How much water is there in food?

On Wednesday in Food and Nutrition we studied the importance of water and hydration in the body.  As part of the lesson, we conducted a water experiment. 

We tested the amount of water that we could squeeze out per 100g of of different fruit and vegetables. We each had a selection of tools to work with and a graduated measuring container to collect our juice in. 

This was made a fair test as we each had 100g to work with but made unfair as we each used different tools and methods for extracting the juice. The fruit with the most outcome, as expected, was watermelon, closely followed by orange and then grapes. Surprisingly the mushroom, when cooked, produced 40ml! I personally had the lettuce, in which I found that although it’s very watery when eaten, it’s very hard to get juice out of, compared to fruits like orange and watermelon. Nonetheless, lettuce produced 35ml in the end after constantly squeezing as much juice out of it as possible. 

This experiment was fun and engaging and allowed us to see, visually, the amount of water produced in different fruits and vegetables. Some results were as expected but some were quite surprising (the mushroom). 

Holly, Lower V