two different kinds of fungi; it’s dozens. In one study, a group of scientists at the National Human Genome Research Institute took the time to catalog all the different species of fungi on your body at any given time, and the results are not what you want to hear.

Your head and chest are the least rich. They each have only about ten different species apiece. Predictably, your hands and arms have a bit more, with each supporting about 20-30 different types. But you’re feet are a fungal Elysium. Between your toes, you tend to have about 40 different kinds; there are about 60 in your toenails. But wait, there’s whopping 80 on and around your heels. That’s around 200 different species of fungi on your feet alone. You can’t take a step without walking on fungus.

9 It’s Covered in a Layer of Acid

The entirety of your skin is covered in a fine layer of oily film known as the acid mantle. The mantle is formed by a combination of sweat and sebum, an oily secretion of glands in your skin meant to lubricate. (Excess sebum, unfortunately, is the reason you get acne.) The acid mantle maintains a pH of around 4.5-6.0, making the surface of the skin forever acidic.

Luckily, this isn’t a ‘burn whatever you touch scenario’ but instead a ‘make life a bit harder for opportunistic bacteria’ scenario. Bacteria on the skin’s surface have to adapt to the acidic conditions, so any that manage to enter through wounds have an extra hard time adapting to our alkaline blood. As beneficial as the mantle can be, it is the primary reason you’re not allowed to touch the exhibits in museums.

8 It Can Become Scales

Like any organ, skin is a complicated mixture of different types of cells working in harmony to perform an important homeostatic function. That complexity makes it prone to messing up from time to time. One example of this is Ichthyosis Vulgaris, or more commonly “fish scale disease.”

In those with fish scale disease, a defective gene (or less commonly another condition such as cancer or HIV) causes your skin to shed more slowly. This means that the protein keratin builds up in the upper layer of the skin instead of gradually flaking off. The result is thick, dry scales that form tile-like patterns. In both makeup and appearance, this can become almost identical to the scales found in fish, reptiles, etc. Oddly enough, one simple way to help with symptoms is to stay in warm, moist environments like our first scaled ancestors did when they ventured onto land.

7 Books are Made From It

It’s true. There are so far 18 confirmed examples of books bound with human skin. It’s a common enough practice to have earned its own scientific label—Anthropodermic bibliopegy—as well as its own dedicated research team, the Anthropodermic Book Project. The team has confirmed the existence of 18 human skin books and debunked another 13 alleged examples as mere animal skin.

Strangely, there’s no one location, group, profession, or ritual that explains the majority of these dermic books. Their sources are varied and it’s clear that, somehow, many individuals came upon the same ghoulish idea. One famous example is the autobiography of career criminal James Allen, who insisted that upon his death, a copy be bound in his skin and given to one of his victims, whom Allen admired for fighting back against his robbery.

6 Furniture and Clothing, Too

You likely heard in history class about the abhorrent uses that some Nazi doctors found for their victims’ flesh during the Holocaust. In many cases, those stories are true, but the practice of using human skin for uses other than as skin actually has a long, wide-ranging history.

One weird example is the skin of executed criminal Big Nose George, which was removed from his corpse by Dr. John Eugene Osborne. The doctor turned the skin into shoes- shoes that he wore to the inaugural ball when he was elected the third governor of Wyoming.

5 You’re Allergic to It

The dust in our homes that has so many seeking antihistamines and allergist appointments is mostly made up of our skin. Though different studies have produced a range of values for exactly how much of our skin makes up the dust in our home, with reports typically ranging from 40-80%, the average and accepted number is around 50%.

It’s no surprise that so much dust comes from skin when you learn how much it continually sheds. Your skin completely sheds its cells and regrows replacements every four weeks or so. That requires about 30,000 cells be shed every minute. Adding all that up, it’s estimated that our skin has contributed approximately one billion tons of dust to our atmosphere.

4 Just How Much it Sweats

It’s not just dead cells. Skin is constantly at work, producing sebum and a whole lot of sweat. There are a few tens of millions of sweat glands across the average body, and on a hot day, they can release more than three gallons of sweat.

Most of your sweat comes from sweat glands called eccrine glands and it’s almost entirely water. But some of that sweat comes from apocrine glands and it makes you stink. Its smell is mostly neutral upon release—even good, as it can contain attractive pheromones—but microbial activity on the skin quickly degrades its contents into gross, smelly oil.

3 You Can Grow Fingernails Instead of Hair

A woman named Shanya Isom has an illness so rare and mysterious that there is no known treatment or cure. There is not a single documented occurrence of this disease aside from her own. It has no name, but the condition causes Isom’s hair follicles to grow fingernails instead of hair. It’s awful to think about and really sad to see.

The cause of Isom’s disease is unknown, perhaps due to a one-of-a-kind allergic reaction to steroid medication. It results in her hair follicles producing 12 times the normal amount of skin cells in the form of dense keratin-rich growths. Essentially, human nails. This has made her hairless and covered in nails, which grow as sharp black scabs across almost her entire body.

2 It’s Home to an Entire Ecosystem

The surface of your skin is absolutely teeming with microbes, and not just the fungus we mentioned before. Over 1,000 species of bacteria call your skin home, and at any given time, every square centimeter of your body is host to tens of millions of individual bacteria.

In the darker, moister areas of your body—you know the ones—a handful of strains dominate the ecosystem, likely more specialized for those conditions. One of the more popular strains is lactobacillius. You may recognize this name as “good bacteria” found in the gut. That’s right, those probiotics you take are a little taste of what’s growing on and in you. But out in the more open, dryer areas of the skin, the bacterial diversity jumps dramatically. The most exposed parts of your skin are like the Mos Eisley Cantina, serving a whole host of different species of every shape, size, and color.

1 And A Second Ecosystem On Top of That

If we go up a few orders of magnitude in size, there’s an entire second ecosystem on your skin above the microbial one. Don’t worry, it’s still extremely small. Several mite species call your skin and hair home, the most famous of which belong to the genus Demodex—Greek for fat worm.

The tiny arachnids spend most of their time safely hidden in your pores, where they feed on your sebum. They sleep by day and by night emerge to eat and mate. Though they pose no threat to their host, it is a bit disconcerting to realize that tiny arachnids have sex on your face while you sleep.