1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (7 page)

Ian Robert Hall, Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the World (Timber Press, 2003).

28

FACT :
Think you’re avoiding monosodium glutamate (MSG) by checking product labels? You could be wrong. Food makers now
conceal MSG in packaged foods
by listing it under other names, such as autolyzed or hydrolyzed vegetable protein, torula yeast, soy extracts, yeast extract, and protein isolate.
So the next time you’re at a Chinese restaurant, instead of asking for “No MSG, please,” say, “No autolyzed or hydrolyzed vegetable protein, torula yeast, soy extracts, yeast extract, and protein isolate, please.” And the waiter will still nod and smile as if the MSG wasn’t already in the food and he could remove it even if he had any intention of doing so, which he doesn’t.

Mike Adams, “Grocery Warning: The Seven Most Dangerous Ingredients in Conventional Foods,” (Truth Publishing LLC, 2006), Organic Consumers Association,
www.organicconsumers.org
.

Myrna Chandler Goldstein and Mark Allan Goldstein, Controversies in Food and Nutrition (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002), 13.

29

FACT :
Blowfish (fugu), a delicacy in Japan and Hong Kong, contains
deadly amounts of tetrodotoxin
, a poison 500 times stronger than cyanide. Several diners die each year from blowfish consumption.
And yet, people continue to eat it. If I’m going to die from eating something, I assure you it won’t be fish.

Donuts, maybe, or bacon, but not fish.

Dahlia Rideout, “Ten Dangerous & Deadly Foods,” Divine Caroline,
www.divinecaroline.com
.

Jack Jackson, Complete Diving Manual (New Holland Publishers, 2005), 177.

Robb Satterwhite, What’s What in Japanese Restaurants: A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and Enjoying, 2nd ed. (Kodansha International, 1996), 64.

30

FACT :
Because they are filter-feeders, shellfish can accumulate
high levels of toxins
from the algae they consume. Eat enough of them, and you could die.
Lobster and shrimp: two more things I’d rather die from eating than blowfish.

Dahlia Rideout, “Ten Dangerous & Deadly Foods,” Divine Caroline,
www.divinecaroline.com
.

“Various Shellfish-Associated Toxins,” Bad Bug Book, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition,
www.cfsan.fda.gov
.

31

FACT :
Rhubarb leaves contain a high concentration of oxalate, which is
poisonous in large doses
.

The stems contain a lower concentration of oxalate, and also act as a good laxative.
Some foods were never meant for human consumption, and rhubarb is at the top of that list. The proof: it either poisons you or makes you crap your pants.

Dahlia Rideout, “Ten Dangerous & Deadly Foods,” Divine Caroline,
www.divinecaroline.com
.

Ian Shaw, Is it Safe to Eat?: Enjoy Eating and Minimize Food Risks (Springer, 2005), 127.

32

FACT :
Potatoes contain
toxic compounds called glycoalkaloids
that cannot be reduced in cooking. Consumption of high doses of glycoalkaloids can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and, in severe cases, death.
Death by potato. Still better than death by blowfish.