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We've all done things we're not proud of. But unlike ghosting your last girlfriend, eating weird, disgusting, or inedible things doesn't hurt anything else but your pride — or maybe your gut. If you've ever eaten any of these gross things, don't worry because you're not alone. We're just saying what everyone's been shamefully hiding.
Related: Popular Foods People Think Are Gross
We'll start with an easy one. Maybe you haven't eaten a booger to your knowledge, but there's no way you got through childhood without popping at least one of those chewy morsels into your mouth. It's pretty gross to think about now, but they must look real tasty when you're three. (Consider yourself in another league if you've eaten someone else's boogers.)
The "five second rule" is so well-known because everyone eats stuff off the floor sometimes. How gross it is really depends on the food — and the floor. Drop a couple Skittles on your freshly mopped kitchen floor? Totally fair game. Drop a hot slice of greasy pizza face down on a frat house carpet? Absolutely not ... usually, depending on how broke you are.
Fun fact: I once saw an inebriated coworker eat french fries out of an overflowing garbage can at a concert. (If you don't remember doing it, it never happened.) That was pretty horrendous, but accidentally dropping something tasty in your recently-emptied kitchen trash can, fishing it out, possibly rinsing it off, and eating it isn't nearly as bad. Not to mention that some people dumpster dive at grocery stores or bakeries.
Related: How Long You Have To Safely Eat Unrefrigerated Foods
That little grocery store nearby with the dusty ceiling that always smells a little musty? Or that $15 AYCE buffet place with dirty carpeting? Probably not the best place to eat raw fish, but you know you'll do it anyway when the craving strikes and it's a week before payday.
Related: 35 Foods That Are Dangerous If Not Prepared Properly
Cutting unwanted mold off of hard cheeses or throwing out a moldy strawberry in a new container and eating the rest is totally fine. But throwing away that green slice of bread and moving on to the rest of the loaf is questionable at best. And leftovers that are growing mold? Maybe you've done it, but you definitely shouldn't.
Related: Moldy Baked Goods From Costco Infuriate Shoppers — But Redditors Say This Trick Keeps Them Fresh
This one's a college right of passage. There's a big party, lots of pizzas are ordered, and what didn't get eaten is left out on the counter all night. The next day, you raid those pizza boxes and fill your belly. Somehow, it seems OK with pizza, but gets much scarier with wetter foods.
If you're a fingernail biter, you've probably ingested a few bits here and there. Scab eating, where you pick scabs off your skin and eat them, is way less common — we hope — and could be a sign of a larger problem. Both are technically forms of autocannibalism, which is a word that is equally fascinating and disturbing.
Sometimes you're broke, and you eat the last of that deli ham a week and a half after you bought it out of desperation. Or you forget that you bought $10 worth of chicken breasts so you cook it a couple days after its sell-by date. Those are two foods you should never eat after their expiration dates, but we've all 'been there, done that' anyway.
When you were a kid, there's no way you didn't take a taste of your school glue, lick a marker, or eat that satisfyingly salty Play-Doh. When we got older, daring each other to eat paper became all the rage, too. If they didn't want kindergarteners to eat crayons, they shouldn't have made ones that smell like fruit.
And you know what? We still chew on pens and pencils mindlessly.
We've all found hair in our food before, and we've all picked it out and continued eating at some point. It's much easier to do when it's food cooked by you or your family, but less so when you're at a restaurant and you don't know whose hair it is.
We know people who have eaten the paper on the outside of an ice cream cone more than once. Same with those thin pieces of paper that go in between cheese slices, or pieces of commercially-made cheesecake. It happens to the best of us sometimes, though we don't want to admit it.
People are animals, and that is doubly so at a buffet. For some reason, all social etiquette seems to go out the window when a chocolate fountain is involved. Yes, kids will stick fingers and hands and toys in there. But adults also can't seem to shake the urge to shove inappropriate things under that chocolate waterfall. If you've ever dipped a chicken wing, dinner roll, or crab leg under there, we're talking about you. (You're why so many chocolate fountains are not self-serve anymore.)
"Don't use the bathroom and eat at the same time" seems like an obvious and easy rule to follow. But we've all done it, even if it's just finishing a bite or two and not an entire plate of food.
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If your bartender has ever spilled some of your drink onto the bar, you know you've been tempted to grab a straw and suck some of it up. Depending on how many drinks you've had, you've probably actually done it, too. The more years you get away from college, the less likely you are to fess up to this one.
Admit it: you smell the bag of dog treats when you open it. Some of them don't smell bad, and you may even make some yourself, or get them from a fancy shop that does. Our dogs just love treats so much that they can't be that bad ... right?
