# Drink Shit and Live.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [July 30, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487 "2002-07-30T04:40:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@celestina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/celestina)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/1 "2002-07-30T04:40:23Z")
Well, now I done seen it all. I declare. I’m from the South and proud of it, but I must admit there’s some things Southerners do that I just can’t wrap my mind around. Take a look at this news story.
[http://www.nbc13.com/health/1537216/detail.html](http://www.nbc13.com/health/1537216/detail.html)
For those of y’all what’s too lazy to click on to and read this short story–Shame on you! Your brains are going to melt if you don’t read more–it talks about some folks in Alabama who when they get colds and stuff, go out in the cow fields, grab themselves a handful of doo doo, boil it with other things to “sweeten” the taste, and drink it. :eek: 😕 They swear it sets them right. Gets rid of colds and fevers. Okaaaaaaaaaaaay.
Whoo, lord. I can’t help it. I’m sitting here giggling my ass off trying to imagine someone seriously going out into the fields and grabbing themselves a handful of shit. To ingest. I think the thing that disgusted me the most was the fella what said the tea tastes different to him depending on what the cows had been eating! [insert puking smiley here]
Anyway, folks said that they think it’s the seeds and weeds and stuff the cows eat that provide the cure. Well, if that’s the case, why don’t they just go out in the fields and pick some weeds and seeds, and boil that up, and leave the cow shit alone. 😕 I mean. Okay. There’s a whole lot scientists don’t know. Maybe it’s some enzyme or something in the cow’s digestive/excretory tract that provides the cure for colds. But do we really have to drink boiled shit to get better? I done had plenty of colds in my life, and I ain’t had to drink doo doo tea to get better, and neither has none of my kin, and they about as country as you can get. I’m trying to understand this. I mean. I can understand other home rememdies for getting rid of fevers and colds like them onion poultices. Hell, if the smell of onions don’t drive them cold germs away, I don’t know what will. But drinking cow shit? What would possess someone to even want to try that in the first place?
Okay. I’ve gotten that bit of shit out of my system. Any doctors/scientists want to come in here and tell me why drinking cow shit is a good thing? Is there something I’m missing here? Any y’all other Southern Dopers ever heard of the cow manure tea remedy for colds? If so, have you tried it, or do you know of other folks who’ve tried it? Did it really work? I realize that there are far worse things going on in the world and that this rant may not rate as high on the Pit scales, but I sure had fun writing it. 😃 And I’m still confused and grossed out at the lengths folks will go to sometimes.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/2 "2002-07-30T05:09:13Z")
Just wanna point out that Mary’s recipe has a whole lot of things in it that have been traditional remedies for colds for a long time, like lemon juice (Vitamin C) and honey and whiskey, not to mention Halls’ Cough Drops. So I wouldn’t get too excited about some “miracle” substance in cow shit.
> [@](#):
>
> On that cloth she placed and moistened two large, dried manure chunks, two lemons with their tops and bottoms removed, several dried stalks of a common silver-green plant known as rabbit tobacco, and added a cup of honey.
>
> After knotting the cloth to form a sack, she lowered it into the boiling water of the saucepan and the clear water immediately turned brown. As the boiling continued for several minutes, she added nine Halls honey lemon cough drops. Vicks drops, she said, would have been better. And a little corn liquor would have been a plus as well.
“Rabbit tobacco” is evidently applied to several different species of _gnaphalium_ and is listed on at least one homeopathy website, although it’s not for colds but for “arms, legs, hands, feet”.
[http://www.abchomeopathy.com/mm/Gnaph.html](http://www.abchomeopathy.com/mm/Gnaph.html)
Women used to use crocodile dung as a contraceptive pessary, so nothing surprises me.
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### Author:  [@celestina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/celestina)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/3 "2002-07-30T05:23:18Z")
**DDG** , I ain’t got no problem with lemons, other kinds of citrus, and cough drops. I use that myself when I get colds. It’s just the cow manure that is throwing me for a loop. And now you’re telling me that folks used to use crocodile shit as a contraceptive? Ewwwwww. :shudder: I think I don’t really want to know how they came up with that particular remedy, but my heavens! They must have had all kinds of infections and things from that. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/4 "2002-07-30T05:23:42Z")
“It tastes like medicine is supposed to taste,”
Well, it’s been said that the worse it tastes, the better it works! 😉
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/5 "2002-07-30T06:03:58Z")
I 'spect it’s just a sly means of discouraging malingerers.
And don’t knock the crocodile dung contraceptive – it works. Anything that leads directly to abstinence works.
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### Author:  [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/6 "2002-07-30T11:30:10Z")
Are you sure this isn’t, like, an elaborate practical joke where they’re trying to get their yankee neighbor to drink it? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/7 "2002-07-30T12:06:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \*
> \*\*Women used to use crocodile dung as a contraceptive pessary, so nothing surprises me. \*\*
I’m thinking that might just have been prevention rather than cure, if you know what I mean 😉
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/8 "2002-07-30T16:46:26Z")
Well, you did say they boil it. If they really do, and they do so for a good long time, that should kill pretty much any dangerous bacteria…
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### Author:  [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/9 "2002-07-30T17:05:24Z")
Y’know, when I first read the OP, I thought this was about 3 different things, and you just forgot the comma.
I don’t know _entybody_ here in NC that eats _enty_ kind of shit for _enty_ reason. Least, I hope not…:eek:
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/10 "2002-07-30T18:13:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by celestina \*
> \*\*Anyway, folks said that they think it’s the seeds and weeds and stuff the cows eat that provide the cure. Well, if that’s the case, why don’t they just go out in the fields and pick some weeds and seeds, and boil that up, and leave the cow shit alone. 😕 \*\*
Well, there are some things that can only be found growing out of the cow themselves (it’s great fertilizer). In my days at Auburn U we used to harvest these potent, um, “medicinal” fungi late at night. We would seperate it from the shit, though.
