Extreme food stories grab people’s attention. Headlines like “Girl Who Ate Only Chicken
Nuggets for 15 Years Collapses” or “Woman died from drinking 10 liters of Coke a day”
make you realize that it’s not just what you eat but also how much you eat that matters. As the headlines above suggest, some foods
can be toxic or even fatal when consumed in large quantities- and not all of them are
junk food. We will discuss five potentially hazardous
everyday foods in this episode of The Infographics Show, “Regular Food You Can Overdose On.” 5. Brazil Nuts Brazil nuts are a good source of selenium,
which “plays an important role in reproduction, thyroid function, and DNA production” according
to one lifestyle blog. The problem is that you can easily overdose
on selenium if you eat what many would consider to be a small amount of nuts. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Selenium
Fact Sheet for Consumers states that Brazil nuts contain 68-91 mcg of selenium per nut. One nut alone is more than enough to satisfy
the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 55 microgams, or .0000019oz of selenium per
day for adults, and you should eat only about 4 to 5 nuts per day if you want to stay within
what the Linus Pauling Institute describes as the “tolerable upper intake level (UL)
for selenium,” which is 400 mcg per day for adults. Selenium poisoning or selenosis can occur
if you eat too many Brazil nuts over a long period of time. How much is too much? The Merck Manual states that “At high doses
(> 900 mcg/day), selenium causes toxicity.” This amount is roughly equal to eating 10
to 14 Brazil nuts per day. The NIH Selenium Fact Sheet for Consumers
lists skin rashes and loss of hair or nails as some of the symptoms of selenium overdose,
and it notes that “extremely high intakes of selenium can cause severe problems, including
difficulty breathing, tremors, kidney failure, heart attacks, and heart failure.” 4. Potatoes Potatoes are one of the most widely consumed
food crops in the world, but did you know that they can be toxic under the right conditions? Potatoes belong to the nightshade family,
Solanaceae. Like other nightshade plants, potatoes contain
solanine, which is a glycoalkaloid toxin. Potatoes are even listed in the U.S. Food
& Drug Administration’s (FDA) Poisonous Plant Database. According to the FDA, the average solanine
content of the common potato is 8 mg per 100g, or .0003 oz per 3.5 oz. of potato. Health problems can occur if you eat potatoes
that contain more than 20 mg of solanine per 100g of potato, which a review about potato
glycoalkaloids describes as the “generally accepted” safe upper limit of glycoalkaloid
content. A Healthline nutrition article states that
“eating a 16-ounce (450 g) potato that has surpassed the acceptable level of 20 mg solanine
per 3.5 ounces (100g) would be enough to make a 110-pound (50-kg) person sick.” The article also lists some of the symptoms
of solanine poisoning. They range from mild ones such as vomiting
and diarrhea to severe ones such as paralysis, convulsions, coma, and even death. What can increase the amount of solanine in
a potato is exposure to light, which also increases the production of chlorophyll and
gives the potato a greenish hue. Many experts agree that green potatoes tend
to contain a higher amount of solanine than ones that are not green. They also seem to agree that peeling green
potatoes and boiling or cooking them in other ways does not significantly reduce the amount
of solanine in them. What they can’t agree on is what to do with
partially green potatoes. Some experts say you can still eat the potato
by cutting out the green parts, but others advise you not to take any chances and discard
the entire potato. Bad taste is another indicator of high solanine
content whether or not the potato is green. According to the Hong Kong Centre for Food
Safety (CFS), “glycoalkaloid concentrations above 200mg/kg (2.2 lbs.) are associated with
a bitter taste and a burning sensation in the throat and mouth.” CFS speculates that this taste is probably
part of the reason why deaths caused by solanine poisoning from potatoes are rare events. 3. Lima Beans Lima bean haters have another excuse to avoid
the unpopular legume: raw lima beans are poisonous. They contain a cyanogenic glycoside called
linamarin. After lima beans are consumed, enzymes in
the body break linamarin down into hydrogen cyanide. According to a New Zealand Food Safety Authority
(NZFSA) information sheet, lima beans contain about 0.07-0.11 oz. (2000-3000 mg) of hydrogen
cyanide per 2.2 lbs. (1 kg) of beans. Most people would probably not eat that many
beans at one sitting, but eating a small amount of raw lima beans is still a bad idea. It does not take a large amount of cyanide
to sicken or kill you. The NZFSA information sheet states that the
acute dose of cyanide is “in the region of 1mg/kg, or .000035 oz per 2.2lbs of body
weight.” This dose can bring about twitching, cyanosis
(blue discoloration of the skin), and other adverse health effects. A news article about cyanide poisoning gives
a rough estimate that “about half a gram, or .018 oz of ingested cyanide will kill a
160-pound (72.57 kg) adult.” If you don’t want to worry about being poisoned
by the linamarin in lima beans, you should thoroughly cook them. You should also eat lima beans grown in the
United States. One news article notes that “in the U.S.
there are restrictions about cyanide levels in commercially grown lima bean varieties.” 2. Sugar For most healthy people, eating too much sugar
at one sitting is not fatal. It can cause what health websites call a sugar
“high” followed by a sugar “crash” as your pancreas goes into overdrive to send
enough insulin to process the high amount of sugar in your blood. It can also cause “significant body fat
storage.” However, it is possible to eat enough sugar
at one sitting to kill yourself. According to one news report, “Ten and a
half cups of sugar at once is enough to end the life of an 11 stone (70kg) person.” This means that approximately 4.65 pounds
(2.11kg) of sugar is a fatal dose for a person weighing about 154 pounds. If gulping down plain sugar sounds like a
boring way to die, here are some other options. Using the sugar content found on nutrition
labels posted online, we calculated that you could consume slightly over 4.65 pounds (2.11
kg) of sugar if you eat 452 Oreo cookies or 249 fun-size Snickers bars. According to one health website, one Hostess
Apple Fruit Pie contains 1.48oz. (42g) of sugar, so you would need to eat only 51 pies
to do yourself in. 1. Chocolate The toxin found in chocolate is theobromine,
a plant alkaloid that comes from cocoa beans. According to a Popular Science article, theobromine
acts as a mild stimulant, a diuretic, and a vasodilator that “can open up your blood
vessels and cause your blood pressure to drop.” It can have some serious negative effects
upon the human body. One news article reports that “Theobromine
poisoning can cause heart failure, seizures, acute kidney damage and dehydration.” The good news is that you would have to eat
a large quantity of chocolate in order to fall ill or die from theobromine poisoning. A Popular Science article notes that a toxic
dose (the LD50 level) of theobromine is 0.035 oz. per 2.2 lbs. (1,000 milligrams per kilogram)
of body weight. It also provides a specific example of theobromine
poisoning that is based on an average human weighing 165 pounds (75 kg). In this scenario, the person would have to
eat “about 75,000 milligrams, or 2.65 oz to be at a toxic level,” which can be found
in “711 regular-sized Hershey’s milk chocolate bars or 7,084 Hershey chocolate kisses or
332 standard-sized Hershey’s dark chocolate bars.” Do you know of any other regular foods that you can overdose
on? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our other video
called Vegans vs Meat Eaters, Who Will live longer?! Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t
forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!
