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  • - Stop eating these foods

  • as they can not only make you sick,

  • but if not prepared properly, poison you to death.

  • Stay tuned till the end of this video

  • to also see what food you're not eating

  • that you definitely should be.

  • Appleseeds, no it's not cause an apple a day

  • keeps the doctor away.

  • It's because apple seeds contain amygdalin,

  • a compound that's broken down by your gut into cyanide.

  • That's why they actually taste bitter.

  • Cyanide is actually a poison that hurts your blood's ability

  • to carry oxygen leading to hypoxemia and eventually death.

  • Good news though,

  • your body can actually break down small amounts of cyanide

  • and you'd have to eat hundreds or even thousands of seeds

  • to be at risk for poisoning.

  • Fugu or puffer fish.

  • As seen in movies, puffer fish in the dish prepared

  • can be extremely poisonous.

  • The ovaries, intestines and liver of fugu

  • contain tetrodotoxin, which is a neurotoxin

  • that's up to 1200 times more deadly than cyanide.

  • Fugu chefs must undergo years of training

  • to obtain a proper preparing license.

  • And despite these precautions,

  • numerous people still die every year from their fugu

  • being improperly prepared.

  • This puffer poisoning

  • usually results from consumption of incorrectly prepared

  • puffer soup called fugu chiri,

  • or occasionally from raw puffer meat

  • known as sashimi fugu.

  • If it's not correctly prepared,

  • fugu can paralyze your nervous system

  • and shut down your respiratory muscles,

  • meaning this fish can cause you to drown

  • when you're not even in the water.

  • Rhubarb, rhubarb is a plant whose stock

  • is often used in pies, muffins, cakes.

  • And although rhubarb is botanically a vegetable,

  • it's classified as a fruit here in the United States.

  • Their leaves contain high levels of oxalic acid,

  • which is a corrosive and acidic substance

  • that can lead to kidney failure and even death.

  • And I stress high levels because other healthy vegetables

  • like broccoli and spinach also have oxalic acid

  • and they're just fine for us.

  • Don't use this as an excuse to skip out on your veggies.

  • It's surely the dose that makes the poison.

  • Actually a wild story is that during World War I

  • when vegetable stock was real low,

  • the leaves were mistakenly recommended as a food source

  • in Britain, leading to poisonings and even deaths.

  • Elderberries, I admit elderberries are delicious

  • and actually not poisonous if cooked and ripe,

  • but the rest of the tree they grow on

  • including its twigs, leaves, roots and seeds

  • contain bitter alkaloids that produce hydrocyanic acid.

  • If elderberries are fully riped or strain properly

  • when they're processed,

  • they can cause nausea, vomiting,

  • and severe, severe diarrhea.

  • According to the CDC,

  • there was actually an instance where eight people

  • attending a religious ceremony in Monterey County

  • were airlifted to the hospital

  • after drinking a special juice that had been made with,

  • among other things, elderberry leaves and branches.

  • They all survive,

  • but not before violently violently vomiting,

  • just 15 minutes after drinking the juice.

  • Make sure you know who's making your drinks and with what.

  • Red kidney beans,

  • actually a lot of legumes can cause an upset stomach

  • when under cooked, but red kidney beans

  • certainly take the cake

  • and that's because red kidney beans

  • contain a natural protein called lectin.

  • Within just a few hours of consuming PHA,

  • symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,

  • and abdominal pain may appear.

  • This PHA is the bean's natural defense system

  • like our immune system, but rest assured,

  • as PHA is destroyed by proper preparation

  • and legumes are most definitely a healthy source of protein

  • if properly prepared,

  • but it's not just a matter of cooking them.

  • In fact, according to the FDA,

  • cooking dried red kidney beans for less

  • than 10 minutes at any temperature

  • less than boiling can actually increase

  • the toxicity five fold making them far more toxic

  • than if you just ate them raw.

  • Castor oil seeds or beans.

  • Castor oil is notoriously known for being used as a laxative

  • to help you poop, specifically to stimulate laxative,

  • meaning that increases the movement of the muscles

  • and the intestines helping out with constipation.

  • However, if you watch the show Breaking Bad,

  • or my reaction to the show,

  • you know that the deadly poison ricin shown on the show

  • is made by crushing castor seeds.

  • It is reassuring to know that to make castor oil

  • from the seeds,

  • we use heat during the oil extraction process

  • to actually destroy the toxin.

  • Lychee, lychee sangria, lychee martini,

  • lychee ice cream, yum.

  • Lychees are delicious and are a hydrating fruit

  • that have many health benefits if eaten correctly

  • and in moderation.

  • But if you're eating raw, green, unripened lychees

  • on an empty stomach,

  • that can prove to be extremely dangerous to your health.

  • For 20 years, doctors observed an alarming trend

  • in the Northern region of India, where every spring,

  • hundreds of children would randomly have seizures,

  • slip into comas, dying in 40% of the cases.

  • Failed test after failed test later,

  • scientists finally determined that the underfed children

  • were eating unripened lychees that fell to the ground

  • and they contain high levels of a naturally occurring

  • amino acid derivative called hypoglycin.

  • This caused the children to wake screaming in the night

  • before suffering convulsions and losing consciousness

  • as they suffered acute swelling of their brains.

  • Luckily since this discovery,

  • incidents from unripened lychees in India

  • have fallen to under 50 a year.

  • Nutmeg, get this, the delicious little bit of nutmeg

  • that you add to your pasta, eggnog and sauces may be yummy,

  • but over ingesting the spice can actually be fatal.

  • Nutmeg contains a compound called myristicin,

  • a psychoactive substance that in larger doses

  • can actually poison your system and cause organ failure.

  • Myristicin is actually cytotoxic,

  • meaning that it instructs your own cells

  • to destroy themselves.

  • In fact, just eating two, three teaspoons of nutmeg

  • can result in seizures,

  • irregular heartbeat, nausea, dizziness,

  • dry mouth, pain and hallucinations,

  • similar to the ones people get when taking peyote.

  • I still remember my med school toxicology professor

  • sharing that nutmeg is metabolized into MMDA in the body

  • to produce hallucinogenic effects

  • and as a result has romantically and historically

  • been linked as a potential way to get high.

  • Trust me though, this is a horrible, horrible idea

  • as the vomiting and toxicity make it

  • a terrible recreational drug.

  • There are also no known current antidotes

  • for myristicin poisoning and treatment focuses

  • on symptom management and airway protection only.

  • Potatoes, potatoes are not poisonous in the way

  • that we usually consume them so relax,

  • but if you consume a green potato

  • or even one with a greenish tint,

  • it likely means that a glycol alkaloid poison

  • named solanine is also present.

  • This is an actual nerve toxin that can result in vomiting,

  • diarrhea, paralysis, and even death

  • if ingested in very high amounts.

  • Also, you know those little sprouts and stems

  • that we commonly refer to as eyes that grow on potatoes?

  • As they age, they contain the same glycol alkaloid.

  • So don't eat the stems, don't eat green potatoes

  • and remember just because potatoes are technically

  • a vegetable doesn't mean

  • they can replace your broccoli at dinner, I'm watching you.

  • Cashews, did you know that unlike money,

  • cashews do grow on trees

  • and you probably have seen me eat raw cashews