6 Foods That Can Kill You if Prepared Incorrectly

Did you know that some foods can be both nutritious and malicious? These 6 foods are good for you if prepared correctly, but if not, they can actually kill you. Join Stefan Chin for a fun and slightly creepy new episode of SciShow!

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[collinm]

Shout out to all the early humans who ate all of these and died taking one for the team

[christopherbell]

As the late Sir Terry Pratchet wrote, 'all fungi are edible, but some are only edible once'.

[unicornswag]

The last time I ate a vegetable was June 12, 1996. I got E Coli from a slice of lettuce. I've consumed nothing but pure protein powder ever since.

[captainanopheles]

The first people to eat rhubarb:

Eat the leaves: poison
Eat the flowers: poison
Eat the roots: poison
Eat the stems: ok! Just need a pound of sugar! Yum!

[onetwothree]

I wonder how many deaths it took until people figured out just which part of pufferfish is not toxic. And espescially why people kept trying to find said part and didn't just give up.

[juha-mattikoponen]

So what about Morel mushrooms? Eat them raw and you might die. Parboil them 3 times changing the water every time and you will get one of the tastiest shrooms to cook with. The Finnish book of forest mushrooms has a scale: 1-3 stars for edibles and 1-3 crosses for poisonous ones. Morel has 3 crosses and 3 stars next to its name :D

[FenrirWolfganger]

When I was a child my Dad had some Kidney beans that hadn't been cooked properly. First time I saw him in pain, so NOT a good memory, but good people know. By contrast in my wife's part of Kerala India they grow Cashew nuts and a favourite memory is brother in law putting a load of the nuts still in their shells into a fire. Sparks leap out while the oil is burned up then when the fire died down he scooped out the nuts, smashed the shells and we all shared the nuts.

[bobbyharper]

That rash around Uranus sounds astronomically irritating.

[Amigo]

Now you know why cashews are more expensive than most other common nuts: It takes a certain something extra to convince someone to pick fruit from a tree that it literally hurts to touch.
Edit: in the two years since this was posted, I have been (repeatedly) informed that it is untrue. Other than this disclaimer I will leave the thread as-is.

[pdreding]

I'm surprised you didn't mention freshwater eels. Their blood is toxic until cooked, which is why sushi restaurants only serve unagi grilled.

[BHuang]

Delectable tea?

*OR DEADLY POISON?*
-Iroh

[Master_Therion]

If I eat too much toxic food I gain weight, it goes straight to my toxic waist.

[nollypolly]

I live in a very 'wonderbread' area.
A few years ago, local grocery stores started selling cassava. All I could think of was some Karen cooking them up like scalloped potatoes and poisoning everyone at a potluck.

[maritasue]

I read a murder mystery a few years ago where a “bad guy” caused a major distraction to his evil deeds by adding ground-up kidney beans to some dishes at a catered event (casting the caterer into a bad light). Up until then, I didn’t know about the hazards of raw kidney beans.

[mnealbarrett]

I can tell you, passing kidney stones is FAR more than "ouch".

[bogosbintedhuh]

“6 Foods That Are Toxic if You Prepare Them Incorrectly”

1. People

[CulinaryLore]

Although this was mentioned in the video, some further notes on kidney beans are worth knowing. The video says that you should avoid using slow cookers and you need to boil them after soaking for around 30 minutes. However, not mentioned is the fact that this lectin, phytohemagglutinin, is rendered more potent when the beans are just warmed but not cooked at high heat. In other words, undercooked kidney beans can be more toxic than raw ones. So, stewing at low temperatures at hours is not the same as boiling at high heat. However, it doesn't matter when the heat is applied. You can cook them slowly for hours and then hit them with the hight heat at the end of the cooking time.

Cannellini beans and broad beans also contain high amounts of phytohemagglutinin compared to other beans, so be careful with them, as well. They do not contain amounts as high as in kidney beans, though.

[Tefans]

My great-great grandmother did actually die from eating rhubarb leaves because of food shortages and because there was a rumour that it was good food. She wanted to set a good example for the rest of the family and ended up being the one who ate most, which was too much.

[Chillitz]

if aliens ever land the perfect way to describe humans is "we have thumbs and overthink things"

[maracachucho]

1:39 I've eaten cassava my whole life, alongside my entire family and a huge chunk of my fellow compatriots no problem. It really boggles my mind how some people can't prepare it properly, the poisonous skin peels off so easily it is extremely satisfying to do, it's like live ASMR.