National Go Barefoot Day is observed on June 1. This day is an opportunity to kick off your shoes and run barefoot through the cool grass! More importantly, it is a day to help support a charity that provides millions of underprivileged children all around the world with shoes.
- National Go Barefoot Day was created by the people at Soles4Souls. The holiday got its start after the Tsunami disaster in 2004 to support those affected by the event. However, donations have continued to come in and over 19 millions of pairs of shoes have been donated worldwide since 2005.
- Foot bones make up about a quarter of all the bones in our bodies.
- When did humans begin wearing shoes, anyway? About 40,000 years ago, according to research from Washington University in St. Louis that analyzed foot bones from Neanderthals and early humans. Older specimens had thicker, stronger toes, likely from gripping the ground as they walked barefoot. That’s around the same time that the archaeological record shows a burst of artistic and technological advancements among early humans, including the first stone tools, which may have aided in the production of shoes.
- The oldest preserved shoe, incidentally, is 5500 years old and was found in an Armenian cave, buried in sheep dung.
- Feet are one of the most ticklish parts of the body.
- Feet are spreading to support extra weight as our populations pack on the pounds. According to a 2014 study by the College of Podiatry in the UK, the average foot has increased two sizes since the 1970s.
- The average person walks about 110,000 miles in a lifetime.
- In a study published in 2015, researchers synthesized data from 17 previous studies that included the penis measurements of more than 15,000 men from around the world. The results: There is little evidence that penis size is linked to height, body mass, or shoe size.
- Your two feet have 250,000 sweat glands that are capable of producing half a pint of sweat in a single day!
- Eighty percent of Americans over 21 have reported having a foot ailment.
- The Achilles tendon is the strongest tendon in the body.
- Feet function best in their bare, or natural, state.
- Women are four times more likely to have foot problems compared to men.
- Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common forms of foot pain. It affects more than 2 million people a year.
- Each foot takes 1.5 times your body weight while you walk.
- When running, your feet take up to five times your weight.
- 1 in 1,000 babies is born with an extra toe or finger. The condition is called polydactyly.
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