Have you ever been lured into visiting a fast-food restaurant thanks to an advertisement that showcases a mouthwatering meal you might not otherwise buy, only to be disappointed when the item you bought looks nothing like the item you were marketed? You’re not alone. This fascinating photo project started in late 2010 by Dario D. shows how the real-life items stack up to their advertised images. Terrifying,

Read more: How Fast Food Ads Stack Up to Real Thing

Ms Food Face Plate, Food Face Plate, After Dinner Nipples – Rude Food

Now for some funny food facts:

In the 1800′s, people believed that gin could cure stomach problems.

McDonalds calls frequent buyers of their food heavy users.

Rats destroy an estimated 1/3 of the world’s food supply each year.

The holidays are just about here, and between errands and travels, you may have to hit up a fast-food joint or coffeehouse in search of breakfast. The bad news: There’s plenty of junky temptation out there. The good news: Lots of franchises have jumped on the health bandwagon and now offer better alternatives. Here’s what to avoid, as well as better-for-you choices:

Read more: 5 Worst Fast-Food Breakfasts (and What You Should Order Instead)

The words written on food packaging are a contract between you and the manufacturer, as mandated by the federal government via the FDA. Many food producers hire lawyers that help them craft words to get you to buy their products while toeing the line of legality. Here are a few common package proclamations that you should look out for, and what they really mean.

Read more: 8 Biggest Red Flag Words on Packaged Foods

Prices are on the rise in grocery stores across the country. You may not notice the changes right away; that loaf of bread may be only a dime more expensive than it was last year. The soda you buy may be the same price but it’s now 1.5 liters instead of two. Many of the major cereal manufacturers, such as General Mills, have warned of impending price increases.

Why Are Grocery Prices Going Up?

While almost every grocery store aisle is affected by rising prices, a large part of the reason all comes down to two commodities: wheat and corn. Both food staples have been hit hard for the past two years – a combination of climate change, natural disasters and crop disease. Russia has experienced severe drought for the past two years and had stopped exporting wheat altogether to ensure enough of a domestic supply. They have resumed limited exports as of July 2011 but supplies are still short. A disease called wheat rust UG99 has wiped out crops across Africa and is spreading to other wheat-producing countries at a rapid pace.

Read more: 4 Rising Food Costs That Will Hurt Your Wallet

How long could you go without junk food? Last year, the Leake family attempted to abstain for 100 days. A year later, it’s still going strong. “Halfway through the first challenge I took the basket of Halloween candy I was hiding in the guest room for when we’d completed the challenge, and just threw it out,” says Lisa Leake, a stay-at-home mom of two daughters, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Inspired by an Oprah interview with food activist Michael Pollan, Lisa and her husband, Jason, embarked on the challenge as a way to rethink their unhealthy eating habits. Lisa was raised on Doritos and powdered macaroni and cheese. She tried to prepare healthy meals for her daughters, Sienna, then 3 and Sydney, then 5, but like most busy moms, she relied heavily on processed frozen meals and boxed groceries that had mile-long ingredients lists and the potential to cause long-term health problems, like heart disease and diabetes. Even the foods she thought were healthy weren’t as natural as she had once believed. “I was so surprised by how much food is processed,” says Lisa, “like for example, bread that lists wheat as an ingredient isn’t good for you unless it’s made from whole wheat. You really have to study the ingredients.”

Read more: How one family broke its junk food addiction

There’s a scene in the 1973 movie Soylent Green where food shortages cause people to riot in the street, and the throng becomes so unruly that front-loading construction machines roll in and begin shoveling people up into big metal buckets. These people are hungry—no, ravenous—for a food called soylent green. But here’s the twist: They know that they love soylent green, but they have no clue what it’s made from.

Sound familiar? It should. That’s basically how we eat today. Pick up a random package in the supermarket and look at the ingredient list. Chances are you won’t know half the ingredients. Take a look at the downright frightening facts Eat This, Not That! has uncovered. You may never look at food the same way.

Read more: 9 Scariest Food Facts

NAIROBI, Kenya — Beyond freelance gunmen, Islamist militants, cholera, malaria, measles and the staggering needs of hundreds of thousands of starving children, aid agencies scrambling to address Somalia’s famine now may have another problem to reckon with: the wholesale theft of food aid.

As it scales up its operations in Somalia, the United Nations World Food Program is investigating allegations that thousands of sacks of grain and other supplies intended for famine victims have been stolen by unscrupulous businessmen and then sold on the open market for a profit.

Read more: Allegations of Food Aid Theft Resurface in Somalia

Thinking about your health before picking a food may make you more likely to make a healthy choice even if you don’t think it’s tasty, a new study shows.

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology conducted a brain-imaging experiment with 33 adult participants who had fasted for at least three hours. While lying in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, each participant was shown images of 180 different food items, varying from chips and candy bars to apples and broccoli.

The participants, none of whom were following a specific diet or trying to lose weight, were given three seconds to respond to each image with a decision about whether or not they’d want to eat the food after the experiment was over.

Read more: Study Reveals Easier Way to Say No to Junk Food

Fast food has been consistently popular all over the world for decades, for reasons that are pretty compelling–it’s tasty, it’s filling, and most of all it’s cheap. Much has been made in recent years about the health impact of these foods, but it’s done little to keep customers away. After all, a typical fast- food restaurant allows a family of four to eat for $20, and in this economy that’s a likely source of repeat business, regardless of the health implications.

Still, would people be willing to pay more for fast food if it were made with better ingredients? Would they be willing to pay more for a hamburger made of high-quality beef? What if it was made from fresh Kobe beef from the Hyogo Prefecture in Japan and smothered in foie gras and black truffles, while perched atop a brioche truffle bun dotted with edible, 24-karat gold leaves? Would the average fast-food consumer be willing to part with a few extra bucks for such an experience?

Read more: 5 outrageously expensive fast foods