10 DELICIOUS Foods That Can Actually KILL You

In this day in age of convenient grocery stores and restaurants, most people only care how good the food tastes and don't even consider if it's poisonous or not. Maybe we should not take our food safety for granted because a lot of the foods we all love to eat could kill us.

1. Cherries

These innocent, delicious berries can be used in a lot of ways. You can eat them raw, bake them, cook them, make juice out of them, but whatever you do, do not suck or bite down on a cherry pit. That’s because if you damage the pit even a little, it will produce hydrogen cyanide which in large enough quantities can cause headaches, vomiting, breathing difficulties, and even kidney failure.

2. Apples

Like cherries, apple seeds also contain cyanide. So if you eat enough apple seeds, you may end up like Snow White... without the dwarfs and the prince and the whole coming back to life thing.

3. Mushrooms

Mushrooms are nutritious and delicious, but out the world's 38,000 different types of fungi, about 5% (1,900) are actually poisonous. 

While some toxic mushrooms are easy to spot because of their bright colors, most of the deadliest mushrooms appear very unassuming and the most deadly of them all the Death Cap even looks just like common edible mushrooms and if you eat it, it will begin killing you before you even realize something is wrong. It's poisonous symptoms typically won’t manifest for hours when you eventually experience abdominal pain, severe dehydration, and diarrhea.
The Death Cap mushroom will destroy your liver and, without treatment, you can experience rapid organ failure, coma, and death.

4. Nutmeg

Remember the whole cinnamon challenge? Well, just be glad there’s no nutmeg challenge because nutmeg is a hallucinogen and just a teaspoon can lead to convulsion, seizures, and vomiting that can last for days. And if you eat an entire nutmeg, then you'll enter what's called “nutmeg psychosis,” which can lead to death.

5. Potatoes

If you ever looked at a potato and noticed that it’s a bit green, that isn't because it's not ripe yet, it’s because of the naturally occurring toxin found in the leaves and stems that can build up in potatoes when left out too long. This glycoalkaloid poison acts as natural pesticide and fungicide to defend against animals, insects, and fungi.

Eating green potatoes can cause cramps, diarrhea, and even death so make sure to discard any potatoes with green sprouts or greenish skin.

6. Almonds

Did you know almonds are not nuts but are actually seeds? Almonds are one of the most popular ingredients in the kitchen and come in both sweet and bitter varieties, with the bitter ones being the most aromatic and flavorful... and poisonous.

If left untreated, bitter almonds are full of, again, cyanide. Eating 7-10 raw bitter almonds could kill a child and eating around 20 could kill an adult!

7. Rhubarb

Rhubard is very versatile. It can be made into jams, drinks, and baked in pies but its leaves contain oxalic acid which can form kidney stones. Eating about 10 pounds of rhubarb could kill you.

8. Lima Beans

Raw lima beans contain high levels of that pesky cyanide again so it should always be cooked for at least 10 minutes without a lid so the poison can escape as a gas. The water cooking the beans should be thrown away because just a handful of raw Lima beans can make someone violently ill.

9. Cassava

Cassava is also known as tapioca, yup, that’s the stuff in your bubble tea. Cassava is widely consumed in South America and Africa and is the third largest source of carbohydrates in the world. Just like almonds, there are two varieties of cassava: sweet and bitter. The bitter kind is up to 8 times more toxic because cassava’s cyanide content is very high. Just two cassava roots contain enough poison to kill an adult, and a pound could drop a cow.

10. Puffer Fish of Fugu

This fish is so poisonous chefs who want to prepare it,  must go through years of rigorous training and at the end, there is a test where the chef must prepare the fish and eat it. But as dramatic as that sounds, the chefs who fail the test (about 70% of them) don’t die.  They could fail even before the eating part of the test and, even if they ate the unsuccessfully prepared fugu, they are only eating the flesh that is less poisonous.

If the fish is prepared correctly, you can even eat some of the organs which are the most toxic parts of the fish but the most lethal organ, the liver, cannot be sold. This puffer fish is even banned in Europe.  

Some people actually want a little poison on their fish because they would get a tingling sensation on their lips. Umm, not judging here but if you want a tingling sensation on your lips, go eat a peppercorn, not a poisonous fish!

Feeling Hungry Caused by Brain Cells Looking for these Essential Nutrients

Wonder why you're still hungry after eating a meal? There could be an essential ingredient missing from your food. 

Researchers recently discovered that tanycyte brain cells are responsible for our feeling hungry and until they're triggered by amino acids, especially these two: 

1. Arginine 
2. Lysine 

The tanycytes are positioned in the third ventricle, a great place to scan our cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for nutritional contents. 

