15 Shocking Realities You’ll Wish You Could Unhear

From the tiny parasites living on your face to the true reason your eyes turn red in public pools, to the bizarre world of anglerfish reproduction, these startling revelations are ones you'll regret learning, taken from an episode of The List Show on YouTube. You’ve been warned!

1. Authorities permit certain amounts of unsavory elements in food.

Though the FDA holds considerable power, it can’t eliminate every last bit of cockroach leg from your meal. Instead, it sets limits on how much unpleasant stuff is allowed in certain food products.

For example, every 500 grams of canned tomatoes could legally contain up to 10 fruit fly eggs or two maggots. And manufacturers can mix and match—so they could add five eggs and one maggot without facing any consequences. An average of 225 insect fragments might make their way into each 225 grams of pasta. A 225-gram box of raw pasta could also contain about 4.5 rodent hairs. A 100-pound bag of shelled peanuts can have 20 full insects, while a pound of cocoa beans could carry 10 milligrams of 'mammalian excreta.'

Will these disgusting ingredients in your food actually harm you? Not likely. To be fair, the figures mentioned above represent the legal maximums. If a company repeatedly produces boxes of pasta with 224 insect fragments, the FDA is likely to intervene.

2. It’s not the chlorine in the pool that causes your red eyes.

When your eyes turn red and itchy after a swim in a public pool, you likely blame the chlorine. However, the real culprit is the people who’ve peed in the pool.

The nitrogen found in urine combines with chlorine to form chloramine—a compound that irritates your eyes. It’s also responsible for that familiar chlorine smell. So if your local pool reeks of chemicals, chances are it’s overflowing with pee.

3. Fetuses drink their own urine...

Speaking of urine, you spent the first five or six months of life drinking yours. Around week 13 of development, fetuses develop fully functioning kidneys that filter urine into the amniotic fluid... and then they drink it.

4. … and they’re covered in a “waxy, cheese-like substance.”

Dinner in the womb isn't just about the nutrients. Fetuses also grow a soft layer of fine downy hair called lanugo. This hair helps bind their skin to a white protective layer called the vernix caseosa. To complete the image, Healthline refers to it as a 'waxy, cheese-like substance.' In Latin, this term translates to 'cheesy varnish.'

Although babies are born with some vernix and lanugo still on their skin, they begin shedding both in the weeks leading up to birth. Everything ends up floating in the amniotic fluid, where it becomes yet another form of baby food. And you thought pureed peas were bad.

5. Teratomas can contain muscle, bone, hair, and teeth.

A teratoma, like other tumors, is an abnormal clump of tissue that can be either benign or malignant. But this isn't your typical lump. Teratomas can include bone, muscle, hair, and even teeth.

Teratomas originate from germ cells, or reproductive cells. Though they can form anywhere in the body, they’re most commonly found in reproductive organs like the ovaries and testes. Tailbones are another frequent site for them.

6. Disney parks serve as a popular, albeit temporary, final resting place.

Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion isn’t just a haunt for fictional spirits. It’s also become a popular spot for people to scatter the ashes of their dearly departed. The Haunted Mansion is known to be the prime location for this odd ritual. As one Disneyland employee shared with The Wall Street Journal in 2018, 'The Haunted Mansion probably has so much human ashes in it that it’s not even funny.'

Just to clarify, scattering human ashes at Disney parks is against the rules, and custodians swiftly respond with a vacuum whenever it happens. The task is called 'HEPA cleanup,' named after the special filter used to collect the remains. So, if you ever spot a dark spot near Sleeping Beauty's castle, it’s not because Bert the chimney sweep paid a visit.

7. Six vials of smallpox were discovered in an FDA storage room.

In 1980, the World Health Organization declared that smallpox had been eradicated globally. Natural cases were no longer reported, and any research labs that had smallpox samples were required to destroy them. These specimens were only kept in two locations: the CDC’s lab in Atlanta and a high-security facility in Russia.

So, imagine the shock when, in 2014, six vials of the smallpox virus were found in an FDA lab in Maryland. They weren’t exactly locked up tightly—they were simply sitting in a box in an old storeroom.

The samples were believed to date back to the 1950s, a time when safety measures around dangerous substances were a bit more relaxed. With the assistance of the FBI, the vials were transferred to the CDC’s lab in Atlanta and placed in a level four biosafety lab—the highest security level available. As NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel described at the time, 'That’s the kind of lab where people are wearing moon suits.'

