Pica is defined as “the persistent eating of substances such as dirt or paint that have no nutritional value,” and it’s just one of the conditions that cause some people to eat the most bizarre and unbelievable things. Some do it for comfort or as a coping mechanism, while others picked up the strange habit following a traumatic or stressful event in their lives. Whichever the case, it makes for some pretty odd reading for the rest of us.

10 Heavy Metal

Q: What do 18 bicycles, 15 shopping carts, seven television sets, six chandeliers, two beds, and a coffin all have in common?

A: They’ve all been eaten by 57-year-old Michel Lotito of France. And you can add an entire Cessna 150 airplane to that list, too.

Lotito is another in the list of people with pica, and doctors claim he has an especially strong stomach lining and intestinal tract. Breaking objects into small, consumable pieces, he eats them with massive amounts of water to help his system to digest the metal. Despite his Superman-like stomach, Lotito has problems digesting some normal foods like bananas and hard-boiled eggs. “Monsieur Mangetout,” (“Mr. Eats All” in French) has even wolfed down a small section of the Eiffel Tower.

9 Street Meat

Cooking Instructions: Remove cat from side of road. Place smelly meat under running water for up to four days, or until odor dissipates. Cook well and serve.

That’s the formula and philosophy of Arthur Boyt of England, who says he’s been eating roadkill meals for over 35 years. He’s a taxidermist who prefers to eat the bodies of badgers, cats, and barn owls rather than throw them out after a stuffing job. It has never made him ill. Arthur keeps a freezer in his garage stocked with the likes of dead polecats, swan, buzzards, and even reptiles. And according to the 72-year-old, the best roadkill he ever ate was . . . (drum roll) . . . a Labrador.

“It has a pleasant taste and flavor that is a bit like lamb,” he says. Yeah, except a lamb probably wasn’t some poor little boy’s favorite pet.

8 The Human Leech

Have you ever drunk another human being’s blood? You have? That’s just all types of sick! Okay, I’m kidding, but a 45-year-old woman from Pennsylvania isn’t. Each month, Julie Caples drinks up to half a gallon of the vital life force, which she acquires from willing donors who apparently come over to her house and let her slice them open. She says the blood makes her feel “stronger and healthier,” and she finds that she has an abundance of energy afterward. One wonders how healthy and full of energy she’ll feel when she catches a blood-borne disease.

7 Gas Guzzler

Chen Jejun will make you glad you have a locked gas cap on your vehicle. The Chinese man, 71, gets his motor running each day by downing gasoline, a habit that adds up to roughly 3.5 liters of petrol a month. Back in 1969, when Chen was experiencing a rough cough and some chest pain, the elders in his village suggested he try taking a shot of kerosene to soothe himself. The next day he was back to his normal self, except that he’d also picked up a nasty addiction—one that has caused him to drink about 1.5 tons of gasoline over the past 42 years.

Chen’s favorite pick-me-up has also cost him his marriage and family. After his wife and kids tried unsuccessfully to make him quit, he was forced to move into a cottage by himself, where he can now indulge in the go-juice as often as he pleases. Experts say they believe Chen’s body has built up a tolerance to gas over the years—which explains why he hasn’t dropped dead yet.

6 Scorpion Scarfer

In most places, scorpions are a feared predator. Especially the little ones, which haven’t yet learned how to regulate their venom, and will sting you until their supply is depleted.

Apparently, it’s the venom that has Li Liuqun addicted to eating 30 of these rotten suckers in one sitting. The 58-year-old from China says that, after being stung by a scorpion one day, he became so upset that he picked it up off the ground and bit its head off.

“It tasted sweet and nutty and I never looked back. To me, they’re delicious,” he said. Chinese doctors believe he has become immune, and even addicted to scorpion venom (and you thought heroin was bad).

5 Foam Party

You might want to think twice about inviting Adele Edwards over for a visit—or at least make sure you keep an eye on your furniture if you do. The 31-year-old woman from Florida has spent over two decades unzipping couch cushions and snacking on the foam inside. Her favorite preparation method is to take pieces of the foam outside, rub it in dirt, then eat it. She says it began as a coping mechanism when, at the age of 10, she witnessed her parents going through a rough divorce, and it has since escalated into a full-blown addiction.

She now eats her way through an estimated seven couches and three pillows per year, a fact that has doctors concerned she might die from her bizarre condition. After a week-long stay in hospital for an intestinal blockage, Adele was found to have an iron deficiency and has begun taking supplements in the hopes of curbing her foam-eating habit.

4 Love You To Death

A 26-year-old woman named Casie, who recently appeared on an episode of TLC’s My Strange Addiction, takes the bizarre eating thing to a whole new level. After losing her husband Shawn to a sudden asthma attack, Casie became obsessed with carrying his ashes around with her everywhere she went. It led to an accident one day when some of them spilled onto her hand.

“I didn’t want to wipe them off because that’s my husband and I don’t want to wipe him away,” she said. “So I just licked it off my finger.” She has already eaten around one pound of Shawn’s ashes, and describes the taste as being reminiscent of “rotten eggs, sand, and sandpaper.”

3 Soap

Remember when you were a kid and you used the F-word so constantly that your mom had to wash your filthy little mouth out with soap? No, wait a minute, that was me. Either way, that old-school method of punishment would have been even more brutal if it had involved swallowing five bars of soap a week, Tempestt Henderson’s bizarre choice of snack.

The 19-year-old from Florida can easily go through five bars each week, and even has a love for laundry detergent. She believes it began as a coping mechanism when her boyfriend Jason left her for college, and says she just feels all-around “cleaner” when she eats soap instead of just washing with it. Diagnosed with pica, Tempestt underwent cognitive-behavioral therapy and is working toward recovering from her addiction.

