It’s common to expect that medications are going to cause side effects. Some are barely noticeable and some may be worse than the condition the medication treats. We understand that’s a risk associated with medicine, though.
Sometimes people seem to forget that side effects aren’t limited to the realm of medications. Many things we eat can have their own effects, and some of them are far more surprising than you’d imagine.
10. The Scottish Health Pea Suppresses Hunger But Provides Energy
The Scottish health pea, also called bitter vetch, was a crop once cultivated in medieval times. The tuberous plant is said to taste like leather licorice and was used as an appetite suppressant before potatoes became a staple crop. Those who eat it lose the urge to eat and drink.
There’s evidence that the plant does more than just stave off hunger. Stories tell of Highlanders using it to perform impressive feats of strength and Roman soldiers using it to sustain themselves during long battles against their enemies.
Performance enhancing abilities aside, the potential use as a diet aid has been the focus in the modern age, as a plant that can convince you to stop eating and therefore lose weight would be worth a lot of money.
One of the big hindrances to cultivating it on a mass scale is that it’s hard to grow and harvest, but a plant that gives you extensive energy and allows you to forget your hunger is worth trying to cultivate, at least for some.
9. Miracle Berries Block the Taste of Sour
For a few years, many sites on the internet sold something called Miracle Berries as a novelty. You can still find them for sale in many retailers but they’re not as well known as they were. The fruit, also called miracle fruit or Synsepalum dulcificum, hails from West Africa and has the unique ability to alter your ability to taste other foods.
The selling point of miracle fruit is that it eliminates your ability to taste sour foods. Thus, anything you eat that is normally sour will taste sweet. This is owing to something called miraculin, a glycoprotein found in the fruit. It binds to taste receptors on your tongue and will activate in the presence of acid found in sour foods. For maybe up to an hour or two, you can perceive sour as sweet.
There were attempts in the past to use the fruit as a replacement for sweeteners so diabetics and others on restrictive diets could enjoy the taste of sweet things without adding sugar, but those efforts were stumped by the need for further testing. The plan was abandoned and now the multi-billion dollar sugar and sweetener industries continue as they ever did.
8. Salema Porgy is a Hallucinogenic Fish
There are over 32,000 kinds of fish in the world but when it comes to food, there are only a few dozen that humans regularly consume. Some fish are inedible or unpleasant tasting, some exist in small numbers, and some are impractical to catch. The ones we make use of often have fairly mild flesh and are easy to cook or prepare in ways most seafood lovers enjoy.
There are also a small subsection of fish out there that aren’t often eaten because of what they do to people who consume them. Consider the pufferfish which is potentially toxic and, even when well prepared, can cause your lips to tingle with that hint of poison. Or the Salema porgy, which makes you trip out and hallucinate.
They call it “the fish that makes dreams” in Arabic and these little fellows can be found in the eastern waters around Europe and Africa. Some people can safely eat the fish and nothing at all happens while others may be plagued with hallucinations for up to three days.
Before you think it sounds like a great time, be aware that the hallucinations aren’t fun. One person reported hearing the screams of humans and birds while another was surrounded by giant arthropods which, to you and me, are giant centipedes.
Something called ichthyoallyeinotoxism is what sets off the hallucinations, but science is still unclear how the porgy causes it and why only some parts of the fish do it.
7. Ice Cream Can Cause Breathalyzer False Positives
A breathalyzer test measures alcohol in your breath to determine if you’re legally fit to drive a vehicle. Some foods contain alcohol which might cause a false positive. There’s a whole cottage industry of law firms that want you to believe bread can cause a false positive since they’re hoping to snag you as a client to fight unfair tickets. The science doesn’t really back them up.
One item that has been shown to trigger breathalyzers is ice cream. A man who had a history of drinking and driver was on trial after registering what he insisted was a false positive. He claimed he’d just had some Bubble O’Bill ice cream and the breathalyzer device on his vehicle refused to unlock for him. Prosecutors demanded proof so the man’s level was tested by police in court and registered at 0.00. He ate the ice cream and was tested again, registering a 0.18. The judge allowed the device on his car to be removed.
6. Persimmons Can Form a Tannin Brick in Your Gut
Persimmons are bright yellow or orange fruits that taste a bit like a mild, sweet tomato. If you get one that’s not ripe it can be very bitter, however. That’s thanks to the high amount of tannins in the fruit, and that’s also the part that can be dangerous.
Tons of different plants have tannins in them from tea to wine to spices. They’re a chemical compound that binds to certain components in plants and mostly their job is to make a food taste unpleasant. The tannins will fade as some fruits or plants age or ripens because the plant needs to be eaten to spread its seeds at that point.
