# Is any meat toxic to humans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2007, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660 "2007-09-10T10:53:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/1 "2007-09-10T10:53:32Z")
Other than that Japanese fish, of course. For reasons I cannot now reconstruct, I was thinking about being lost in the wild and what you’d eat. Some plants are fine, others are toxic to humans. What about meat? Is there any meat that you’d be in trouble eating without additional information/identification? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/2 "2007-09-10T10:59:24Z")
I remember reading that some Arctic expedition got in serious trouble after eating polar bear liver, as it contains toxic doses of vitamin A. From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinol): > [@](#): > > Just 0.3 grams of polar bear liver contains the upper intake level [of vitamin A]. If eaten in one meal, 30 to 90 grams is enough to kill a human being, or to make even sled dogs very ill. Oh, and if you are in the Arctic, don’t eat your [sled dog’s liver, either](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Mertz). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/3 "2007-09-10T11:01:43Z")
It depends on your definition of ‘meat’ - there are plenty of poisonous insects - OK, they’re animals, but probably not what you had in mind. There are numerous poisonous fish and amphibians. There are crustaceans and molluscs that would be dangerous to eat, either because of inherent toxicity, or because they concentrate environmental poisons, or play host to toxic bacteria. But if the list is restricted to mammals, I don’t think there are any that would actually be toxic if you just ate the muscle meat. Offal could be quite another matter - Polar Bear liver, for example, contains dangerously high levels of Vitamin A. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/4 "2007-09-10T11:04:30Z")
Hm, yeah, totally hadn’t examined my premise, which was pretty mammal-centric. Amphibians, okay – what about reptiles? And birds? (Thanks for the heads up on polar bear livers, btw.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/5 "2007-09-10T11:16:53Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] what about reptiles? [/QUOTE] I think it’s true that some skinks have blue or green blood and it’s that colour because it contains a high concentration of something or other that makes them either toxic or just highly unpalatable, but there’s not much meat on a skink anyway, so again, this might not be what you had in mind. Not sure about birds - nothing springs to mind. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/6 "2007-09-10T11:21:34Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Amphibians, okay – what about reptiles? [/QUOTE] Lots of venomous snakes, of course, though I think you’re OK as long as you stick to the meat and don’t eat the head or stomach contents. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/7 "2007-09-10T11:27:38Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Lots of venomous snakes, of course, though I think you’re OK as long as you stick to the meat and don’t eat the head or stomach contents. [/QUOTE] Venom isn’t necessarily the same as _poison_ though - although I wouldn’t want to put this to the test - there may be such things as deadly venoms that can be safely eaten. (That sounds like a contradiction, but the term _venom_ describes an injected poison - ingesting it may not necessarily have the same effect) ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/8 "2007-09-10T12:14:12Z")
Here’s an interesting article on snake venom: [http://geradts.com/anil/ij/vol\_004\_no\_002/others/pg001.html](http://geradts.com/anil/ij/vol_004_no_002/others/pg001.html) "…King Boris of Bulgaria who was allied to Hitler during World War II, was killed by his queen with snake venom, because she wanted Bulgaria out of Axis alignment… " ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/9 "2007-09-10T12:16:04Z")
I think I’d pass on the [Golden Poison Frogs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Poison_Dart_Frog). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/10 "2007-09-10T12:47:12Z")
Yeah, I was leaving aside venomous snakes, on the assumption that I’d be eating body meat and stay away from the head, which is where the venom pits are. Good reminder about the stomach, though I’d probably stay away from snake organs in general. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/11 "2007-09-10T12:55:18Z")
According to this [air cavalry survival manual](http://www.aircav.com/survival/asch11/asch11p04.html): > [@](#): > > **Animals and Fish Poisonous to Eat** > > Survival manuals often mention that the livers of polar bears are toxic due to their high concentrations of vitamin A. For this reason, we mention the chance of death after eating this organ. Another toxic meat is the flesh of the hawksbill turtle. You recognize them by their down-turned bill and yellow polka dots on their neck and front flippers. They weigh more than 275 kilograms and are unlikely to be captured. > > Many fish living in reefs near shore, or in lagoons and estuaries, are poisonous to eat, though some are only seasonally dangerous. The majority are tropical fish; however, be wary of eating any unidentifiable fish wherever you are. Some predatory fish, such as barracuda and snapper, may become toxic if the fish they feed on in shallow waters are poisonous. The most poisonous types appear to have parrot like beaks and hard shell-like skins with spines and often can inflate their bodies like balloons. However, at certain times of the year, indigenous populations consider the puffer a delicacy. There are also fish and marine animals that although not of poisonous flesh are particularly dangerous to catch because of toxins or defensive features. (Scorpion fish, sharks, stone fish (remember the blue lagoon?), blue ringed octopus). There is also [ciguetera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguatera) poisoning, which is poisonind from ciguatoxin that builds up in the flesh of fish in the tropics, it concentrates through biomagnificication