2 Urine

These just keep getting creepier and creepier. Meet Carie, a 53-year-old woman who drinks her own urine. Gross! She might as well use it to brush her teeth, take a bath in, and wash her eyes out with, too. In fact, you guessed it, she actually does. Carie drinks around 80 ounces of her own urine a day and even uses it in a neti pot for nasal irrigation. She’s in a fight against cancer and believes that drinking her own urine helps her to cope with the disease.

1 Milk Of My Daughter

Tim Browne of London drinks his daughter’s breast milk with cereal in the morning, but not because he has pica or is an oddball pervert. The 69-year-old was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and began drinking his daughter Georgia’s breast milk after hearing about an American man who did the same. Having gone through chemotherapy, Tim sides with the experts, who say there is promising research suggesting the cure for cancer just might be in human milk. He describes the taste as “not unpleasant, but slightly pungent.”

Shawn Larson is a former music producer, who now spends his time writing, mastering photography, and raising a family.

Humanity has always had an intimate relationship with food. So it should come as no surprise that some of the most notable, influential figures throughout history have often had bizarre notions of how and what to eat.

10 Zuckerberg Only Eats What He Kills

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is famous for taking on yearlong challenges of self-improvement, such as wearing a tie every day in 2009 and studying Chinese every day in 2010. It came as a bit of a shock, though, when he announced in 2011 that “the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself.” After announcing the decision on his private page, he posted, “I just killed a pig and a goat,” which prompted various reactions from his followers.

According to an email that Zuckerberg sent to Fortune magazine, “I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house. A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn’t want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don’t have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from.”

His instructor was Silicon Valley chef Jesse Cool, who introduced Zuckerberg to local farmers and advised him on the slaughters of his first chicken, pig, and goat.”He cut the throat of the goat with a knife, which is the most kind way to do it,” said Cool to Fortune. Zuckerberg’s first kill, however, was a lobster that he boiled alive. Initially, this was emotionally difficult for Zuckerberg, but he said he felt better after eating it. As he told Fortune in an interview, “The most interesting thing was how special it felt to eat it after having not eaten any seafood or meat in a while.”

9 Beethoven’s Soup

Ludwig van Beethoven is known for many things, but few know just how seriously he took his soup. According to the famous composer, only a housekeeper or cook with a pure heart could prepare a pure soup. Beethoven brooked no opposition, particular not from his long-suffering secretary Anton Schindler. If Beethoven thought a soup was bad and Schindler disagreed, Beethoven would send him an insulting note: “I do not value your judgment on the soup in the least, it is bad.”

One of Beethoven’s favorite dishes was a mushy bread soup, which he consumed every Thursday with 10 large eggs to be stirred into the soup. He inspected the eggs by holding them to the light and then cracking them open with his hand. Woe to the housekeeper if they weren’t all entirely fresh. Beethoven would call her in for a scolding. She only half-listened because she had to be ready to flee, as it was Beethoven’s custom to pelt her with the eggs as a punishment.

According to Ignaz von Seyfried, an opera conductor during Beethoven’s time: “[Beethoven’s housekeeper] held herself in readiness to beat a quick retreat before, as was customary, the cannonade was about to begin, and the decapitate batteries would begin to play upon her back and pour out their yellow-white, sticky intestines over her in veritable lava streams.”

8 Gerald Ford’s Strange Lunch

It is a commonly cited piece of trivia that President Richard Nixon ate a daily lunch of cottage cheese covered in ketchup. After he was elected president, an article in the Washingtonian quipped that elegant White House dinners had been replaced by cottage cheese and ketchup. He even had cottage cheese with pineapple slices for lunch on the day that he announced his resignation from the presidency.

Less commonly known is that President Gerald Ford was also an aficionado of the bizarre but strangely appealing lunch menu item, which he consumed every day while reading or working. An Air Force One staffer revealed in the book Inside the White House:

President Ford had A-1 sauce and ketchup, mostly A-1 sauce, with the cottage cheese. We always had a vegetable garnish with spring onions, celery sticks, radishes. We always served ketchup and A-1 sauce with it. In most cases, he used A-1 sauced mixed in. [ . . . ] When we were going to land, he used mouthwash because of the onions.

Ford also liked a drink, although he could usually handle his alcohol. He once got drunk on martinis on Air Force One while returning from a meeting with the Soviet premier. That same staffer said, “We put him to bed. In the middle of the flight, he came out in his underwear and said ‘Where is the head?’ Normally, he knew where the head is. He could walk. He was slurring words. It was the one time he overindulged and was tipsy.”

7 Nicolas Cage’s Diet Of Dignified Animals

Nicolas Cage is known for a storied career of both great and terrible performances. There are certainly enough strange things to say about him, but his diet may top them all. He only consumes animals that he judges as mating in a “dignified way.”

Explaining the reason for his choice to The Sun, Cage said, “I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales—sentient life—insects, reptiles. I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds. But pigs, not so much. So I don’t eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl.”

He may not eat those salacious swine, but he has consumed strange things in the name of art. The 1988 movie Vampire’s Kiss called for Cage to eat a live cockroach, which he did with some difficulty. “Every muscle in my body didn’t want to do it,” said Cage to The Telegraph. “But I did it anyway.”

6 Henry Ford’s Weeds

Henry Ford was a picky eater who usually had nuts or raisins in his pocket. In his youth, he was largely uninterested in food and mostly moved it around on his plate to give the appearance of eating it. This changed when he started to perceive his body as a machine and his stomach as a boiler that he needed to give the right fuel.

The act of eating was more practical than sensual, and Ford experimented with wild weeds as a source of nutrition. His dietary experiments caused misery to his business associates, although they were better received by his friend George Washington Carver, who was of a like mind on that sort of thing.