“Tanycytes in the brain respond to amino acids found in foods, via the same receptors that sense the flavor of amino acids (umami taste), which are found in the taste buds of the tongue,” said Professor Nicholas Dale from the University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences and colleagues.

The researchers added high concentrations of arginine and lysine into... fluorescent brain cells so they could see microscopic reactions. 

“These amino acids are found in high concentration in foods such as pork shoulder, beef sirloin steak, chicken, mackerel, plums, apricots, avocados, lentils, and almonds — so eating those foods will activate the tanycytes and make you feel less hungry quicker.”

Within as little as 30 seconds from contact with amino acids, our brains will change to make us no longer feel full. 

“Finding that tanycytes, located at the center of the brain region that controls body weight, directly sense amino acids has very significant implications for coming up with new ways to help people to control their body weight within healthy bounds.”

So what are you waiting for? Add some amino acid rich foods to your diet today!

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SOURCES:

http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/neuroscience/tanycytes-control-appetite-05275.html

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212877817305379

Greta Lazutkaite et al. Amino acid sensing in hypothalamic tanycytes via umami taste receptors. Molecular Metabolism, published online September 14, 2017; doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2017.08.015

New GMO Chinese Pig Has 24% Less Fat

Scientists in Beijing, China just genetically engineered pigs with 24% body fat. They claim this will help farmers grow pigs faster, healthier, and cheaper. Seems like they're willing to mess with the law of nature for higher short-term profits, yet are there any hidden long-term costs? 

Pig x Mice = Low-Fat Pork?

By genetically adding mice proteins (UCP1) into pig embryos using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology, the pigs were able to grow "brown fat" rather than their natural "white fat." That's Brown fat is found in most mammals, keeps us warm, and burns energy. White fat is cooler and basically lard, so pigs would need more of it to stay warm. 

After growing these brown-fat-pigs for 6 months, they had 24% less fat than regular pigs. They weighed about the same but had a leaner muscle to fat ratio.

That may sound good but will they taste as good? Is it healthy? What potential health risks may be within the lean porky surface?

GMO Dangers

You may not see these lean genetically modified pig meats in your local supermarket any time soon because the lab's success rate is only 12 out of 2,553 so far. But this may be a good thing because eating GMO foods is known to cause a variety of illnesses like 

• obesity
• infertility
• cancer
• depression
• allergies

In 2015, the Communist Chinese government was sued by it's citizens for keeping the health risks of GMO foods secret.

"I very much doubt that this particular pig will ever be imported into the USA,” R. Michael Roberts, an animal sciences professor at the University of Missouri who edited the PNAS paper, told NPR. 

If you want a leaner diet, just cut off the extra fat, eat a leaner meat, or eat more vegetables. And, of course, avoid GMO foods all together. 

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Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-engineered-reduced-fat-pig-crispr-china-2017-10?r=UK&IR=T

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/04/21/china-gmo-foods.aspx

10 Well-known Health Tips that Are Completely Bogus

Gluten-free, “Farm-to-table,” Non-GMO, Juice cleanse, Paleo; these are just a few of the words we hear on an almost daily basis from people around us who are really into health, fitness, and such and such. We have heard many health enthusiasts argue that the best food to put in our bodies is the organic kind. Many would also argue that eating meat does more harm than good to our health.

The health and fitness movement is like a religion that branches out into different branches with a set of core beliefs – and while some of these beliefs do not agree with one another, the point is that people go to great lengths to stay healthy and be fir (at least for the next few months after making that New Year’s Resolution).

It is because of so much information on health and fitness flooding the internet, many of us are led to believe that all of them work without even finding out if any of them are true, to begin with. So, in this list, we are busting those myths and showing you 10 well-known health tips that are complete hoopla.

#10 - Dark Chocolate is a Healthier Alternative to Sweets

We have all heard of the so-called benefits of Dark Chocolate. Over the internet and in different advertising media, people have made convincing testimonies that dark chocolate has a variety of great things for our health such as improved skin complexion, benefits to our heart, as well as improved brain and memory function.

While there is some truth to it because part of chocolate’s composition is a chemical called flavanol which does improve blood circulation to the brain and, incidentally, gives dark chocolate that sharp, bitter taste; the downside to this is that most chocolate bars that are readily available commercially have little to none of this beneficial chemical at all. Because of the process of how commercial chocolate bars – dark or regular – are prepared, flavanol is practically obliterated to up the levels of taste and flavor. A bar of Hershey’s would have flavanol in it but not enough to even kick start your blood circulation.

