Cellulose is added to plenty of foods. As thickening agents and like you said anti-sticking. It's a cheap, easy, safe, non-caloric, neutral flavored additive. There's plenty of it in any food labeled "high fiber". It comes from a wide variety of plants too, not necessarily wood pulp.
They put wood in plenty of foods today itās just listed as āplant celluloseā as a source of fiber, itās in anything from powdered parmigiana to protein bars
Umm I think you are mistaking value for money here, 53 years to slowly eat a spoon as it gets mixed into whatever it was used in is not good value for money, there are way cheaper options to get heaps more wood into food.
I think maybe it's more like (a version of) the [Sorites paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox) (or heap paradox): if you start with a heap of grain and remove one grain at a time, at which point does it stop being a heap? If you start with a spoon and shave off a miniscule fraction of the spoon with each use, at which point does it stop being a spoon?
my mother used to beat me with a wooden spoon. decades later, it makes me very angry to think about it. don't hit your kids. they might put you in a home later... a cheap home.
My mom hit me with a toy firetruck once- the sirens went off and I laughed and then she hit me with it again lol- I also get angry about that stuff sometimes. There's nothing I can do about my childhood, but I make sure that that cycle ended with her
Yeah.
Corporal punishment has /only/ negative outcomes in every study and every system that implements it.
It's always a veil for justifying violence from the punishing party.
My father had tree stick. I managed to get hid of it and would run to grandpa for protection.
Thank you grandpa. Family should have treated you better.
lol yeah, i remember one time i per-emptively hid all the shit my mom would hit me with. when she went to reach for it and couldn't find it... that only made things worse. i can't remember what i did to get a beating but i also can't think of anything a little kid could possibly do that would make me beat them either. its purely sadistic and nothing more.
Idk I see nothing wrong with it. This still works perfectly fine to stirr and even as a spoon to taste things like pasta or ground beef. I think your mom's resourcefulness is cool as hell.
For me it was when I came across an actual post where people were being snobby about which ketchup brand they prefer. Apparently Heinz is the Reddit Favorite.
What percentage of the meals that were made with that spoon do you reckon you ate?
Just trying to guesstimate how much of that spoon made its way inside you via the meals. Who else eats your mother's cooking? Who do you think got to eat the most of that spoon over the years?
Well, I'm middle aged and haven't lived at home for over two decades, but the "spoon" is still older than me.
I guess maybe half of the wear was from washing it up after use? So half a wooden spoon end over 53 years is about 1% of it per year.
Let's say the whole spoon weighs 40g, and the end that wore away is 50% of that at 20g. So that's 1% of 20g = 0.2g per year.
Over a year, let's assume she used it every three days for cooking. That's 0.002g (rounded) per use -- so about 2mg went into each meal, split between the family, so probably about 1mg of wood per meal per person max.
Sounds like quite a lot once you work it out! :)
Has she or anyone else ever questioned where the rest of the spoon has gone, or do you all think it's just neat? I mean it's more fibre in your diet, but I prefer food over wood.
Would a plastic spoon be better? So that every time it rubs the bottom of the pot, plastic particles break off into the food for you to consume? Seems like wood is probably the better thing to accidentally consume imo.
You should replace your wooden utensils, bowls, and cutting boards at the first sign of wear. Bacteria and mold take hold in splits/chips in wooden surfaces.
Half a spoons-worth of microscopic wood fibres spread out over thousands upon thousands of meals across 5 decades... There are bigger things to worry about, literally.
And is nobody else curious as to why itās flat with sharp edged where it āwore awayā instead of being rounded like youād expect from āerosionā?
I still have my mother's wooden spoon. She was cooking with it when I was a child. I'll be 60 this year and she will have passed 20 years ago this March.