Even though Ford received a salary of almost $1 million a year, he preferred a diet of “roadside greens,” which were essentially edible weeds that Ford gathered from his garden or outside. According to biographer Sidney Olson: “There is nothing quite like a dish of stewed burdock, followed by a sandwich of soybean bread filled with milkweeds, to set up a man for an afternoon’s work.”

The weeds that Ford collected were often lightly boiled or stewed and then used in salads or sandwiches. However, the diet seemed to pay off because Henry Ford was rarely sick and lived to the ripe old age of 83.

5 Evo Morales’s Gay Chicken

Bolivian President Evo Morales caused controversy in 2001 when he claimed that eating hormone-injected chicken was a root cause of homosexuality. At the World People’s Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, he shocked the socially progressive audience with his views. “When we talk about chicken, it’s pumped full of female hormones,” he said, “and so when men eat this chicken, they stray from being men.”

He also linked the consumption of fowl with male baldness. Within a few hours, the impact of his comments had spread to the international media.

Morales’s government quickly went into spin doctor mode, insisting that the president had been referring only to genital abnormalities. In a public statement, the Foreign Relations Ministry explained, “[Morales] made no mention of sexuality. Rather, he said that eating chicken that has hormones changes our own bodies. This point of view has been confirmed by scientists, and even the European Union has prohibited the use of some hormones in food.”

Many gay rights activists were unconvinced. The president of the Argentina Homosexual Community, Cesar Cigliutti, said, “It’s an absurdity to think that eating hormone-containing chicken can change the sexual orientation of a person. By following that reasoning, if we put male hormones in a chicken and we make a homosexual eat it he will transform into a heterosexual.”

In a different vein, Morales also took shots at Coca-Cola. “If the plumber comes to your house and can’t get the job done with all his tools,” said Morales, “have him pour Coca-Cola down the clogged toilet, and problem solved.” This was received more favorably as many in Bolivia believe that the US soda company exploits Bolivia’s coca supplies. Also, a local company had just launched a rival drink called “Coca-Colla,” with “Colla” being a reference to the native Andean highland people.

Morales has a long-standing antipathy toward unhealthy American food, complaining at the UN in 2013 that “the fast food of the West is a great harm to humanity.” He accused fast food companies of causing cancer and conspiring to suppress the rise of quinoa as a healthy alternative source of nutrition.

4 Howard Hughes’s Food Fetishes

Movie mogul, industrialist, and businessman Howard Hughes suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which was reflected in his eating habits. He gave a number of bizarre food preparation and serving orders to his servants, including wrapping spoon handles in tissue paper. They were then sealed with cellophane and wrapped in a second piece of tissue paper. He would only touch the covered handles because he was obsessively afraid of germs.

His servants had to open cans of food in a specific way, too. First, the servant would hold the can under warm running water. Then he or she used a brush and special bars of soap to remove the label 5 centimeters (2 in) from the top of the can. Next, the can was soaked to remove any dust and germs. Then the bottom was cleaned in the same manner as the top. All the indentations of the can also had to be scrubbed with soap and rinsed. Throughout the process, the servant was not permitted to let go of the can.

Hughes suffered constipation because he refused to eat leafy vegetables. His meals were very uniform, and he enjoyed a regimented menu that he changed every few months. He usually ate a medium-rare butterfly steak with 12 peas of uniform size. If any of the peas were too large, Hughes would send them back to the kitchen to be replaced. He ate almost every meal alone. According to his chef, Hughes didn’t even eat Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners with his wife.

But Hughes liked fudge. When he became reclusive in his later years, he virtually subsisted on chocolate bars and milk. He isolated himself in a studio near his home, surrounded by empty milk bottles and containers which he used to relieve himself when nature called. This reclusive lifestyle took a toll on his health. When he finally died, people compared the state of his body to that of a Japanese prisoner of war.

3 Hitler’s Flatulent Vegetarianism

Many meat lovers enjoy telling their vegetarian friends that Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and vegetarians often vehemently disagree. The truth is more nuanced. Until the early 1930s, Hitler showed a penchant for certain meat products, particularly liver dumplings and sausages. He is said to have subscribed to Wagner’s theory that “[the] thirst [for flesh and blood] . . . can never be slaked, and fills its victims with a raging madness, not with courage.”

Yet he did not completely turn against the consumption of meat until his niece and possible lover Geli Raubal committed suicide in 1931. After that, he refused to eat breakfast ham. “It is like eating a corpse!” he said.

Hitler also turned away from meat because he believed it caused chronic constipation and flatulence. He ate his vegetables raw or pulped into a mush. Some of his favorite foods were oatmeal with linseed oil, cauliflower, cottage cheese, boiled apples, artichoke hearts, and asparagus tips in white sauce.

The high-fiber diet had precisely the opposite effect on his bowel drama. After Hitler consumed a particularly large plate of vegetables, his physician, Theo Morell, recorded in his diary that Hitler experienced “constipation and colossal flatulence . . . on a scale I have seldom encountered before.”

Of course, this is not only the fault of his vegetarian diet but also the ridiculous regimen of drugs and treatments administered by his doctor, which included chamomile enemas and a heavy dose of supplements. Some of those supplements were vitamins, testosterone, liver extracts, laxatives, sedatives, glucose, opiates, and poisonous strychnine tablets for gas.

The argument over Hitler’s vegetarianism is a bit of a red herring. He did occasionally indulge in animal products, but so do 70 percent of vegetarians. Even so, Hitler’s decision to become a vegetarian in no way refutes the moral arguments that vegetarians hold against meat eating.

2 Mussolini’s Milk Addiction

Benito Mussolini also had digestive problems and weird eating habits, such as refusing to eat anything at banquets. He believed that eating was an activity to which one should devote one’s complete attention and that eating in the presence of others would make one “apt to eat wrongly.”

