slight hijack-Something Awful was shut down…now some of the nastier ones are invading SAAN again! ACK!!!
I should note that some animal species are coprophagic. I was just reading the story of the cute little “Pika” and when I heard it’s coprophagic lifestyle, I didn’t think it was so cute anymore. Apparently it spends the summer eating fresh foliage, and drags greens back to its nest, making a “haypile.” And it poops in the nest, saving it’s own excretions, which on the first pass, are soft and green, but when reconsumed are re-excreted as solid brown inedible poop. Yuck.
Anyway, what was this about “crush videos?” Or perhaps I don’t want to know.
Well, dozens of people who ate at a local restaurant got hepatitis because one of the workers took a shit & didn’t wash the shit off his hands & got it in the food. So, yes, its dangerous to do this stuff.
Then there are inter-species coprophiliacs, Childen who eat animal poop. Nasty.
Just as it is dangerous to engage in sex - can get diseases doing that too, handy. Personally, reading this thread resulted in a series of small twitches every post or two (wish I didn’t have an SDMB fetish…) but I imagine those engaging in this probably make certain those they do it with are fairly clean.
And in earlier threads on the the subject of our microfauna (or is it flora? which category ), apparently couples adapt to each other’s inhabitants.
Coprophages do get horribly ill. Lots of infectious diseases have fecal-mucosal spread, not just Hepatitis A. And I’m not even going to mention (well, just a little) “Gay Bowel Syndrome” sometimes seen with analingus. There is a Cecil column on the hazards of cunnilingus that mentions this in passing.
Gee, I’m so glad I have something to contribute to this thread. The 70s and 80s slang term was “hot lunch” and, well, eewwwww!
handy: “Well, dozens of people who ate at a local restaurant got hepatitis because one of the workers took a shit & didn’t wash the shit off his hands & got it in the food. So, yes, its dangerous to do this stuff.”
Yes, just like it’s dangerous to eat at a restauarant. Do you think this was the only time “one of the workers took a shit & didn’t wash the shit off his hands & got it in the food.” Of course not, it happens a lot. But unless the worker has an infection, eating his shit will not make you sick.
Dr_Paprika: “Coprophages do get horribly ill. Lots of infectious diseases have fecal-mucosal spread, not just Hepatitis A. And I’m not even going to mention (well, just a little) “Gay Bowel Syndrome” sometimes seen with analingus.” Sure, lots of infectious diseases have fecal-mucosal spread just like lost of infectious diseases have mucosal-mucosal spread which is why there are so many sexually transmitted infections. But most people don’t get “horribly ill” from having sex (although some do).
Fact is, coprophagy (in a developed country where gastrointestinal infections such as hepatitis A, cholera, typhoid, amebiasis, etc. are rare) is less likely to make you “horribly ill” than is having sex.
The basic principle here is that you get sick from from eating things that contain poisons or infectious organisms, not simply from eating things that smell bad, no matter how unwholesome or downright disgusting. There are no poisons or infectious organisms in the shit of the average healthy person. So you may eat it with little worrying about getting “horribly ill.” (This is a lucky thing because from what we know about the spread of diseases like cholera and hepatitis A, you probably eat a little shit almost every day.)
(Note: You can, however, get sick from the organisms contained in a healthy persons shit [even your own shit] if you get them into some part of your body that is normally sterile. See Ashtar’s post.)
CORRECTIONFact is, coprophagy (in a developed country where gastrointestinal infections such as hepatitis A, cholera, typhoid, amebiasis, etc. are rare) is less likely to make you “horribly ill” than is having sex.
Coprophagy may be a symptom of coprophilia (see above).
Getting ill because somebody did not wash the hands is called fecal-mucosal spread of a disease. We have enough confusion on this MB, do not mix terms. Coprophagia does not include cases of poor hygiene or gay habits. If you need a descriptive generic term, use “shit-eating”.
Oh please. The OP was vague and needed clarification. When is coprophagia eating, not exposure to shit? How is “horribly ill” defined? Bad food poisoning? Fatal disease? Hepatitis A only lasts six months… Surely this thread leaves something to be desired?
I did not name “Gay Bowel Disease” and have absolutely nothing against this population. Any risky activity performed often will increase the chances of consequences. Sex has risks too, between any two people. Analingus or oral sex following anal penetration may be relevant to the OP depending on yor definitions; else this has nothing to do with the OP. I suspect more people do these acts than randomly eat cowpies.
Doc (Paprika), no hard feelings. This thead started as a question about coprophilia, a psychiatric disorder. Then coprophagia was brought up. It may be a part of it, meaning active eating of feces, not involuntary “microingestion” of inadvertantly contaminated food. An ass licking gay is does not practice coproghagia, nor is he a coprophiliac. My appeal was to everybody: let’s keep the terminology straight!
No hard feelings. Please forgive my coprolalia.
What’s so wrong with eating feces?
It’s natural.
And tastes like shi… cken!
Gorillas have also been observed doing this (coprophagia). Researchers aren’t sure why, although they suspected that perhaps there were still nutrients to be gotten the second time around. But I will never forget hearing a zoologist say on camera “Or, it’s possible they just enjoy a warm snack!”