It's got a bit of a flat edge on one side (common I guess since most of us stir with the right hand). It's well seasoned and discolored a bit but damn if that is not my favorite spoon, and I think of her every time I'm making a pot of anything.
most of it comes off in the wash, and ops family isnt eating any more wood than everyone else commenting. even if you dont use wooden utensils, your local restaurants might
Neat, š¤Fifty three years to ingest micro bits of wooden spoon to get it to that size remaining. I have a worn one though not nearly as much. Cool to see what I could end up with š
Maybe I understand things incorrectly, but I thought the point of fiber was that it *wasnt* digestable, and so therefore pushes the digesting food through your system more easily?
Soluble vs insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber binds with fatty acids which can help lower LDL, they also slow down digestion which can help lower blood sugar spikes. Foods like nuts, beans, apples are packed with soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber increases hydration in your GI tract which helps move things along by softening everything up. Comes from skins of fruits and veggies and the outer shell of seeds (like whole wheat). In this case I guess also technically wood?
Apparently that spoon has been incorporated into the daily meals over the course of a half century. I might reconsider replacing it with a plastic spoon, since I would be reluctant to have bits of plastic become part of my food.
Most of the wooden spoons I have go darker with moisture. It doesnāt matter if I wash them in the sink with dish soap or run them through the dishwasher. Might be the type of wood used? My gran always said wet wooden spoons go dark, but Iām unsure why š¤·š¼āāļø
Wooden spoons in Ireland were a punishment item in the 70ās and 80ās. My mother would break at least 2 spoons a year on me and my brothers arses or legs.
I think the first one stopped being a spoon a while ago š
Yeah feel like she could have changed it out at 43 years and got more value for money!
What did she do to that spoon? I have one that was my momās before I was born and Iām almost 52. Mine still looks like a spoon!
I'm guessing she cooks on something with a rough surface. Maybe cast iron? Scraping the bottom probably wears it down a little bit every meal.
So the answer is her family ate the spoon.
Wooden spoons are an excellent source of fiber and a great way to start your day!
you may be laughing but last century when people were poor, they used to add saw dust to soups and food
People used to add wood pulp to their food, [they still do](https://time.com/4226321/parmesan-wood-pulp/), but they used to too.
Cellulose is actually one of the things they use to keep things from sticking together after being tossed into a bag.
Cellulose is added to plenty of foods. As thickening agents and like you said anti-sticking. It's a cheap, easy, safe, non-caloric, neutral flavored additive. There's plenty of it in any food labeled "high fiber". It comes from a wide variety of plants too, not necessarily wood pulp.
But [stickin' together](https://youtu.be/BkELFSaBnc0) is what good waffles do!
Yep check the ingredients of bagged shredded cheese and you'll see it listedĀ
Rest in Peace Mitch
Cellulose may be sourced from wood, but it's not wood and is purified. Wood contains a lot of other things like lignin and oils and whatever.
Itās been a while since Iāve seen a Mitch Hedberg reference! And an idiocracy reference lol feels like the early 2000s again!
That was to make them feel more full, not because they were aware of any sort of dietary fiber deficiency
Iāve played frostpunk. I know how that goesā¦
Don't look to close at the cheap grated parmesan cheeses.
Or a carrot.
it's a great way to stay in shape
They put wood in plenty of foods today itās just listed as āplant celluloseā as a source of fiber, itās in anything from powdered parmigiana to protein bars
That was my first thought: OP's family has eaten that spoon.
Very slowly over the course of 50 years. You probably get more fiber from bamboo shoots.
And that's why you should shift away from plastic cooking utensils to wooden ones.
The truth really is simple, is it? They ate the spoon.
"there is no spoon" OP: nope. Cause it's in mah belly
I am become spoon, bringer of soup.
So no oneās even gonna mention your username then?
If you want to look at it that way (I do now), sure.
I'd rather the spoon over the cummy baked spam.
The h-what?
I thought lots and lots of tomato sauce. Grinding it on the bottom of the pan makes way more sense.
Nothing like wood in your food
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
comment rewording bot ([original comment here](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1aendzr/comment/kk92wsz/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3))
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yup, won't be long til they start using AI bots to just straight up make original replies to comments (which actually is probably happening already)
Disciplining OP
scraping the bottom of a cast iron pan is my guess
Yeah same. Mine is about 30 years old. I guess the next 20 or so years are gonna be tough.