I’m not sure it ever melted the blockage in my sinuses, but it sure melted the walls in my apartment ;). We would also occasionally make tea out it (the mushrooms - not the cow shit).
Anyhow, you ever see a patty that has dried out in the field? It has more in common with a dirt clog than other forms of feces, hardly smells at all, and isn’t really all that disgusting. Mind you, I still don’t think I’d eat one.
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/11 "2002-07-30T18:19:14Z")
Um, that’s supposed to be “growing out of the cow _patties_ themselves”. “growing out of the cow themselves” brings up quite a different mental image.
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### Author:  [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/12 "2002-07-30T18:33:23Z")
That was the first thing I thought of too, **Beeblebrox**. You find the right cow patty to stick in your tea–seeds, weeds, and fungi included–and you’ll completely forget you were even sick in the first place.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/13 "2002-07-30T19:03:45Z")
What’s worse, people who drink boiled cowpies or people who drink their own urine to cure their ails?
Yes, I have seen the latter being practiced.
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### Author:  [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/14 "2002-07-30T21:37:56Z")
Of course the “treatment” works.
Mom: “Hi Honey, how’re you feelin’? Do you want some more poop soup”.
Son: (panicking) “Naw, Ma, feelin’ fine! Yup, Fine! Fine! Fine!”
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2002, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/15 "2002-07-30T22:25:24Z")
Well, drinking your own urine-technically, it already came out of your body…but…um, cowshit?
Oh gross!
They also boiled frogs and put the liquid on arthritic joints. Um, boiling FROGS? That’s sick!
Gross, gross gross.
And I’m sorry, the tea has lemon, honey and 9 Halls cough drops? Um, I think that’s what’s doing it, not the fucking cowflop!!!
I’ll stick with my dad’s hot toddies, thank you very much. (He makes the best tea with Amaretto in it for colds…)
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### Author:  [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/16 "2002-07-31T00:01:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \*
> **They also boiled frogs and put the liquid on arthritic joints. Um, boiling FROGS? That’s sick!**
But it tastes just like chicken!
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2002, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/17 "2002-07-31T01:48:42Z")
“Poop Soup”
That’s the Apex of my SDMB binge tonight. I’m gonna go away and giggle mindlessly for a while, now.
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### Author:  [@celestina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/celestina)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2002, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/18 "2002-07-31T05:32:26Z")
**Jurhael** , hon, I’ll second you on that. I imagine there is something to that notion of medicine tasting so bad that it’ll either kill you or cure you, and for my money, drinking boiled cow doo doo is right up there walking that fine line between curin’ and killin’ folks!
**Larry Mudd** , yep, I think I’d be less inclined to try to fake being sick to get out of going to school or something if the consequence is drinking something vile. But you know, back in the day, surely there had to be better ways of avoiding unwanted pregnancies than putting crocodile shit up your twat. Those poor women!
**coffeecat** LOL!!! This has to be the only logical explanation. 😃 So it’s really hot chocolate or coffee or something with lemon and Vicks cough drops them folks be drinking. These Southerners, what be promoting this remedy, get in front of some Yankees and have someone distract the Yankees while they switch the cow poo for chocolate. Then when the Yankees get by themselves and try some shit tea for real, these Southerners get together and have themselves a good ol’ laugh. You know it wouldn’t surprise me if down the road a piece, some shi-shi, poo-poo–No pun intended [giggle]–restaurant decides that the next latest gourmet trend will be cow manure tea. They’ll boil up some shit and charge folks out the ass for it and have themselves a good ol’ laugh at people who’ll pay good money for some shit. Thank you for restoring my faith in good ol’ Southern common sense. 😉
**Smeghead** I’m sorry. I don’t care if they boil it. I just can’t imagine what would possess someone? It’s waste these folks are drinking, for chrissake! Flies have most likely been all up in it, laying their eggs and spreading even more germs! No matter which way you look at it, they’re still drinking dead germs and fly larvae and shit. :SHUDDER:
**superbee** , sorry, hon. I do have a tendency to ramble on with long sentences, but I hope they’re grammatically correct and not runons. :eek: Looking back at the OP, I was just expressing shock at the lengths folks will go to and asking other Dopers if they’ve heard of this and what they think of it. That’s all.
**Beeblebrox** , now I ain’t going to argue with you about the excellent properties cow manure has as fertilizer. I use it in my garden, and so does my mother. I’ll have to take your word about the hallucinogenic properties of some of the contents of a cow patty. :shudder: I think I’ll just stay in my blissful state of ignorance on that. As far as cow shit goes, it may not stink AS MUCH when it’s dry, but you ever get a whiff of untreated cow manure? Whew!
**Jeff Olsen** , I think I might have heard of the urine remedy, but I’m going to have to check on that. I hear that urine is sterile when it comes out, but it doesn’t stay sterile long once it makes contact with all the germy surfaces outside the body. Is that true?
Oooh, **Guinastasia** , I’ll bet Amaretto tea does taste good. Mmmm. 😃 Now _that_ I wouldn’t mind drinking at all.
**Belrix** , I must concur with **Larry Mudd** that “poop soup” has got high potential to put me in a fit of the giggles. [giggle]
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### Author:  [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2002, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/19 "2002-07-31T05:40:35Z")
Awwwwwwww…shit! [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=80564](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=80564)
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### Author:  [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2002, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drink-shit-and-live/121487/20 "2002-07-31T05:43:13Z")
"you ever get a whiff of untreated cow manure? Whew! "
Whew is an understatement…
As for the urine, I read an article about people in China doing it. But, I think that urine would be slightly less disgusting than shit…eheh.
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