I’ve always heard that all mammals are edible, except for the livers of polar mammals (polar bears, and certain seals), and ??? IIRC, the one I cannot remember is much more likely to encounter, so it’s driving me crazy trying to remember what it is. Everything I’ve looked up only mentions the danger of eating the liver of polar mammals. Anyone know? Or, am I not “remembering” something that never existed?
I am wondering about the natural safety of eating cooked mammal parts. Please don’t include references to pollutants or bacteria.
Polar bear livers are loaded with it, much more so than any other mammal. Since Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, it lodges in your tissues in lethal amounts.
Steve-O, I’m sorry that I don’t have a cite handy, so I’m not going to post this as a definite fact until I have a chance to look it up, BUT - I believe that feline livers can also cause Vitamin A toxicity, and there may be other carnivores, as well, that store Vitamin A in the liver. I think you would have to eat the liver of a pretty large cat, like a puma or leopard, to ingest enough Vitamin A to be hazardous.
I’ll look it up as soon as I can and post it back here, if you’re still interested.
In the early 1910s, Sir Douglas Mawson was on a polar expedition during which the exploring party lost most of their food (and one of their members) to a fissure. The remaining two men were forced to eat their huskies to survive. Mawson was the only survivor; his companion succumbed to vitamin A poisoning, having eaten more liver than Mawson.
dont eat the thyroid gland of a cow. I believe that scientific american had a article about a year ago on this subject. It seems a small meat processor in the midwest was grinding them up with the ground beef. About half the town developed goiter.
Steve-o, I’ve not had a lot of success in finding information about this - I know it has to be out there somewhere, I’m just not finding it! I found numerous references to the polar bear and seal liver toxicity, but so far the following is all I’ve been able to find on other animals:
“Naturally-occurring intoxications with vitamins are EXTREMELY RARE and result from ingestion of 1) liver from animals that really pack away retinyl ester (Vitamin A) in their stellate cells (polar bear, shark, tuna, dogs, etc.) and 2) one of three or four plants containing vitamin D-like calcinogenic glycosides (1,25 dihydroxycholcalciferal derivatives).”
“Hypervitaminosis A can be caused by eating raw carnivore livers which are rich in the vitamin. Early explorers in the Arctic and Antarctic who ran out of food and had to eat their dogs frequently died from this disease not knowing why they were becoming sick.”
I came across a few vague references to Vitamin A toxicity caused by eating too much fish, but nothing that was worth posting a link to. I’m still poking around some, though, so maybe I’ll come up with some better information.
Well, geez, Steve-o, I thought maybe you were a mystery novelist looking for a unique way to kill someone off, and I’d get a big thank you in the introduction to your book!
(Drat! There goes another plan to become famous without really trying!)