Humans have developed a lot of uses for tannins, like tanning hides for instance, but in foods we rarely want them and try to wait them out whenever possible. But some foods, like persimmons, have a lot and they build up.
If you eat a lot of persimmons, those tannins can bind with your gastric juices, cellulose and other compounds to make a phytobezoar. In simple terms, this is like a brick made of bark in your gut.
These bricks cannot be digested, and they can become painful blockages over time. They may require surgery to remove or, a much more pleasant option, you can potentially dissolve them by drinking Coca-Cola, a treatment which doctors will prescribe before resorting to surgery..
5. Beef Jerky Seems to Cause Mania
Bad news if you’re a beef jerky fan, that salty, chewy meat may cause psychiatric conditions. It’s not the jerky specifically, rather the nitrates in it you may need to worry about. That means other cured meats like salami or Slim Jims could have the same effect.
In a study of over 1,000 people hospitalized for various conditions, the numbers showed those who had been in for psychiatric conditions were 3.5 more likely to have been admitted for mania than the control group if they’d eaten jerky or cured meats.
Experiments on rats have shown that, after a few weeks on a diet high in nitrates, they exhibit manic behavior.
4. Margarine Can Make You Aggressive
The history of margarine dates back to Napoleon’s time when the French emperor wanted a cheap alternative to butter. Back then it was beef tallow churned with milk and probably got pretty ripe if it was left out in the heat for too long.
These days most margarine is made from various vegetable oils and lasts for around two to three months after it’s opened which is on par with butter, but it’s still cheaper overall. One thing they don’t advertise about margarine is how it can affect your mood.
To be specific, it’s dietary trans fatty acids that have been showed to lead to aggression. In the UK, research on the diets of prisoners showed that supplementing vitamins, minerals and especially omega-3 fatty acids showed a 37% drop in violent offenses. The research also pointed out that omega-3 fatty acids were consumed far less in modern times than decades passed, having been supplanted chiefly by omega-6 fatty acids like the kinds found in fast foods and products like margarine.
Today, trans fats are considered “bad fats” but the reason for this is usually related to heart health and cancer rather than how they affect your mind. Artificial trans fats are banned in the US but not naturally occurring ones.
3. Looking at Red Meat Calms Men Down
Men and their love of red meat has been a long-standing joke. Men love steak and burgers and BBQ and testosterone. It turns out there is more science behind this old stereotype than you might think. Meat has a calming effect on men.
Slightly weirder than meat calming men down is that this has nothing to do with eating. This is a side effect of just looking at meat. In what is arguably a very odd experiment, a group of men were asked to both look at an assortment of photos while listening to an actor recite lines. If the actor messed up a line, the men being studied could inflict loud noises on them meant to be a punishment.
Results showed the men were less inclined to inflict harsh punishments while they were looking at pictures of red meat. This ended up being a counterintuitive result since the expectation was that blood and meat and death would rile up aggression.
2. A Toxin in Some Shellfish Can Cause Amnesia
Shellfish can be dicey at the best of times. Some people have very serious shellfish allergies that can be deadly. Everyone else needs to be wary of poorly prepared or stored shellfish as it’s notorious for causing food poisoning if it hasn’t been safely handled. And we all need to worry about a potential shellfish toxic that can cause amnesia.
The particular toxin infects bivalves like clams and mussels. They can be steamed and seem safe but the steaming is not always enough to kill the toxin. Though the condition, called amnesic shellfish poisoning, doesn’t sound exceptionally dangerous at first, that’s only because it focuses on that one symptom.
A 1987 outbreak, when the toxin was first identified, led to three deaths and over 100 cases of infection. Besides memory loss, victims may suffer vomiting and diarrhea, disorientation, dizziness and muscle weakness. Some patients developed long term cognitive issues.
The cause is not the shellfish themselves but domoic acid which can contaminate the shellfish. Domoic acid is created by diatoms, a kind of algae, and they are not killed by heat.
1. Ciguatera Toxicity From Fish Reverse Hot and Cold Sensation In Your Mind
Ciguatera toxicity is one of the most bizarre conditions you can contract after eating food and you don’t want to experience it. It comes from certain reef fish, things like grouper, eel, or red snapper, infected with microorganisms that produce ciguatoxin.
The condition causes many of the symptoms you’d expect, such as cramping and diarrhea. The thing that sets ciguatera toxicity apart from most conditions is sensation reversal. Cold things feel hot and hot things feel cold. Ice cream would feel like it’s burning your mouth while a hot coffee would be cool and refreshing.
Aside from being confusing, there’s also danger in not being able to tell hot from cold. In addition, victims can suffer burning itch all over their bodies and the sensation that their teeth are falling out. Just to be clear, their teeth are not falling out but it feels like they are.