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Poisonous Foods We Love To Eat

This document discusses several foods that are commonly eaten but contain toxic compounds if not properly prepared or consumed in large quantities. It notes that almonds contain cyanide, and that apple seeds contain hydrogen cyanide in small amounts. Tomatoes were once believed to be poisonous due to being in the same family as deadly nightshade. Potatoes can contain solanine, which is toxic in large amounts or if the potato is green or old. Finally, some mushrooms like death caps and destroying angels are highly toxic raw or in large quantities. With proper preparation like heating, most of these foods can be enjoyed safely.

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141 views

Poisonous Foods We Love To Eat

This document discusses several foods that are commonly eaten but contain toxic compounds if not properly prepared or consumed in large quantities. It notes that almonds contain cyanide, and that apple seeds contain hydrogen cyanide in small amounts. Tomatoes were once believed to be poisonous due to being in the same family as deadly nightshade. Potatoes can contain solanine, which is toxic in large amounts or if the potato is green or old. Finally, some mushrooms like death caps and destroying angels are highly toxic raw or in large quantities. With proper preparation like heating, most of these foods can be enjoyed safely.

Uploaded by

ksenija
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Poisonous foods we love to eat

Go into your kitchen and take a quick look around. how many things can you see that could
kill you? There’s a drawer of razor-sharp knives, a bit of oil on the floor that you might slip
on, and that fatal combination of water and electrical appliances. But take a closer look
inside the kitchen cupboard because there’s something at the back that’s hiding a deadly
secret - it’s your favorite food and it’s highly poisonous!
Take that bag of almonds, for example. We’ve used almonds in countless recipes for
centuries. They’re used whole, chopped, sliced as well as in the form of oil, paste or powder.
There are two varieties: sweet almonds and the more popular bitter almonds. It’s this variety
that contains cyanide. You might have heard of that - it’s the deadly poison that spies take to
kill themselves when they don’t want to be captured by the enemy. The poison is part of
almonds’ self-defence system to discourage animals from eating too many of them. in some
countries, it’s even illegal to sell almonds. Don’t worry too much, though, as the ones we eat
are heat-processed to remove any trace of cyanide that could harm us.
Cyanide is also found in foods like apples, peaches and apricots. We might say ‘an apple a
day keeps the doctor away’ but when apple pips - those tiny seeds in the middle - are
crushed or chewed they produce hydrogen cyanide. There’s no need to panic though
because the amounts they produce are tiny. if you accidentally swallow an apple pip or even
all the pips from one apple you won’t have a problem. However, eat too many pips and you’ll
become seriously ill.
Once called ‘the apple of Peru’, the tomato was believed to be poisonous by the Western
World until around 1820. It arrived in Europe in the 1500s, brought back from the New World
by Spanish colonists in South America as a plant and not something to eat. it’s from the
same family as other poisonous plants such as Deadly Nightshade and that’s probably why
people thought it would kill them if they ate it. In reality, only the stem and the leaves are
poisonous containing a chemical that can cause terrible stomach upsets. The fruit, however
(yes, it is technically a fruit) is harmless and delicious.
A similar chemical called solanine can be found in another South American export - the
potato. The leaves, stems and any part of the potato that is green are poisonous. The older
the potato, the more solanine it contains and it only takes 200 mg to make us ill and not
much more to kill. There have been deaths from potato poisoning as recently as in the last
fifty years. The victim feels weak and confused before falling into a coma and dying. That’s
one good reason to only eat new potatoes and avoid potato leaf tea.
Finally, there’s the friendly-looking but potentially fatal mushroom. A mushroom is a fungus,
an organism that thrives in dark, damp places and prefers to grow on things that are
decaying. The Shiitake and white button varieties in particular contain large amounts of
carcinogenic (i.e. cancer-causing) compounds when they are raw. Tests on mice have
shown that they grow more tumors when they have been fed mushrooms. there are even
types of mushrooms called the Death Cap and the Destroying Angel! It’s probably good
advice to avoid any food that has ‘death’ or ‘destroying’ in its name.
So the next time you feel peckish and head into the kitchen for a bite to eat, be aware of
what’s lurking there. The good news is that in most cases correctly preparing these
occasionally harmful foods will make them safe to eat and we can carry on enjoying apple
pie, mushroom soup, tomato salad and chips safely and happily.

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