from it’s source of micro-algae at the bottom up to the to the top of the food chain in predatorial fish. > [@](#): > > barracuda and red snapper fish may carry ciguatera, a toxin that accumulates in the systems of fish that feed on tropical marine reefs. > > Without specific local information, take the following precautions: > > Be very careful with fish taken from normally shallow lagoons with sandy or broken coral bottoms. Reef-feeding species predominate and some may be poisonous. > > Avoid poisonous fish on the leeward side of an island. This area of shallow water consists of patches of living corals mixed with open spaces and may extend seaward for some distance. Many different types of fish inhabit these shallow waters, some of which are poisonous. > > Do not eat fish caught in any area where the water is unnaturally discolored. This may be indicative of plankton that cause various types of toxicity in plankton-feeding fish. > > Try fishing on the windward side or in deep passages leading from the open sea to the lagoon, but be careful of currents and waves. Live coral reefs drop off sharply into deep water and form a dividing line between the suspected fish of the shallows and the desirable deep-water species. Deepwater fish are usually not poisonous. You can catch the various toxic fish even in deep water. Discard all suspected reef fish, whether caught on the ocean or the reef side ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/12 "2007-09-10T12:56:28Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Good reminder about the stomach, though I’d probably stay away from snake organs in general. [/QUOTE] Didn’t Anthony Bourdain eat a still beating cobra heart during one of his travel programmes (I’m sure he mentions doing it, or being constantly asked about it by fans, in his book “The Nasty Bits”)? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/13 "2007-09-10T13:04:06Z")
Also, I have no idea why that survival manual list Hawksbill turtles as a poisonous flesh to eat. While wikipedia lists the [Hawksbill turtle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawksbill_turtle) as a delicacy in many parts of the world? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/14 "2007-09-10T13:04:45Z")
[Previous thread on subject](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341757) I’ve always wondered why the ratio of toxic plants to toxic animals has to be about 1,000 to 1, yet some people claim humans are natural vegetarians. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/15 "2007-09-10T13:22:29Z")
Oh, didn’t read the article entirely… [QUOTE=wikipedia] Due to its consumption of venomous cnidarians hawksbill turtle flesh can reach certain levels of toxicity.[9] [/Quote] But then again, everyone knows you shouldn’t eat Vermicious Cnids, nor anything that feeds upon them…that’s common sense. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/16 "2007-09-10T13:22:52Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] [Previous thread on subject](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341757) I’ve always wondered why the ratio of toxic plants to toxic animals has to be about 1,000 to 1, yet some people claim humans are natural vegetarians. [/QUOTE] :smack: Should have known there was already a thread. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/17 "2007-09-10T13:36:46Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Venom isn’t necessarily the same as _poison_ though - although I wouldn’t want to put this to the test - there may be such things as deadly venoms that can be safely eaten. (That sounds like a contradiction, but the term _venom_ describes an injected poison - ingesting it may not necessarily have the same effect) [/QUOTE] As a matter of fact, the remedy for snakebite, assuming you are in the wild and cannot readily find medical assistance, is to slit open the wound (I remember diagrams showing X-shaped slits and suck it out since snake venom was not dangerous to swallow. I guess you were better advised to spit it out and this obviously supposes you have no open wounds in the mouth. I remember catching some kind of puffer fish (maybe related to fugu) off the Jersey coast and they showed me how to filet it just taking the main side muscles, leaving aside the poison gland. I would not want to eat the animals living in the shadow of Chernobyl, but that is obviously a special case. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/18 "2007-09-10T13:46:16Z")
The Giant Squid flesh is full of ammonia, so is poisonous. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/19 "2007-09-10T13:47:18Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] [Previous thread on subject](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341757) [/QUOTE] **Der Trihs** cites the [Pitohui]([http://encarta.msn.com/media\_461527207/Hooded](http://encarta.msn.com/media_461527207/Hooded) Pitohui.html) in post #20 of the above thread. There seems to be another _viz._ the [Ifrita](http://www.pnas.org/content/vol97/issue24/cover.shtml) (_Ifrita kowaldi_). Both birds are briefly discussed [here](http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/24/12970?lookupType=volpage&vol=97&fp=12970&view=short). Wiki mentions the rufous shrike-thrush as toxic but confirmation of that opinion escapes me. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660/20 "2007-09-10T13:53:47Z")
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara] **Der Trihs** cites the [Pitohui]([http://encarta.msn.com/media\_461527207/Hooded](http://encarta.msn.com/media_461527207/Hooded) Pitohui.html) in post #20 of the above thread. There seems to be another _viz._ the [Ifrita](http://www.pnas.org/content/vol97/issue24/cover.shtml) (_Ifrita kowaldi_). Both birds are briefly discussed [here](http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/24/12970?lookupType=volpage&vol=97&fp=12970&view=short). Wiki mentions the rufous shrike-thrush as toxic but confirmation of that opinion escapes me. [/QUOTE] I never eat anything that sounds like you should spit it out.. Ptooey! Coincidence…or? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-meat-toxic-to-humans/418660.md?page=2)