In 1925, he vomited blood while at his house in Rome and was forced to take several weeks off from public appearances. Rumors circulated that Mussolini might have to be replaced as the National Fascist Party leader. Doctors diagnosed him with a stomach ulcer and recommended a drastic change in diet after he refused to have surgery. His new diet was mainly composed of fruit and up to 3 liters (1 gal) of milk every day. This apparently didn’t help him because he suffered another ulcer in 1929.

After the Allies invaded Italy and the Fascists retreated to a German satellite state called the Salo Republic, Mussolini sought the assistance of a physician named Dr. Zachariae. Shocked by his patient’s appearance, the doctor said, “I found myself before a ruin of a man who was evidently on the brink of the tomb.” Mussolini suffered from ulcers, anemia, constipation, insomnia, and low blood pressure. His skin was dry and inelastic, and his abdominal area around his liver was engorged.

Zachariae blamed Mussolini’s ridiculous milk diet and cut his milk intake to 0.25 liters (0.5 pt) each day for a week. Then he went cold turkey. The doctor began to treat Mussolini with small doses of vitamins and hormones, which had an immediate positive effect. After his liver returned to its normal size, Mussolini remarked, “I must tell you I feel liberated. I no longer feel pains in my stomach, and I don’t fear the night.”

The doctor insisted that Mussolini eat some light vegetables like carrots and potatoes, which he had once been unable to stomach, and to take his tea without milk. Although Mussolini preferred vegetarianism, the doctor insisted that his patient eat small amounts of boiled chicken and fish to increase his protein intake. Along with injections of vitamins B and C, the new diet caused his red blood cell count to rise and his health to improve. Despite Mussolini occasionally refusing to take food while the Italian people were starving, Zachariae later boasted that he had restored Mussolini to the health of a man of 40.

1 Kim Jong Il’s Gastronomy

Due to the testimony of Kim Jong Il’s former personal chef, Kenji Fujimoto, we know quite a bit about the eating habits of the former North Korean tyrant. While much of the country was starving, Kim indulged in expensive and elaborate food and drink. He had a wine cellar with over 10,000 bottles and a library with thousands of cookbooks.

Kim was committed to getting the best food and often sent Fujimoto on foreign excursions to pick up delicacies: Iran and Uzbekistan for caviar, France for cognac, Denmark for pork, western China for grapes, Thailand for papayas and mangoes, and Beijing for McDonald’s fast food. Former North Korean diplomats also sent back exotic delicacies, such as camel’s feet, from the countries in which they were stationed.

Kim established an institute of top doctors and scientists to design a diet to increase his longevity. This was a source of concern, as the 158-centimeter (5’2″) dictator’s former eating habits had brought him to a weight of almost 90 kilograms (200 lb). The doctors began to inspect every grain of his rice by hand to make sure it was perfectly shaped with no cracks or chips. Kim insisted that the rice be cooked over a wood fire using trees cut from Mount Paektu, a legendary mountain on the border with China.

Fujimoto also revealed the dictator’s love of sushi. When Fujimoto sought to leave North Korea (after being banned from travel abroad), he did so with a cunning ruse. He showed the “Dear Leader” a new episode of the cooking show Iron Chef, in which the secret ingredient was sea urchin roe, or uni.

He casually mentioned that the best place to acquire the ingredient was from Rishiri Island off the coast of Hokkaido. Kim couldn’t resist sending the chef, who eluded his handlers at a fish market in Tokyo and disappeared into the crowd. Fujimoto didn’t return to North Korea until after Kim Jong Il’s death.

David Tormsen only eats shoe leather and chives. Email him at [email protected].

What may be considered a delicacy in one country may cause an individual to lose their appetite in another. Such is the case with the consumption of dog meat; although completely unheard of in the United States, is surprisingly quite common in various nations throughout the world. The following ten scrutinizes this practice which waivers between disgusting and delicious while examining historical facts in addition to morbid and grotesque present-day cases certain to make one’s stomach turn.

SEE ALSO: 10 Lies About Dogs We All Believe

10 A Fracture In Faith

Like many cultures around the world, dog meat in Japan is viewed as a major taboo. Interestingly enough, that was not the case prior to the 6th century. When Buddhism arrived from Korea, the belief was instilled that meat-eaters ran the risk of consuming their reincarnated ancestors. Nevertheless, it would not be until 675 A.D., that the first official decree banning the consumption of meat—including the dog—took place under the orders of Emperor Tenmu. The practice would remain until 1868 when Emperor Meiji began a movement to end two centuries of ancient dietary interdictions.

As expected, the transition did not sit well with devout Buddhists who considered the consumption of dog—as well as all four-legged animals—a sin. Viewing the change as an existential spiritual crisis, an assembly of incensed Japanese Buddhist monks stormed the Imperial Palace on February 18, 1872, seeking the Emperor to answer for the country’s indefensible sin. In the end, their efforts would be in vain with half of the monks slaughtered like dogs by the swords of the Imperial Army. In spite of the continual conviction that eating meat was “destroying the soul of the Japanese people,” the Emperor’s wishes prevailed. These days, the Japanese consume as much meat as they do sushi – minus, of course, dog—which never gained its prominence as it once had 1,200 years ago.

9 On The Brink Of Extinction

The Xoloitzcuintli (Xolo for short) or ‘Mexican Hairless Dog’ is one of the world’s oldest breeds dating back over 3,000 years. In pre-Hispanic Mexico, the Mayans believed that the dogs had the power to connect one’s soul to the afterlife. Specifically, the dog would guide the departed through the unknown darkness of the underworld until reaching the gates of heaven. Thus, with such belief, the Mayans would sacrifice the Xolo and bury them in the grave of their recently departed master for the beginning of their journey to eternal life.

