Here are poisonous foods people love to eat!
10 - Flood Clams
Clams are delicious, no doubt.
Well, to seafood lovers anyways.
And blood clams aren’t an exception, as they’re a popular food in the restaurants
of China.
They’re even finding popularity in the US.
But while flood clams cultivated from Maine and Mexico are fairly safe, the ones found
in the restaurants of China should be avoided.
The reason is because of the way it’s prepared in Shanghai.
The blood clam are prepared by being boiled for a very short time and then quickly served.
Because the clams live in low oxygen environments and ingest a lot of viruses and bacteria,
just boiling the clams for a short time leave a lot of those viruses and bacteria intact.
In fact, around 15% of the people who eat blood clams from Chinese waters get infected.
Apart from hepatitis, typhoid and dysentery are also common ailments caused by eating
blood clams.
Maybe these clams taste good, but I hardly think that it is a risk worth taking!
9 - San-nakji Of all the sea creatures, the octopus is one
of the smartest animals, even if it looks dumb flailing around with its 8 arms.
But in some places, mainly in Korea, a species of Octopus is made into san-nakji, a delicacy.
And what’s more, preparing this dish is so easy that even you could make it.
All it takes is the octopus, a knife, some sesame oil and a plate!
San-nakji, which means raw baby octopus, is dismembered octopus which is served alive
with sesame oil.
The tentacles will actually wriggle around in front of you until you swallow it.
However, remember when I said the Octopus is one of the smartest animals?
Even as a baby?
They’re not going out without a fight!
Because of this, it makes it verrrrrry risky to eat one of these guys still alive!
The octopus itself isn’t poisonous, but the moving tentacles causes a lot of problems.
If not chewed properly, the suction cups which are present on the tentacles can get stuck
on the throat and leads to choking.
On average, 6 people lose their lives in Korea each year from eating San-nakji.
And in some extreme cases, the tentacles have been known to climb up inside the mouth into
the nasal cavity!
So, if you’re gonna eat an octopus alive, make sure to remember to chew it as thoroughly
as you can!
8 - Ackee Ackee is a native fruit in the tropical west
African region and it looks a lot like a pear.
As it ripens, the fruit turns from green to bright red to a yellowish orange before opening
up to reveal three shiny black seeds surrounded by soft, creamy and yellow aril.
Ackee is part of many dishes, such as ackee with codfish, the national dish of Jamaica.
But there’s a flipside to it.
The plant is poisonous and contains the toxin hypoglycin.
Eating the plant leads to hypoglycemia or better known as the Jamaican vomiting sickness.
Although this toxin isn’t present in the aril part of the fruit, which is the actual
edible part, if the fruit is picked before it ripens, it leads to poisoning!
The seed of the fruit ALWAYS contains the toxin and if someone eats that, they should
rush to the hospital.
The symptoms begin somewhere between 2 to 12 hours after consumption and if it isn’t
treated quickly, it can lead to breath because it lowers blood sugar drastically.
It’s for this specific reason that Ackee is banned in the US.
So if you come across Ackee, just remember, wait for it to ripen!
7 - African Bullfrog Frog legs might be a delicacy in many parts
of the world, but with the risks that come with the African bullfrog, you have to be
really adventurous, or really hungry, to eat it.
If you venture into Namibia, you would probably get a dinner invitation to eat the African
bullfrog.
And not just the legs either, but the whole frog.
However, surprise surprise, if someone does give you that offer, be a bit cautious; eating
the African bullfrog can lead to kidney failure.
The bullfrog contains the toxin Oshiketakata which causes temporary kidney failure along
with a burning sensation in the urethra…..ugh!
Obviously, with these symptoms, fatalities have been recorded.
So how do the people of Namibia go about making sure that the frog they eat doesn’t make
them sick?!
There are many techniques such as catching frogs only after the third rain of the season,
eating only those which are old enough to mate, catching them when they’re doing a
lot of croaking, and cooking them in pots which are lined with wood which supposedly
absorbs the poison!
If you ask my opinion, there are wayyyyy too many if’s and but’s associated with African
Bullfrog dishes.
I guess my best advice would be to make sure the frog isn’t croaking when it’s on your
plate?
If any of you guys know let US know!
6 - Apple An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
But did you know that too many apples a day could actually take you to the doctor?
Yes, that’s right.
This extremely healthy and delicious fruit hides a secret in its core quite literally!
The seeds present in the core of an apple are poisonous and contain amygdalin.
And when this compound comes into contact with the digestive enzymes found in us humans,
they combine to release cyanide, a well-known poison.
While it’s not exactly fatal, as a 155 pound dude would have to eat around 200 seeds for
the cyanide to reach fatal doses, even a small exposure to cyanide is dangerous for the body
because it’s not exactly good for the heart and the brain.