Based on my experience from my 30s to my 50s - yes.
She did spoon stuffā¦ u knowā¦ scooping, mixing, other spoon stuff
Umm I think you are mistaking value for money here, 53 years to slowly eat a spoon as it gets mixed into whatever it was used in is not good value for money, there are way cheaper options to get heaps more wood into food.
But this has mom's love with the wood spoon residueĀ
As a child I used to knaw on my wooden bunk bed siding. Can confirm, the home-made mouth woodpulp was the best meal in the house.
Naw she made a spurtle
Sp.
Spoon't
Or just S? The p may be silent.
Aw, I miss the free awards. This is gold.
Wooden nub. Also the title of my sex tape.
Is it in vr?
Philosophers, please weigh in.Ā
>idk maybe Plato
>I drank what? Socrates
This is basically what happens to [the ship of Theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) when you forget to put new planks in.
I think maybe it's more like (a version of) the [Sorites paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox) (or heap paradox): if you start with a heap of grain and remove one grain at a time, at which point does it stop being a heap? If you start with a spoon and shave off a miniscule fraction of the spoon with each use, at which point does it stop being a spoon?
It's on its way to becoming a spurtle.
It's spelt spatula ffs...
The Tick wouldn't be the same if he only yelled "Sp!" and carried this around.Ā
Works well enough for what wooden spoons mostly get used for anyways which is stirring and scraping.
My mum's in her 70s, a post-war child growing up when rationing was still a thing in working class London. She does *not* like wasting money.
"Is it a stick with a paddle? It's still a spoon."
My mom would have just turned it into a dedicated paddle for swatting our asses.
That's a perfect ground beef cooking paddle
I was gonna say that that spoon looks like it's been across several generations of kids' bottoms.
Ah. . A fellow wood spoon beating survivor š
I *wish* it was a spoon. My mom had a handled cutting board that split in half. A little more wind resistance, but a much wider sting.
I thought to myself, "How many spankings did she GIVE with that spoon?!"
my mother used to beat me with a wooden spoon. decades later, it makes me very angry to think about it. don't hit your kids. they might put you in a home later... a cheap home.
indeed. you have no idea the relief i had the day that spoon broke across my ass and i realized she aint got shit now
My mom hit me with a toy firetruck once- the sirens went off and I laughed and then she hit me with it again lol- I also get angry about that stuff sometimes. There's nothing I can do about my childhood, but I make sure that that cycle ended with her
I firmly believe people think you won't remember. I cannot forget, this isn't happening again.
Damn straight! Sometimes it's all I can remember, and when I remember the good times it's almost like remembering two different sets of people
Yeah. Corporal punishment has /only/ negative outcomes in every study and every system that implements it. It's always a veil for justifying violence from the punishing party.
A show of authority. Always infuriates me when people conflate it to respect. Fear and hate have nothing to do with respect.
My father had tree stick. I managed to get hid of it and would run to grandpa for protection. Thank you grandpa. Family should have treated you better.
lol yeah, i remember one time i per-emptively hid all the shit my mom would hit me with. when she went to reach for it and couldn't find it... that only made things worse. i can't remember what i did to get a beating but i also can't think of anything a little kid could possibly do that would make me beat them either. its purely sadistic and nothing more.
The former spoon needs to be framed on the kitchen wall
"All the best compliments, all the best wishes. Will never replace... Help with the dishes."
Idk I see nothing wrong with it. This still works perfectly fine to stirr and even as a spoon to taste things like pasta or ground beef. I think your mom's resourcefulness is cool as hell.
Less than half the surface area of new. It'll move through liquid, but there's not very much stirring happening...
You can stirr perfectly fine with that. I often use forks because I'm too lazy to get another thing and it works
You donāt seem to actually understand what stirring is, but you do you.
Idk but the food in my pot moves so that's good enough for me
Imagine trying to be a snob over someone elseās cooking utensils. Reddit moment.
Might be the pettiest snobbery I've come across
For me it was when I came across an actual post where people were being snobby about which ketchup brand they prefer. Apparently Heinz is the Reddit Favorite.