The Aztecs’ spiritual belief differed in that they would sacrifice Xolo puppies as an offering to the rain God or ‘Tlaloc.’ As the years passed, the sacrificial methods by the Aztecs changed. They felt it necessary that the puppies must be eaten in a ritual feast. Given the small stature of the Xolo, however, the Aztecs continuously fed the dogs in order to fatten them up as much as possible prior to the ritual; thus, the fatter the dog, the more meat and ultimately greater spiritual gain. As centuries passed and rituals persisted, the unusual breed was on the brink of extinction.

By the late 1950s, only a handful remained to catch the attention of British Military attaché in Mexico City, Norman Pelham Wright. Having become fascinated with the animal, he and several acquaintances set out in remote villages to find thriving breeding pairs to ensure their survival. The action in which they took became known as the “Xolo Expedition of 1954.” Two years later, the Xolo had become recognized in its native land and in time was designated the “Official Dog of Mexico.”

8 Russian Roulette

Although repulsive, those who truly take pleasure in eating dog run the risk of major human health concerns. Take, for example, every year 5 million dogs are eaten in Vietnam. With that said, in 2007, approximately 30 percent of deaths were attributed to the consumption of dog meat contaminated with rabies. The following year the nation reported that 20 percent of dogs in slaughterhouses in Hoai Duc were found to have the virus, yet the insatiable appetite for canines continues to thrive. While the statistics are unappetizing, the Center for Disease Control documented less than 20 people to have ever survived after contracting the fatal illness.

In the Philippines, 300 people die from rabies due to the grotesque meat each year including workers handling and slaughtering the animals. A major reason for such outbreaks is the fact that the Philippines National Meat Inspection Commission does not examine dog meat, according to the regional director himself—as if he took pride in his admission. Aside from rabies are various other infections and diseases one can contract such as salmonella, E. coli, anthrax, hepatitis, bacteria associated with Cholera and Ebola. To make matters worse, caged dogs in disease-ridden conditions are given large quantities of antibiotics leading to the rise of superbugs. This—according to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance—has created an enormous threat to global human health in that drug-resistant infections have the potential to kill 10 million people a year by 2050.

7 Chaos In The Streets

Sadly, the world has bear witness to the once rich and promising country of Venezuela collapse under political and economic turmoil. With the nation spiraling deeper into mayhem, the powerless citizens desperate to overthrow socialist President Maduro are subjected to mounting crime and violent riots. Meanwhile, there is the unremitting shortage of medicine, toiletries, and food, basic essentials necessary to survive.

The situation had become so dire that by 2016 the average Venezuelan had unintentionally lost an average of 19 pounds in the twelve-month span. By 2017, an estimated 15 percent of citizens – including young children—had taken to industrial garbage dumps and trash cans seeking any remnant of food waste. That same year, zoo animals began to disappear, evidently stolen and butchered by the starving local residents desperate to stay alive. According to zookeepers, the most desired targets were tapirs, peccaries, and buffalo. The extreme measures to supplement starvation due to the chronic food shortage have not only been witnessed in zoos but on public streets in broad daylight, as well.

These days, it has become increasingly common for citizens to chase pigeons in city plazas in addition to hunting dogs unfortunate enough to be captured roaming the streets. The tremendous actions to avoid famine have even caused locals to disregard the threat of an arrest by police. In one instance, photos published in newspapers throughout the country showmen butchering a dog on the street of Caracas. Following the canines brutal and excruciating dismemberment, the dog meat was divided and prepared for that day’s sole meal. To date, chaos continues to riddle the nation as the canine population continues to dwindle down.

6 A City Divided

In spite of international criticism compounded by the growing number of enraged local activists, every year in southern China more than 10,000 dogs are slaughtered in what is known as the annual dog meat festival. The grotesque 10-day event that “celebrates” the summer solstice stands as the epitome of torture where dogs, many of which are stolen pets, are crammed into tiny cages in the market square prior to their unbearable demise.

Those that are not already cooked and hanged on display are snared around the neck with metal hooks and then either bludgeoned, boiled or stabbed in the neck or groin in order to “bleed out.” More often than not this inhumane form of butchery occurs in public viewing for all to see including other dogs awaiting their dreadful fate. In fact, those – either companions or strays—that witness multiple deaths ahead of their own are privy to the torture causing panic to spread among the countless caged.

Nonetheless, residents of the southern city of Yulin wholeheartedly defend the celebratory practice of buying, selling and eating man’s best friend. Dog lovers, on the other hand, arrive every year to confront those joyfully partaking in the festivities with pleas of mercy or exasperated reprimands. Meanwhile, animal rights activists have at times gone a step further by either intercepting truckloads of canines or raiding slaughterhouses in an effort to limit the number killed. Through the years, the number of activists declines due to police intervention whose sole efforts are mere to “maintain stability” throughout the tense and divided city.

5 Vagueness

Given what we have seen in terms of the brutality in which these animals have suffered in their last moments, one must question the legality behind it all. Due to activists constantly crying foul, their voices were finally heard in South Korea leading to the nation adopting its first Animal Protection Act in May 1991. This law was subsequently revised in 2007 given the vagueness of the original, though the current amended law still lacks clarity with language that is indeterminate. One must note that the main controversy surrounding the killing of dogs has been centered not on the consumption of the meat, but the methods commonly used such as strangulation, electrocution, bludgeoning, stabbing, boiling, etc. With that said, the act does not explicitly create an absolute ban on the slaughter of dogs for food; however, it does declare that the animals must not be killed “in a cruel way such as hanging.”