Now, I’m not too sure who actually likes to eat apple seeds, but just remember NOT
to eat the seeds in the middle of an apple!
5 - Cassava Cassava is a staple food for the people of
Africa and South America.
You’ve probably heard of tapioca as well, which is made from cassava extracts.
Cassava is known as a rich source of carbohydrates, but eating it can actually be quite readily
if whoever's preparing it isn’t not careful!
The roots, peels, and leaves of the plant are actually quite toxic as they contain cyanogenic
glucosides which are broken down in the plant to produce hydrogen cyanide.
In fact, the endemic goiters seen in regions of Nigeria are often attributed to eating
cassava.
So how would you go about preparing this poisonous food?
The traditional method involves soaking the roots in water for up to 3 days till the hydrogen
cyanide is released, and then it’s dried or cooked.
However, it’s still a very dangerous food if not cooked properly as children in an elementary
school in the Philippines unfortunately found out back in 2005.
Over a 100 children became sick and 27 lied because of eating Cassava that wasn’t prepared
properly!
4 - Potatoes Hold up, how is potatoes on this list?!
Potatoes are one of the most common foods in the world, whether it’s used for fries,
chips, or even vodka.
But not that many people know that the potato plant is actually very poisonous.
The plant is closely related to tobacco and nightshade.
These plants produce the toxin solanine, which is a natural defense for the plants against
insects, disease and predators.
In fact, this defense mechanism was used by people in the past as a pain relief and anti-inflammatory
medicine.
The poison is found in the green parts of the plant, such as new sprouts, stems, leaves
and even the tubers at times.
This is why it’s very dangerous to eat a potato which is green in color as that’s
an indication of the presence of solanine.
While breath from potato poisoning is rare, it does lead to nausea, diarrhea, vomiting,
drowsiness and respiratory problems.
So the next time you see a potato that’s turning green, make sure you cut that part
out before you eat it!
3 - Casu Marzu Cheese is one of the most popular ingredients
in food around the world.
And in Italy, cheese is considered as a vital part of the diet!
So it doesn’t come as a surprise that there would be many varieties of cheese throughout
the world, but in Sardinia, the Casu Marzu might be taking things just a bit too far!
Preparing it requires the cheese to be soaked in brine, smoked, and then allowed to let’s
just call it, prepared, while uncovered.
This allows cheese flies to lay eggs inside the cheese!
Sound appetizing yet?
As the eggs give way to countless maggots, they feed on the cheese and release enzymes
that causes the fats within the casu marzu to decompose!
Once it’s ready, Casu Marzu is eaten with the maggots still alive as it prevents extra
toxicity, but that poses a problem of its own.
If you don’t chew these maggots thoroughly, stomach enzymes aren’t always strong enough
to kill these larvae!
They often pass into the intestines where they cause serious lesions and even bore through
the intestinal walls leading to abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea.
The cheese is so dangerous that it’s banned in most parts of the world.
If any of you has tried casu marzu, let us know how it tastes and how it smells!
2 - Pufferfish Pufferfish, or Fugu, is a weirdly cute-looking
fish that’s considered an exotic dish in Japan.
But the fact is that Fugu contains a deadly poison called Tetrodotoxin which is over a
thousand times more deadly than cyanide!
The amount of poison that the fish contains can grill up to 30 humans and the worst part
is that there IS no known antidote to the poison.
Some people consider the liver to be the tastiest part, but it is also the most poisonous, and
serving this dish in restaurants was banned in Japan in 1984!
The fish is so readily that this delicacy is off limits to the Emperor of Japan.
So how does one go about eating Pufferfish?
It’s definitely not easy as it’s banned in many countries and any chef that’s gonna
be serving pufferfish has to undergo 3-4 years of training before they become qualified to
make Fugu.
When prepared correctly, Fugu supposedly gives waves of euphoria and tingling sensations.
While that may sound tempting, I personally don’t find it worth it to catch a chef that’s
having an off day day at the office!
1 - Hakarl In Iceland, the Vikings started a tradition
of eating a species of shark called the Greenlandic shark because there was plenty of them.
But preparing hakarl is a long process.
First, they cut the head off the shark.
Then, they bury it in a hole in the sand with stone and gravel placed on top for 6-12 weeks.
This allows the liquids to seep out while the shark ferments.
Long pieces of the shark are then cut and hung up to dry for several months!
After it starts smelling and a characteristic dry, brown crust forms, the pieces are taken
down and served in small portions.
Yeah……..
Because shark meat is full of poisonous substances such as tri-meth-yl-amine oxide, this process
is in place to remove the toxins!
But there aren’t any guarantees.
Except for the fact that if you bring the hakarl close to your mouth, you’ll probably
get dizzy from the smell.
In fact, Anthony Bourdain named it among the foods that he would never eat again, and claimed
that it was the single worst thing he’s ever put in his mouth!
Here’s what’s next!