It’s time for another whimsical Tuesday Turnip search wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting factoids “turn-up.”

Today I typed in “foot facts” unearthing the following from a couple different sites:

• The feet contain approximately 250,000 sweat glands that excrete as much as half a pint of moisture every day.
• The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once claimed “When our feet hurt, we hurt all over”.
• At 7ft 6 ins, Matthew McGrory was not only the world’s tallest actor, he also had the world’s largest feet, size 29½ . His most famous was in Tim Burton’s Big Fish in which he played Karl, the sympathetic giant.
• In China during the early 10th century, foot binding was seen as a sign of beauty and was practiced by all social classes. Foot binding was a tradition in which the toes were tightly wrapped in cloth breaking the bones and curling the foot under. After a number of years performing this ritual from about the age of 5 onwards, the front and back of the foot would be forced together to give the impression of small dainty feet. Prospective mothers in law would inspect a girl’s feet to see whether she was suitable for marriage to her son.
• The record for the most feet sniffed belongs to a Madeline Albrecht, Cincinatti, Ohio, USA. So far, throughout her career working for a research company testing footcare products for Scholl, Madeline has sniffed approximately 5,600 feet.
• The Achilles tendon located in the heel of the foot was named after one of the most famous mythical characters from Ovid’s ‘Illiad’. In an attempt to immortalize her son, Thetis (Achilles’ Mother) dipped Achilles into the River Styx, holding him by his ankle. Therefore his ankle became the only part of his body capable of sustaining a mortal wound. This is why he strongest tendon in the foot acquired the name of Achilles tendon.
• The average person walks about 10,000 steps a day. During a lifetime it is thought that a person has walked enough steps top have traveled around the planet more than 4 times, which is approximately 115,000 miles!
• 25% of bones in the human body are located in the feet, which are made up from 52 bones.
• Women suffer from four times as many problems than men. This is believed to be a result of their choice of footwear, which usually consists shoes with narrow toes and high heels.