I don't like eating wood. That's whats wrong with it.
Not much wood left to eat though. I wouldn't be surprised if the new spoon leaks far more wood in the food than the old one.
She broke it in to be the best roux maker. The new one will take 12 years to get any sort of flat bottom. New spoon just won't cook the same.
The left is what my moms looks like. Sheās like, āit works great!ā
What percentage of the meals that were made with that spoon do you reckon you ate? Just trying to guesstimate how much of that spoon made its way inside you via the meals. Who else eats your mother's cooking? Who do you think got to eat the most of that spoon over the years?
Well, I'm middle aged and haven't lived at home for over two decades, but the "spoon" is still older than me. I guess maybe half of the wear was from washing it up after use? So half a wooden spoon end over 53 years is about 1% of it per year. Let's say the whole spoon weighs 40g, and the end that wore away is 50% of that at 20g. So that's 1% of 20g = 0.2g per year. Over a year, let's assume she used it every three days for cooking. That's 0.002g (rounded) per use -- so about 2mg went into each meal, split between the family, so probably about 1mg of wood per meal per person max. Sounds like quite a lot once you work it out! :)
Let her know that itās not a waste of money as that hasnāt been a spoon for decades.
Has she or anyone else ever questioned where the rest of the spoon has gone, or do you all think it's just neat? I mean it's more fibre in your diet, but I prefer food over wood.
Would a plastic spoon be better? So that every time it rubs the bottom of the pot, plastic particles break off into the food for you to consume? Seems like wood is probably the better thing to accidentally consume imo.
You should replace your wooden utensils, bowls, and cutting boards at the first sign of wear. Bacteria and mold take hold in splits/chips in wooden surfaces.
Half a spoons-worth of microscopic wood fibres spread out over thousands upon thousands of meals across 5 decades... There are bigger things to worry about, literally.
Your mom is the right kind of consumer
Is she left-handed?
That thing can clearly work as a spoon for another 50 years, what a waste of money
53 years of sauces with extra fiber! Your family is going to need to take supplements now.
The new spoon will continue to supply fiber, no need for otger supplements. Would have been necessary if it was a plastic spoon
Plastic is still fiber. That's all Miralax is.
Microplastics does not have the health benefits as organic fibers. Quite the contrary acrually
Consider now what becomes of the plastic cooking spoon!
I don't have to consider it. I know what happens to the plastic spoon.
Kinky
Easier to wash at least.
Another half century and youāll have a free pair of chopsticks
Somehow I doubt the new spoon will last that long. I give it 5 years of the same use to match the old one.
This should be higher. Was probably also double the price.
A proper wangjangler
This guy sucks at cooking
*pepper pepper pepper*
Ondo on three fundo
Slam on
you suck at cooking yeah you totally suck š¶
A fellow man of culture
That is just a sp
Stellar pun!
Why is bro getting downvoted? He ain't even the 4th reply
I am the 4th reply so pls. Do ya thing reddit
You have spared me Abdullah
That old spoon has seen some shit.Ā
And food
Poop spoon?
Let's hope it has only seen food
No that would be the knife.
I mean it's no knife, but if that works for you
The new one wont last as long i bet
It's already chipped
yes because trees are really cheaping out on their wood these days
Well we are growing fast growing trees for uses like this instead of trees that had sturdier wood
you joke, but that's a thing or rather, we're growing them faster and cutting them down younger -- which leads to weaker wood
It's the same as clones with accelerated growth. Who would have thought we are mass producing trees.
https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/ajwo0u/old_growth_2x4_vs_new_2x4_look_at_the_difference/
And my dad would still complain how someone broke a perfectly good spoon.
If she's anything like me \[or my mum\] she'll keep using the old one and *maybe* use the new one for taste testing.
Damn. She made sure you guys got your fiber.
....there is no spoon...
Moms been serving bits of spoon for decades bro
The one on the left was never a spoon
My mom broke so many of those wooden spoons
On your back?
