You won't eat it because... what?

I was once driving to Devon. It's quite a long way. Stopping for fuel at a small service station at around lunch time, I went in to the shop at to get something to eat. As I walked up to the shelves of sandwiches there was a young bloke wearing one of those sleeveless t-shirts with big arm holes that show off a gym-toned physique. He was also looking for food with his girlfriend. He was puzzled by one thing he saw, and asked her "What's ferr-laff-awl?"

She told him how to pronounce falafel.

"Oh. No thanks!" he replied.

They had portions of carrot sticks with hummus to dip them in. She had a little grin like she was enjoying him not knowing about this stuff and said "Why don't you have some hummus?"

"I'm not eating that. Hummus gives you tits!"

I tried not to laugh. He turned to me and said "That's true, innit? Hummus gives you tits."

"I don't know", I said. "I've never heard that before."

At this point he went off to find his friend, convinced that he would get confirmation, and I didn't see any more of him.

Fact checking

OK, his suggestion was daft, but it's not quite 100% nonsense. Hummus is made from chick peas and sesame, which contain phytoestrogens, which can bind to estrogen receptors, but...

Wikipedia suggests probably no effects on humans

I liked the suggestion in that article that in the UK we have high phytoestrogen consumption because of the bread.

"Hey, don't eat that sandwich. Look at this Wikipedia article. Have some hummus instead."

#hummus

back to stories