….and that is why being separated from our food’s origins and not knowing anything about botany is what is wrong with the world today goddamnit.
I bet some people would eat castor beans too. Or yew. Or just fuckin’ snack on some hemlock because it’s natural, man.
Fucking incredible.
LIKE IT TAKES SOME FUCKING EFFORT TO GET A CHERRY PIT OPEN FUCKING W H Y
Question: Is it the same with plums? I used to do that occasionally when I ate dried and seasoned Asian plums as a kid.
Yes.
Plum pits do not contain as much as cherry, but they do.
Do not eat stone fruit pits, people. Or bitter almonds.
They all have cyanide in them.
Oh boy, apricot kernels. The amount of people I see lauding those as a “cure for cancer” is… demoralizing. I can’t find it right now but I believe there was a mother in the past few years who was taken to court for child endangerment/neglect for feeding those to her very young child as a cancer treatment.
I saw this horror last year, and yelled for an entire hour.
To be fair, I bet if you die of cyanide poisoning the cancer won’t kill you.
I have been wanting to use these photos for months.
The recommendation is to only eat 3 in one hour. because that is just the most filling snack and of course they will stop at three.
Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
Just because it’s food for another creature doesn’t mean it’s fine for you.
Best case scenario it’s like grass which is basically neutral- it’s generally not going to kill you but there’s no nutrition for humans in it, and enough will probably make you sick.
Worst case scenario it’s something like belladonna berries which taste sweet but will kill you stone cold dead.
Same for the wrong kind of mushrooms, other berries, leaves and barks. Before consuming, CHECK. If you can’t check, don’t put it in your mouth.
Every Canadian who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, let’s all sing together:
“If you don’t know just what it is/Don’t put it in your mouth!”
….I would like to point out that there are recipes that call for cracked apricot kernels or cherry pits, though. James Beard talks about including cracked apricot kernels in apricot preserves while he was growing up, and apparently there’s an ongoing authenticity debate in the clafouti community about whether it’s a ‘real’ cherry clafouti if it doesn’t contain some cracked cherry pits.
I mean, yeah they’re toxic in large enough numbers, but there is historical precedent for consuming them in small amounts or using them for flavor.
(I would like to point out there’s also historical precedent for consuming them in vast amounts. that historical precedent is also known as dying of cyanide poisoning.)
theclumsiestninja 