# Surpisingly dangerous food **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001 "2010-03-27T05:57:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/21 "2010-03-27T20:49:48Z")
I can’t believe nobody has identified that story as Roald Dahl’s! ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/22 "2010-03-27T20:55:14Z")
Shucking oysters with a sharp knife not intended for that purpose is a seriously bad idea. Nothing like 3 hours in the emergency room on Christmas eve… ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/23 "2010-03-27T21:51:45Z")
Not food, but getting impaled by chopsticks is a huge hazard in China. Don’t google it if you don’t want to see graphic photos. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/24 "2010-03-27T22:17:49Z")
I have been told that many big city emergency rooms often see patients with “bagel cuts” resulting from holding a bagel in one hand and trying to slice it lengthwise with a sharp knife and cutting just a little too far. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/25 "2010-03-27T22:26:05Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Supposedly falling coconuts can and do kill people yearly, as opposed to simply knocking them out. The oft-quoted ‘statistic’ is that more people are killed by coconuts every year than are killed by sharks. I personally was within about a foot of being brained by one a few years ago. Those palms are extremely tall, and the coconuts pretty damned hard and heavy. It hit the ground with a massive thud and gave me quite a fright. On my recent trip to Thailand I had to stop a drunken asshole tourist from swingin’ on and shakin’ up the coconut trees. He didn’t seem to understand what the problem might be. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/26 "2010-03-27T22:44:29Z")
You can die from eating too much rabbit. Or rather, eating rabbit as your only food for an extended period. There’s even a Wikipedia article on it - [rabbit starvation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation)! ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/27 "2010-03-28T01:13:28Z")
Mochi, pounded rice paste, is extremely sticky and very easy to choke on. Ever year I always read news articles about elderly people or children choking to death on it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/28 "2010-03-28T02:22:58Z")
Raw tapioca is poisonous, though what is sold in stores is cooked. As for fugu, I grew up eating it as a kid (or, at least, the US version – blowfish). If you cleaned it properly, it’s perfectly safe; we were never told it was poisonous at all. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/29 "2010-03-28T02:28:38Z")
There is the famous [story](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1758848.stm) about how President George W. Bush choked on a pretzel and fainted. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/30 "2010-03-28T03:23:09Z")
i was told that potato eyes were poisonous, but more specifically it’s certain compounds that hang around the greenish skin that are usually near the eyes. fruit pits have trace amounts of cyanide in them as do almonds, i think. in fact, i vaguely remember reading jack diamond, or someone reasonably smart saying that almonds are pretty analogous to acorns in terms of ability to be consumed raw. almonds are poisonous, and acorns are so full of tannin that it’s effectively inedible. However if either are blanched enough to remove the hazardous material, they become edible. it’s just that almonds taste better blanched than acorns that we have almond goodies and not acorn goodies. no practical cite whatsoever. Buckeyes/horse chestnuts (a friend at a ton of unripe ones in panama and got crazy sick) Oh yeah, TIME magazine recently had a blurb about the most dangerous foods. It was mostly dumb, or obvious: fugu, rhubarb, mushrooms. It had hot dogs as #1 because it was a choking hazard. insert eye roll. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/31 "2010-03-28T03:57:03Z")
I once read that if you let Metamucil sit too long before drinking it, it starts to gel and is easily choked on. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/32 "2010-03-28T05:52:23Z")
Apple seeds have cyanide, too, but most people don’t eat enough of them to worry. I have also heard that the green skin on raw potatoes is not good for you. I know it tastes bitter, so I peel potatoes when they have green skin (I normally just wash potatoes rather than peeling). It’s the rhubarb leaves that are poisonous, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/33 "2010-03-28T09:45:14Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > It’s the rhubarb leaves that are poisonous, isn’t it? Yep yep! I’ve also read that nutmeg is lethal when taken intravenously. Soooo, I hope none of you out there are planning to shoot up some nutmeg anytime soon. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/34 "2010-03-28T14:06:18Z")
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the durian yet ( [http://www.hot-screensaver.com/wp-myimages/malaysia-durian.jpg](http://www.hot-screensaver.com/wp-myimages/malaysia-durian.jpg) ). I supposed getting hit on the head by one of those things is even worse than being brained by a coconut, due to the spikes. ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/35 "2010-03-28T14:28:14Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > Pizza can cause some really nasty burns if you eat it too fast. Onion rings too. I was eating them once and took a bite of a particularly large ring, deep-fried to perfection, when the outer shell came off in my fingers, and the soft, hot onion swung down from my bottom lip, and stuck to my clean-shaven face all the way down to below my chin. A big red blister formed shortly after. If nothing else, this story speaks to the protective benefits of facial hair. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/36 "2010-03-28T14:37:27Z")
A **Shark Sandwich** would also be a dangerous food. But perhaps not surprisingly so. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/37 "2010-03-28T15:06:02Z")
Oh, I forgot a good one - marshmallows! When I was a kid, we were toasting marshmallows, and I got some hot, goopy marshmallow on one of my fingers. Being marshmallow, it stuck there and I wasn’t able to get it off before it gave me a burn that still shows a scar to this day. There’s also the danger of kids waving flaming marshmallows around on sticks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/38 "2010-03-28T15:34:38Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Oh, I forgot a good one - marshmallows! When I was a kid, we were toasting marshmallows, and I got some hot, goopy marshmallow on one of my fingers. Being marshmallow, it stuck there and I wasn’t able to get it off before it gave me a burn that still shows a scar to this day. There’s also the danger of kids waving flaming marshmallows around on sticks. 🙂 My sister caught her hair on fire with a flaming marshmallow… burned off about half her hair and she ended up with a nice set of blisters. I’ll add harmburgers and rattlesteaks to the list. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/39 "2010-03-28T16:45:13Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > A **Shark Sandwich** would also be a dangerous food. > > But perhaps not surprisingly so. Yep, my doctor has warned us not to eat shark-it is loaded with iodine (enough to poison you). ---
**Author:** ![leafrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@leafrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leafrog)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001/40 "2010-03-28T16:52:13Z")
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the roof shredding hazards of Captain Crunch! Ahh, the lovely feel of flesh hanging onto your tongue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surpisingly-dangerous-food/534001.md?page=3)