In addition, the bill forbids the killing of dogs in open areas “such as on the street or in front of other animals of the same kind.” Furthermore, the bill states that a dog must not be killed “without rationale cause” but in no way offers a clearer insight leaving many to be their own judge on the matter. Consequently, the glaring hole in the APA leaves one in the dark allowing a meat vendor to interpret the law as they see fit casting uncertainty on the effectiveness of the act. It seems as if there has been no drop in the slaughter of the animals and behind closed doors, one can only imagine if people will truly adhere to the bill, in a sense rendering the Act useless.

4 To Hell and Back

We’ve seen the lengths to which people will go in order to survive and for early explorers, their journey would be to hell and back. Embarking on the boundaries of the Antarctic in the early 20th century, those who dared to make the expedition was faced with frostbite, malnutrition, scurvy and indubitably a shortage of food. This resulted in scores of sled dogs being used as a source of nutrition as opposed to being utilized for transportation. Sir Douglas Mawson—who mounted a three-man Australasian Antarctic Expedition, Aurora, from 1911 to 1913 – wrote; “In an enterprise where human life is always at stake, it is only fair to put forward the consideration that the dogs represent a reserve of food in cases of extreme emergency.”

Just 320 miles into their journey, the majority of the food was lost after one of the men fell into a crevasse along with their goods. Desperate and starving, Mawson made the decision to kill the huskies unknowing what would befall him. As we have previously seen, there is a great risk that comes with dog meat in terms of disease one can contract. For Mawson and his fellow explorer, Xavier Mertz, the two fell victim to vitamin A poisoning from eating dog liver. What followed was fissuring of the skin, wasting, and dementia, ultimately claiming Mertz’s life. Miraculously, Mawson managed to continue his journey eventually making it to his base alone, nearly 100 miles away. What resulted from his death-defying exploration “contributed more geographical knowledge of Antarctica than any other explorer of the Heroic Age.”

3 Medicinal And Culinary Lard

Dating back more than 2,000 years, animals have been used for human medicinal purposes. In spite of how irrational these ‘remedies’ maybe (goat hooves for baldness, ground horse for epilepsy) some have stood the test of time especially in various parts of Southern Europe. Of the most prominent integration of domestic animals are dogs and interestingly enough, continue to be slaughtered for bizarre concoctions in rural regions of Poland.

In 2009, police arrested a woman at her farm in Czestochowa, Poland after it was discovered that she had been selling jars of dog lard as a health supplement. Further investigation of the premises uncovered 28 well-fed dogs, ranging from puppies to St. Bernards, chained in cages awaiting their death. The unidentified woman had been intentionally fattening up the dogs to such an extent that some “were overfed to the point of no longer being able to walk.” Upon her arrest, the woman stressed the health benefits of the lard stating that she even added a spoonful to her daughter’s meals.

A similar case occurred in Wieliczka where a man was detained for stealing and slaughtering local dogs to make smalec, a Polish lard delicacy. It came to light following his arrest that the 70-year-old man had been kidnapping pets for the past 50 years. Once captured, he would butcher the animal and then render down the fat before selling it to his neighbors, many of whom had their pet mysteriously disappear. In the end, the Krakow District Court found the man not guilty despite his admission given that the dogs were “slaughtered in a humanitarian way for culinary purposes.”

2 Karma

Whether it is karma or merely a case of bad luck, a dog meat vendor in China got a taste of his own medicine (or toxin) in June of 2013. While demonstrating to his meat-selling crew how to use a crossbow in order to kill dogs, the reckless vendor accidentally fired a toxic dart into his own leg. The poison proved to be quite potent and effective given that he expired on his way to the hospital. Following the fatal mishap, the remaining members of the gang – who were responsible for killing and butchering more than 1,000 dogs – were arrested subsequent to the demise of their uncoordinated and departed leader.

The downfall of yet another crossbow-wielding chap occurred in the Jiangsu province of China in 2018. Unlike the previous rascal, his fate was not due to clumsiness but an irate dog owner thirsty for revenge. Upon discovering his pet lying in the street crying and paralyzed, the owner observed the heartless canine killer fleeing the scene on a scooter. Within a blink of an eye, the furious man gave chase in his vehicle before catching up and crashing the ruthless thug through a brick wall, instantly turning him into roadkill. The man was later arrested and charged with manslaughter.

1 Unhinged and Hungry

A farmer in South Korea apparently had enough of the incessant barking from his neighbor’s dog that he decided to take matters into his own hands. Armed with a rock, the 62-year-old did what any annoyed senior would do – he bashed the Welsh corgi’s head in. In order to ensure the peaceful silence, the unnamed man proceeded to strangle the dog before turning the animal into a tasteful dinner. Once cooked to perfection, he invited the dog-owning family – who had been frantically searching for their beloved pet – to join him for the meal. Once the cuisine filled their unsuspecting bellies, the unhinged farmer-chef confessed to the ingredients. As one could imagine, the family was quite offended and alerted authorities.

As disturbing as that may be, it pales in comparison to our next mischievous prince. While “on a bad trip” after smoking the synthetic drug “spice”, Michael Daniel of Texas, assaulted his housemates before crawling on his hands and knees, growling and chasing a concerned neighbor back into his home. Becoming breathless from all the physical activity, Daniel, 22, reached for the closest snack – his housemate’s medium-size spaniel mix. The crazed roommate then proceeded to beat and strangle the dog before chewing “hunks of flesh” from the defenseless pet. By the time officers arrived, they found Daniel sitting on the porch with “blood and fur around his mouth” along with the lifeless body of the dog lying in his lap. As expected, Daniel was promptly arrested and charged with cruelty to a non-livestock animal.

There may be monsters in the closet after all – only this kind was purchased at the store. Everyday items sitting on the shelf are designed to make life easier. In some cases, they can do the opposite. Cosmetic treatments can cause comas and burns inside the body, while dental products come with paralysis and blue people. Then there were the exploding scooters and the earbuds that caused bacteria to eat a woman’s skull.