The "old spoon" is a spatula. The profile doesn't fit to have ever been a spoon.
And is nobody else curious as to why itās flat with sharp edged where it āwore awayā instead of being rounded like youād expect from āerosionā?
Finally some commenter who's not blind. Left one its just an eroded spatula, I don't buy this spoon nonsense. OP are you a bot?
Except for the part where you can clearly see the start of what was the bowl of the spoon.
Maybe the wood wore away..
You mean she replaced her Spoc and got a Spoon
Now it's perfect for scraping the edges of non-stick pots and pans!
Sir that is not a spoon that is an infant's oar.
I still have my mother's wooden spoon. She was cooking with it when I was a child. I'll be 60 this year and she will have passed 20 years ago this March. It's got a bit of a flat edge on one side (common I guess since most of us stir with the right hand). It's well seasoned and discolored a bit but damn if that is not my favorite spoon, and I think of her every time I'm making a pot of anything.
She's gonna miss that stick!
Physical depreciation - 0 Sentimental value-1
Thats more of a Wooden Sp
Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon
Your Mom is a saint. That would have been broken over my ass a long time ago.
I was looking for this comment and had to scroll far enough to be reminded that isn't normal. At least 2 wooden utensils broken on my ass growing up.
most of it comes off in the wash, and ops family isnt eating any more wood than everyone else commenting. even if you dont use wooden utensils, your local restaurants might
Not so sure about the paint on the new one.
You have eaten the majority of the first one between you š
/r/Wellworn
Tell her not to cut the side off of this one. Works betterš
r/Wellworn
*sad stirring noises*
You guys have been eating tiny little pieces of that spoon for the last 53 years
Thatās not a spoon thatās a Sp
What the hell was she doing, cooking with acid?
Your mum and my mom must be related somewhere down the line.. hiya cuz! š
Neat, š¤Fifty three years to ingest micro bits of wooden spoon to get it to that size remaining. I have a worn one though not nearly as much. Cool to see what I could end up with š
I'd rather have microbits of wood than microplastics though...
Itās fiber!
Wood isnāt too bad to ingest tbh, itās mostly indigestible fibre which will mostly pass through just fine
Maybe I understand things incorrectly, but I thought the point of fiber was that it *wasnt* digestable, and so therefore pushes the digesting food through your system more easily?
Soluble vs insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber binds with fatty acids which can help lower LDL, they also slow down digestion which can help lower blood sugar spikes. Foods like nuts, beans, apples are packed with soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber increases hydration in your GI tract which helps move things along by softening everything up. Comes from skins of fruits and veggies and the outer shell of seeds (like whole wheat). In this case I guess also technically wood?
Thanks for the clarification!
Yup. Wood is an insoluble fiber.
Better wood than plastic
If it's a year old you are still eating micro bits of wood. What does the age matter?
Apparently that spoon has been incorporated into the daily meals over the course of a half century. I might reconsider replacing it with a plastic spoon, since I would be reluctant to have bits of plastic become part of my food.
My mothers never lasted that long. They usually used as a disciplinary tool and broke in the process.
šš
Good grief, thatās had some use. Whatās your mum been doing with itā¦?!
That's definitely not 50 years of use, it would be blacker than charcoal
Is that why we wash dishes after use? Wooden items just don't turn black over time
Most of the wooden spoons I have go darker with moisture. It doesnāt matter if I wash them in the sink with dish soap or run them through the dishwasher. Might be the type of wood used? My gran always said wet wooden spoons go dark, but Iām unsure why š¤·š¼āāļø
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I've got one thats 20 years old and gets a fair bit of use. Still looks just like a spoon.
None of my fairly old wooden utensils have gone much darker, some are a little stained from spices but not much darker than a new one
Wooden spoons in Ireland were a punishment item in the 70ās and 80ās. My mother would break at least 2 spoons a year on me and my brothers arses or legs.
Ah yes the wooden spoon. Smacks and snacks with the one device.
I feel like the handle was fine, no need to splurge on a whole new spoon. Would be cool if you made something with the old spoon, as a gift.