8. Thawing permafrost could unleash a series of new problems.

In 2020, NASA and the European Space Agency launched a project to explore how the thawing of Arctic permafrost might impact global methane levels. However, researchers discovered that as this thick layer of frozen ground melts, it could release more than just methane. According to a 2021 report by the ESA, it may also unleash antibiotic-resistant bacteria, unknown viruses, and even radioactive waste from Cold War-era nuclear reactors and submarines.

9. Most cruise ships have a morgue located below deck.

Next time you're cruising the Caribbean on a luxurious ship, try not to think about the morgue beneath your feet. Most cruise liners are equipped with one, along with body bags, in case a passenger passes away while on board.

As grim as it sounds, it would be far worse if ships had no place to store a deceased passenger. An urban legend suggests that whenever someone dies on board, chefs would serve large portions of ice cream to the guests—not as a consolation, but to clear out a freezer, making room to preserve the body.

While the extra ice cream doesn't indicate a death, the phrase 'Operation Rising Star' does. That’s the term some cruise staff use to alert others when a passenger has died. If you hear 'Operation Bright Star,' it means there’s a serious medical emergency on board.

10. Anesthesia awareness impacts about 0.15% of patients undergoing general anesthesia.

Anesthesia awareness, also known as unintended intraoperative awareness, is exactly what it sounds like—and it’s just as unsettling. Essentially, you’re supposed to be under anesthesia for surgery, but you regain partial consciousness during the operation.

Before you get too alarmed, it’s actually quite rare. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists, it’s estimated to happen in only about one or two out of every 1000 general anesthesia procedures. Even then, it’s often painless, and many patients only have a faint sense of what’s happening.

That said, there have been some truly horrifying accounts. In 2008, Donna Penner, a 44-year-old from Canada, was about 10 minutes into a laparoscopy when she suddenly regained consciousness. As she recounted to the Associated Press, “The next thing I heard was the surgeon asking for the scalpel. I felt him make the first incision into my abdomen.”

Although the general anesthetic had failed, the paralytic drugs were still effective. So, Penner not only endured excruciating pain, but she was unable to signal anyone. She described the ordeal as “pure torture,” explaining, “I couldn’t even move my eyes … I tried to make tears … I wanted to scream. I tried to scream.” In her words, she even had an out-of-body experience to cope with the pain.

12. A real-life Finding Nemo scenario would play out much differently.

Everyone knows Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo takes some creative liberties. Fish don’t speak English, sea turtles don’t act like laid-back surfers, and pelicans don’t usually assist sea creatures in breaking out of dentist offices.

It's probably for the best that the filmmakers added some artistic flair. If the story mirrored real aquatic life, the touching relationship between Nemo and his father would have turned out quite differently.

In the real world, when a dominant female clownfish dies, the dominant male morphs into a female and mates with the largest male remaining in the group. So, after the barracuda takes out Nemo’s mother, as fisheries scientist Patrick Cooney puts it: “His father turns into a female after losing his mate. Since Nemo is the only other clownfish present, he becomes a male and mates with his father, now a female.”

13. Some species of anglerfish have bizarre attachment issues.

In certain deep-sea anglerfish species, the smaller male bites into the side of a female and permanently attaches himself. His body becomes part of hers, and since he no longer needs to see or swim, his eyes and fins begin to vanish. Over time, he resembles less of a fish and more of a fleshy lump. But he isn’t dead—his mate provides him with nutrients via their shared blood vessels, while he supplies her with sperm in return.

14. Your face is home to parasites.

Before you judge the male anglerfish for his parasitic lifestyle, you should know that you, too, have parasites. One variety makes its home on your face—more specifically, in the hair follicles that cover it.

These tiny, eight-legged creatures are called Demodex mites, and they feast on the oils and skin cells that accumulate in your follicles. Though their life span is only a few weeks, don't be too concerned—they make full use of their short existence, crawling across your skin while you sleep.

It gets even worse. Demodex mites don't have anuses or any way to expel waste. Instead, they store it inside their bodies until they die and begin to decompose, at which point the waste spills out. If it helps, that waste originated from your skin.

15. Everything you smell involves molecules entering your nose.

On a less unpleasant note, when you catch a whiff of something, it’s because odor molecules from that thing are actually entering your nose. Freshly baked cookies? Absolutely. Vomit? Feces? Rotten meat? Yup, those too. Still gross, but a little less revolting.