#9 - A Thoroughly Washed Chicken is Bacteria Free

Logically, washing raw food before putting it on the stove is an absolutely sound idea. After all, you would not want that raw meat gunk on your plate once you serve it for dinner and among the many meat products in the market, chicken is the most popular animal to be washed before serving.

It has been common practice in many households to give poultry a thorough cleaning before preparing it. While, indeed, you do get to wash off all the bacteria from the carcass, however, this does not mean that you are safe from microbial bacteria.

A splash and a spritz of water can effectively transfer bacteria such as salmonella onto kitchen counters, cutting boards, and even our arms through the water droplets that splash back from the wash.

In truth, washing off bacteria from chicken or any other meat product is an exercise in failure and the best way to kill disease-causing germs and bacteria is to thoroughly and properly cook your food. A good and sufficient blast of heat from cooking can instantly eliminate microbes and germs.

#8 - Antioxidant Supplements are your Frontline Defense against Cancer Cells

We are all guilty of spending hundreds of dollars on dietary supplements and vitamins that promise to keep us in peak condition, but most of us have been duped by supplements claiming that they have antioxidants that can help prevent some cancers and diseases.

While antioxidants are essential to our body chemistry, having an excess of it can be much more harmful. Antioxidants occur naturally and can be easily found in certain fruits such as tomatoes and drinks like different kinds of tea, but the most popular kind of antioxidants come in the form of processed pills and supplements.

The fact of the matter is that the body has both Oxidants and Antioxidants, each keeping the other one in check. But the commercial health supplement market has overplayed the role of antioxidants and has been widely claimed as the one thing that can prevent cancer. Unfortunately, as our bodies consume these supplements on a regular basis, our body chemistry receives an imbalance as these supplements also attack the “good” oxidants in our body, making us much more susceptible to deadly diseases and cancers.

Antioxidant supplements are not entirely evil or harmful. As with anything else concerning diet and our health, everything is a matter of moderation and, if you can opt for more natural sources of antioxidants from the food you consume rather than buying it from a shelf.

#7 - Always Wash Your Hands to Keep Germs at Bay

The first line of defense against diseases is keeping your hands clean, literally. The benefits of washing your hands with soap and water are numerous and have been proven by science to deter illnesses such as the flu.

While it is, indeed, a good practice sometimes we can get a little overboard without even knowing it. Constant hand washing, especially with antibacterial soap, can strip away moisture from our hands and leave them sterile. The chemicals in the soap can eliminate bacteria indiscriminately leaving our palms even more vulnerable to the elements.

There are naturally occurring bacteria in the human body, and this is a by-product of millions of years of evolution. These bacteria actually help prevent diseases and germs from clinging to us and potentially infecting us with disease; the same bacteria that antibacterial soap and chemicals eliminate with constant washing.

Washing your hands should be a practice, but it is much more prudent to keep it at a maximum of two times a day or after doing a really messy job like gardening or picking up after your dog in the park.

#6 - Your Muscles Instantly Turn to Fat if You Don’t Workout

The general myth is that when you decide to quit the gym or give up on working out because of your schedule or because it’s just too hard, the muscle that you have gained will turn into flab.

The truth is that muscle and fat are two different sets of tissue and comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges.

You have to imagine your body as a machine, and each part of it has a role to play, and there are different ways to keep each part of the body in top condition. People who have stopped working out will indeed see a significant change in their bodies and notice that they are gaining an excessive amount of fat. The thing is, muscle mass is lost when it is not constantly exercised. You don’t gain fat when you stop working out. It is quite the reverse. You lose muscle mass when you stop your exercise regimen.

#5 - Juices Can Be A Healthy Alternative to Soda

True and false. A dietician or your doctor may recommend you to consume a glass of fresh fruit juice each day to keep up with your daily vitamin intake, but it is not a healthy alternative to, let’s say Diet Soda.

Fruits are, without a doubt, packed with vitamins and minerals enough to last you an entire day but it is also packed with sugar. Whether it is natural sugar or processed sugar, whatever form it comes in, it is still harmful in large doses, and juices count as one of the culprits.

People swear by juice cleanse and, admittedly, there are positive results from detoxifying by drinking juice for a specific amount of time but without proper information and education, going overboard on juicing can lead to obesity or diabetes.

Another point is that it is a known fact that fruits  - as well as vegetables – lose a considerable amount of their nutritional value when they are put in a blender. So, you’re getting less of the nutrients but still the same amount of sugar. Your best option is still to keep your consumption in moderation.