SEE ALSO: 10 Ridiculous Health Myths (Science Says Are Actually True)

9 Mouthwash – Higher Blood Pressure

When it comes to mouthwash, most people receive their education from television.^[1] The lesson is short. Just swirl the advertised product and all your bacterial worries are over. In 2019, scientists became concerned. Not all bacteria are bandits. Was there a drawback to wiping out all dental microorganisms? They found an alarming side-effect.

First, they grilled volunteers for half an hour on a treadmill. Directly afterward, the participants gargled with either a real mouthwash or a placebo. The results were undeniable. Many people exercise for healthier blood pressure to avoid heart disease and strokes. Indeed, the placebo group showed a reduction but the volunteers who used the mouthwash experienced a drastic interference with this benefit.

The reason is nitric oxide. Produced during exercise, it opens the blood vessels which reduces blood pressure. When it degrades, a waste product called nitrate is formed. Only recently did researchers discover that certain oral bacteria turns the nitrate into nitrite. The latter is crucial to boost the production of the beneficial nitric oxide. The 2019 study proved that there are goobers in our mouths that should stay there. When they are missing, the resulting lack of nitrite prevents blood vessels from opening. As a result, no amount of exercising could lower one’s blood pressure.

8 Acid Reflux Syrup – Werewolf Syndrome

Imagine the following scenario.^[2] Your infant has acid reflux and as a dutiful parent, you spoon the syrup prescribed by a doctor into the kid. Pretty soon, you have a hairy baby. Like, abnormally hairy. This happened in Spain to 17 shocked families in 2019. One infant blinked at his parents with adult eyebrows and swathes of hair on his face and limbs.

Abnormal hair growth is called hypertrichosis or “Werewolf Syndrome.” The congenital condition is diagnosed at birth. However, these children had an acquired form. In other words, they were born without the condition but something triggered it when they were around two years old. Spain’s health regulators identified a common factor – the children all used a syrup for acid reflux. It contained omeprazole but this medication had never caused excessive hair growth in anyone.

Inspectors visited the factory that sold the drug. Their shipment originally came from India but tests proved that the omeprazole was perfect. Things went wrong when the factory decided to divide the bulk shipment and re-sell the smaller batches. The idea was to stick the omeprazole label on bottles. For some reason, the labels ended up on another product at the factory, one that contained minoxidil. This compound fights baldness by encouraging hair growth. Luckily, the children are expected to shed the extra fuzz as they grow older.

7 Hoverboards – Explosions And Burns

The future has arrived.^[3] Human beings are finally zipping around on hoverboards. To be fair, these devices do not fly. They resemble high-tech skateboards driven forward by an internal power source. The hoverboards became a hot item during the 2015 and 2016 holiday season. However, it became a little too hot. The battery pack’s design was faulty, causing several machines to overheat during a ride. There were fires. Some hoverboards exploded.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) received 99 complaints about the two-wheeled scooters, 18 of which involved injuries. Most were burns to the limbs and neck. Needless to say, this was not what people expected after paying up to $900 for a hoverboard. The unpredictable devices were banned from campuses, railroads, and airlines due to safety concerns. Not only riders were injured but the fiery scooters also damaged property. At the end of the day, over 500,000 hoverboards were recalled from ten companies.

6 Denture Cream – Permanent Paralysis

In 2017, a man from the United Kingdom experienced symptoms that became increasingly frightening.^[4] First, there was a tingling in his fingers. However, soon numbness and pain weakened his legs so much that the 62-year-old had to depend on a cane to move around. Within six months, he was housebound.

Doctors suspected a neurological problem and wheeled the patient through an MRI scan. Indeed, they found he was suffering from copper deficiency myelopathy. This was weird. The body needs very little copper. For someone to become so deficient that they develop a brain condition, something peculiar had to be going on.

The reason turned out to be an overdose of zinc. Too much zinc is known to block copper absorption. The source of the zinc turned out to be the man’s dental cream. He admitted to applying too much cream because of ill-fitting dentures. For the past fifteen years, the patient used up to four tubes a week. The cream was immediately removed from his dental regimen and he was treated with copper supplements. Sadly, the nerve damage was irreversible and the man remains wheelchair-bound.

5 Acupuncture – Pierced Lungs

Acupuncture’s benefits are not uniformly verified by science.^[5] Even so, the practice remains a flourishing alternative for those looking for less invasive therapies. The craft is ancient but not flawless. For centuries, practitioners have known that a point called Gallbladder 21 was a tricky one. Incorrect manipulation of this spot could have dangerous consequences for the patient, including pierced lungs. Frighteningly, prospective clients are not always informed about the risks involved.

In 2019, a woman from New Zealand found this out the hard way. The 33-year-old had an arm injury that affected her breathing. The acupuncturist inserted a pair of needles into her Gallbladder 21, which, despite the name, is located in the shoulder region. As the needles went in, the woman experienced pain and became worried because the insertion felt too deep. The pins were left for 30 minutes, rotated and pulled out. Almost immediately, she felt uncomfortable. The woman told the acupuncturist that there was a strange sensation around her lungs. It felt airy and painful. She was told to go home and rest.

That night, her husband took her to the hospital where the woman received emergency care. Doctors diagnosed bilateral apical pneumothoraces. The condition is as scary as it sounds. The needles pierced the top of one lung, which later caused both organs to collapse. Punctured lungs are a common problem in acupuncture. A 2010 study identified Gallbladder 21 as the culprit behind 30 percent of such complications.

4 Vaginal Steaming – Second-Degree Burns

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow endorsed vaginal steaming and predictably, it turned into a trend.^[6] Said to cleanse the vagina, the technique is simple – just hover over a steaming bowl full of herbs. In 2019, a painful incident proved that celebrities can give really stupid advice. A Canadian woman was recently told she had a vaginal prolapse, a condition where pelvic organs slip out of their normal position. The 62-year-old was hopeful that the steaming remedy might help. Instead, she wound up in the emergency room with second-degree burns on her vaginal membranes and cervix.

