I know. I am getting old. I celebrated my 37th nameday yesterday with my wife and 3 kids. Nothing fancy really but spending it with your family really makes it special. Right?
My wife cooked my favorite "pansit canton" and to their delight, got me an obligatory birthday cake pictured below.
Of course, what is a birthday celebration without a cake? Blowing out birthday candles on our cake to celebrate birthdays is a tradition of many cultures worldwide but apparently, it's gross.
While we frown at people not covering their mouth or noses when they cough or sneeze, it is okay with us for someone to blow over something that we would delightfully eat as long as it is his or her birthday.
My kids even sang and cheer me to blow the cake which I obliged.
But a study revealed that blowing out birthday candles increases the amount of bacteria on the cake by 1,400 percent.
They found that, on average, blowing out the candles on the "cake" resulted in 15 times more bacteria on the frosting, compared with frosting that was not blown on
Uhmmm, icing!
We may not know it before or we just don't want to admit it but really, would you want someone to blow over your meal? That is gross!
But don't worry, the researchers say you usually don't need to be concerned about eating birthday cake after someone blows out the candles. That's because, most of the time, these bacteria are not harmful.
But still...
Am I the only one who will never look at birthday cakes the same way again?
