this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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[–] [email protected] 213 points 4 months ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 83 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Cinnamon and sumac are two common spices that are made from grinding up tree bark.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also ginger.

And technically wormwood too, although that's more you drinking water that is soaked into wood.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (12 children)

Ginger is a root, maybe you’re thinking of something else?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You using a different kind of sumac than the rest of us? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac#In_food

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

I stand corrected on that one. I assumed it was sumac bark, and you know what they say about assumption. It makes an ass out of u and mption.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's what whiskey is for

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

And smoking anything, it's definitely part of food as a taste just not the wood it self as an ingredient.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago (4 children)

It what? Who thinks wood smells edible?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

We burn different kinds of wood under our food to make it taste like that wood. Mesquite, apple, hickory, all come to mind. Wood smells really good.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Maple syrup is tree blood. Kind like tree vampirism.

I don’t think wood smells like food. But I wonder… apparently termites have a bunch of gut bacteria to digest wood. Maybe if you eat raw termites and bark beetles, you can then eat some sawdust. If you continue the process eventually you may be able to eat wood or paper with your own gut biome. Maybe start with a termite, sawdust, and banana smoothie and move up from there. Best of luck.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (6 children)

"Tree vampirism"? Naw dude, we boil the tree blood down first. It's concentrated tree vampirism.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

5/7 with rice. Thank you for the suggestion.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you've eaten shredded cheese from the store, then you've eaten wood.

[–] Aurenkin 10 points 4 months ago

Eating shredded cheese and wood is certainly a lifestyle

[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (3 children)

U can eat it. Its just not particularly nutritious or paletable.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago

For the majority of human history, we've eaten around wood (around a campfire, a hearth, etc), it makes sense it would become intertwined with our food palette

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago

Skill issue.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (2 children)

We can, and do, eat wood. It's listed as "cellulose" in the ingredients, and it's in everything. Your ice cream, your bread, probably up in yo closet doin your Mamma right now

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Wood is notoriously hard to digest. After wood evolved, it took millions of years before funghi and bacteria evolved the ability to decompose it. And that's why we have oil now.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

Coal, not oil, but it's still an interesting fact.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

OP confirmed for beaver with dental issues.

It might interest you to know that we do eat wood when we eat that sprinkled parmesan or romano cheese in the plastic containers: It contains wood to prevent the cheese from clumping (and it counts as fiber)

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

You can. I know a guy who eats a birch log every year. He literally sits on the couch pulling splinters from the log and chews on them while watching tv. He also grinds his egg shells and mixes with oatmeal.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

Are you sure your friend isn't just three beavers in a long coat?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This sounds like a terrible idea in the long-term.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm... not so sure about this. Also we can eat paper and that's just mashed up wood, right?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We can consume it, but we can’t digest it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

Also, we should consume it (or other types of dietary fibre)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614039/

Dietary fibre is that part of plant material in the diet which is resistant to enzymatic digestion which includes cellulose, noncellulosic polysaccharides such as hemicellulose, pectic substances, gums, mucilages and a non-carbohydrate component lignin. The diets rich in fibre such as cereals, nuts, fruits and vegetables have a positive effect on health since their consumption has been related to decreased incidence of several diseases. Dietary fibre can be used in various functional foods like bakery, drinks, beverages and meat products. Influence of different processing treatments (like extrusion-cooking, canning, grinding, boiling, frying) alters the physico- chemical properties of dietary fibre and improves their functionality. Dietary fibre can be determined by different methods, mainly by: enzymic gravimetric and enzymic—chemical methods. This paper presents the recent developments in the extraction, applications and functions of dietary fibre in different food products.

Not that we should go around gnawing on wood like beavers, but maybe that's why some indigestible foods seem like we should be able to eat it

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

I’m guessing it sort of came from the fact that we cook food with burning wood. Less so now, but burning wood meant cooked food for 200k years.

I don’t think wood smells like it is edible, but a fire can remind me of food through smell.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

There are plenty alcohols, like whiskey and wine, that are supposed to have "oaky" flavors due to the barrels they're kept in.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

No it doesn’t

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

is your pizza made of.... wood?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

uhhhhh what

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Hey nobody's stopping you from gnawing on some cedar shavings my dude.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Have you ever made love to a greased up knot in a tree trunk?

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