#4 - Sweat is the Best Way to Know that You Are Burning Fat

Sorry guys, but sweating buckets do not count as losing calories and shedding a few pounds.

Sweating is the body’s natural response to cool down in a hot climate or after an intense activity like running or working out. What triggers this is our metabolism that, to put it plainly, boosts our energy and excites our metabolism.

In fact, weight loss and calorie burning are attributed to our metabolism. Naturally, as we get older, the less energy we need to burn and our metabolism slows down to suit our needs, but to avoid packing on some pounds as we age, a good workout or exercise regimen will keep our body burning through energy as well as unwanted flaws.

While you may think that sitting in a sauna is good for weight loss, the only benefit you are actually getting out of it is opening up your pores and sweating out toxins from the body.

#3 - The Best Way to Get a Six Pack is by Doing Crunches and Sit-ups

Here is an eye-opener. We all have that six-pack we dream of. We do. The human anatomy is designed in such a way that our muscles have a definition no matter our body shape.

The problem with not getting the abdominal muscles we so ever thirst for is not because we don’t take time to develop them; it’s mostly because of our diet.

It has been pointed out by experts that doing crunches or spot training specific points in our bodies – especially the abs – can only do so much. Crunches and sit-ups actually do not shape and sculpt our abdominals. What they do is they strengthen the muscles in that area. Having a proper diet by lessening sugar and sodium from what we eat – coupled with a good workout routine – is a much, much more effective way of getting that beach-ready body.

#2 - Going Gluten Free is the healthiest diet choice you will ever make

This is a trend that has been making waves in the healthy living and diet communities around the world. To them, gluten is some kind of evil substance that ruins your body and invited some diseases. In truth, a gluten-free diet is only necessary for people who have celiac disease.

While many people have claimed of the wonders of a gluten-free diet because they were able to effectively shed pounds, the main reason behind it is because they have eliminated various food items from their table and ended up with a much lower caloric intake and not because they went gluten-free. Having to reduce food portions or eliminating junk from your diet will actually have the same result without needing to go on a trendy gluten-free life choice.

#1 - Carbs Make You Gain Weight

Ask a doctor or a nutrition expert about carbs, and they will most probably say that it is an essential part of any diet.

It is a mystery how this myth came to be and how it continues to catch on without any signs of letting up.

Carbohydrates are a primary source of our body’s energy. Without it, we will simply slow down and be lethargic. The myth that it makes you gain insane amounts of weight it, to be fair, a little bit baseless. While there is a variety of carbohydrates that we can get from different kinds of food, the “good” kind of carbohydrates come from crops like sweet potatoes and fruits. It is the “bad” kind of carbohydrates that give carbs a terrible reputation in the dieting community. Bad carbohydrates essentially give you a quick boost of energy and instantly dips and crash once you’ve used it all up. They are mainly partnered with sugar and starch and have little to no nutritional value like white bread and processed food.

Essentially, carbohydrates aren’t the bad guys. It’s just that we’ve come to love sugar so much that many of us fail to notice that this sinister ingredient is to blame for our widening waistlines.

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And there you have it. 10 completely bogus health facts! Let us know what you think and share your ideas with us in the comments section!

Sources:

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20765578,00.html#myth-crunches-are-the-key-to-flat-abs--0
http://www.rd.com/health/wellness/health-myths-debunked/
http://www.cracked.com/article_22606_6-well-known-health-tips-that-dont-work-at-all.html

5 Things You Didn’t Know Are Banned in the US

The United States is a country that upholds and celebrates every person’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Though all three are supposed to be unalienable rights which the government is meant to protect, it seems there are some exceptions to this rule.

There are certain things that people are banned from doing or bringing in the country because of safety concerns, environmental issues or even political troubles. So, even if you have all the best intentions and all the money in the world, there are some things you just can’t legally buy or do in the United States.

As examples, here are five things you probably didn’t know are banned in the United States.

Kinder Eggs

Who could say no to a surprise toy wrapped in a delicious, egg-shaped chocolate treat? Well, as it turns out, the United States government could. While the rest of the world gets to buy and enjoy the sweet chocolate taste of Kinder Surprise, those who reside in the U.S. cannot.

Since 1938, the country has enforced a ban on candies with embedded “non-nutritive objects,” including toys. When Kinder Surprise began to be manufactured in the 70s by Italian company Ferrero, these hollow chocolate eggs containing surprise toys inside fell under the country’s Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and were made illegal in the United States.

On top of that, the Food and Drug Administration or FDA also claims the surprise toy inside these egg-shaped chocolates to be potential choking hazards for kids. As a result, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection regularly issued press releases which served the objective of reminding the public that Kinder Surprise Eggs are simply too hazardous to be brought into the country legally.

Of course, these warnings have not stopped some people from trying to smuggle these delicious chocolate eggs across the border. And over the years, members of the public have questioned the ban, calling out the U.S. government for implementing a “ridiculous” policy.

Unpasteurized Milk

There is an exhaustive history and ongoing debate regarding the legalization of raw milk in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, unpasteurized milk is a viable home for dangerous bacteria and other harmful germs that can get you sick or worse, even kill you. While it is quite possible to get foodborne illnesses from other types of food, they say raw milk is among the riskiest of them all.

States have the power to adopt their own laws regarding the sale or distribution of raw milk. However, at the federal level, the FDA strictly enforces the pasteurization of all milk and milk products that are intended for human consumption. The organization has also banned the interstate sale or distribution of raw milk, and while there are some exceptions to the rule, these are very limited.

There is a loophole to the government’s ban on unpasteurized milk. Drinking or consumption of raw milk in itself remains legal in all 50 states. So, if you want to drink fresh milk straight from a cow, you’d have to consider raising your own cow as your personal source of unpasteurized milk.

Books Published Before 1985

Under a law Congress passed in recent years about the regulation of hazards in children’s products, the federal government has deemed children’s books published before 1985 as unsafe and has essentially made it unlawful to sell or distribute them.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 imposed tough new limits on using lead in any products intended for use by children aged 12 and below. This provision has a retroactive effect, which meant goods manufactured before the passing of the law cannot be sold or distributed unless they are subjected to further testing.

Thrift stores and bookshops were hit particularly hard by this policy because many books printed before 1985 used inks and paints with lead pigments. And because of that, the U.S. government believes that these old books might potentially give children brain damage due to lead poisoning.

Haggis

Haggis is a traditional Scottish pudding which is made of sheep’s liver, hearts and lungs - ingredients which are not exactly welcomed and appreciated by a large number of people in the United States. Though it’s not largely popular in the country, Scots, on the other hand, have been pushing for the lifting of the import ban on haggis since 1971. That year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ruled that “livestock lungs shall not be saved for use as human food.”

More difficulties in the export of traditional haggis ingredients into the country surfaced when the importation of British lambs back in 1997 was also implemented. At the time, a potential link was discovered between the human and the cow forms of the terrifying mad cow disease.

However, it looks like this ban won’t be in effect for much longer. After years of negotiating the lift of the ban, the Scottish government previously announced an important milestone regarding this issue, and they have expressed their hopes that the restriction on the export of lamb as well as haggis in the United States could finally be lifted sometime in 2017.

Fresh Ackee Fruit

Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica and is typically enjoyed as a breakfast dish as well as a lunch or dinner entree. When the fruit ripens while on its tree, the Ackee fruit opens up and shows three large black shiny seeds which are surrounded by its bright yellow-colored flesh.

Banning a fruit might seem a little too extreme as a safety measure for some people, but prohibition of this Jamaican fruit seems to be a warranted decision. As it turns out, though the yellow flesh around the seed of a ripe ackee is considered to be edible, the rest of the fruit has been revealed to contain toxic levels of hypoglycin A and B. And consuming this fruit in its raw form can lead to a condition known as Jamaican Vomiting Sickness. This can lead to mild to severe vomiting, convulsions, coma, and in some extreme cases, may even result in the death of the consumer.

Ackee imports were not permitted in the United States for almost 30 years until the band was lifted by the FDA in the year 2000, when modern technology utilized by processing companies allowed for the safer processing methods of the fruit. While the import of canned ackee is no longer prohibited in the country, it is still very much illegal to import fresh ackee. Aside from that, selling or commercially serving ackee which are planted and grown in the United States is also deemed against the law.  

And there you have it - those are five of several things that are currently banned in the United States. After going through our list, you could probably see a bit more clearly the point of view of the federal government on why they felt it was necessary to prohibit the sale and distribution of certain items or products in the country. But of course, some of you might also be among those who have questioned such prohibitive laws, thinking some of these policies are just essentially absurd and that it’s unfair for the U.S. government to impose them upon its people. And while these prohibitions have not completely stopped everyone from doing what they want, it is important to keep in mind that these policies were made and are supposedly implemented in the best interest of the nation and its citizens.