The sad part is that the trend is bogus. Scientists found only risks and no benefits. Biologically, the vagina also cleans itself. It does not need to go through a herbal steaming, which incidentally also interferes with beneficial bacteria that safeguards the vagina. The woman’s prolapse was scheduled to be treated surgically but the procedure had to be delayed until she could recover from the burns.

3 Cotton Swabs – Skull-Eating Infection

A woman, identified only as Jasmine, visited a doctor because she could not hear properly.^[7] The physician gazed into the offending left ear and declared that she had an infection. Jasmine was prescribed antibiotics but the deafness remained.

In 2019, she cleaned her ears with cotton swabs. This was a daily habit but that night there was blood on the swabs. When the patient visited a specialist, she was given a serious dressing down about her swab habit. The specialist was probably still in shock. A CT scan had shown, in graphic detail, a horrifying skull infection caused by her ear-cleaning regimen. Cotton fibers had been collecting inside her ears for as long as five years and resulted in a bacterial infection. The microorganisms feasted on the bone behind her ear and were literally eating it away. As a result, the skull region was paper-thin.

The 37-year-old underwent a 5-hour operation to remove the corrupted tissue and rebuild her ear canal. Jasmine’s surgery managed to eradicate the infection but the hearing loss in her left ear was permanent.

2 Tooth Gel – Blue Blood

In 2019, a woman entered the emergency room of a Rhode Island hospital.^[8] “I’m blue,” she told the doctors. The 25-year-old was not being funny nor did she make a reference to depression. Her skin had a light blue tinge. The staff whipped out a syringe and pulled some blood, which turned out to be dark navy blue.

The diagnosis was methemoglobinemia. This condition occurs when there is a dangerous lack of oxygen in the blood due to an iron abnormality. The patient was already in the danger zone. Serious tissue damage can start when blood oxygen levels reach 70 percent. She was at 67 percent. The treatment was swift and successful. The patient was given a remedy that was aptly named – methylene blue. Two doses later and a night in hospital returned the woman to her pink self.

But what caused the Smurf look? When questioned, the patient said she had a toothache the night before. She applied copious amounts of a numbing medication that contained benzocaine. This freaky customer can influence the iron inside the blood. Benzocaine changes iron so much that the element can no longer bind to oxygen. When this bond severs, blood circulation becomes a problem and blood, skin, and nails turn blue.

1 Face Lotion – Coma

In 2019, a Sacramento woman followed her usual beauty routine.^[9] She reached for her favorite face cream, a brand that she had been using twice daily for years. This time something went horribly wrong. Her extremities went numb and she could not walk or talk properly. The 47-year-old was rushed to the emergency ward where she lapsed into a semi-comatose state. At first, she reacted to staff when they spoke to her but eventually the mother of five became unresponsive.

Blood tests identified the culprit. On average, everyone carries 5 micrograms of mercury per liter of blood. The patient had a staggering 2,630 micrograms per liter. Worse, it was methylmercury. Nobody could say with certainty if this dangerous type of mercury’s addition to the cream was accidental or homicidal. Mercury is often the ingredient that makes age and blemish lotions effective.

But this brand was a risky one. Imported from Mexico and sold informally to the public, the woman’s son admitted she loved the anti-wrinkle cream because it outperformed all pharmacy brands. Unfortunately, this the first such poisoning in the United States. Doctors do not have enough experience to say when or if she will ever wake up again.

Fermented foods have been around for a long time and are enjoyed by people worldwide. These foods are made by letting natural sugars and starches ferment, which creates good bacteria and other probiotics. The idea of bacteria living in your intestines may sound like a bad thing (or even alarming), but actually, your body requires these bacteria for digestion, among other reasons. The good bacteria in fermented foods can even help prevent you from getting sick from other bacteria!

Some fermented foods that people commonly eat include miso, kimchi, kefir, pickles, sauerkraut, yogurt, and sourdough bread.

In today’s busy world, it’s important to make healthy choices, and adding fermented foods to your diet can be a simple (and tasty) way to do that. So let’s get the facts straight by taking a closer look at ten health benefits of eating fermented foods. Before you know it, you may eat yogurt for breakfast and sauerkraut for a snack!

10 Improve Your Gut Health

The first way fermented foods can benefit your health is through your gut! Your “gut” is a common term for your gastrointestinal tract (GI), including your mouth, esophagus, intestines, stomach, and rectum. Your GI tract is interconnected with many other systems within your body, so it’s important that it functions efficiently.

The beneficial bacteria in fermented foods, such as probiotics, can help improve gut health by promoting a healthy balance of gut microbiota. This can help support your gut’s ability to absorb nutrients and protect against harmful bacteria.

Gut health is crucial to your overall health and ties into several other health benefits.

9 Protect Your Heart Health

Fermented foods have been linked to improved heart health, including lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. This may be due to fermented foods’ anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which can help reduce oxidative stress and lower the risk of heart disease.

The probiotics in fermented foods have been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol levels, which are often associated with heart disease. Blood pressure, another risk factor for heart disease, can be improved by adding fermented foods to your diet.

Remember that fermented foods can’t do it all on their own; they must be part of a healthy diet and lifestyle to provide heart health benefits.

8 Improve Your Nutrient Absorption

When we eat fermented foods, the probiotics in those foods help maintain an important balance of bacteria. When that balance is disrupted, it can sometimes lead to gut dysbiosis. This condition causes a decreased number of healthy bacteria, making it difficult for our bodies to absorb necessary nutrients from food.

Fermented foods can improve nutrient absorption by breaking down the nutrients into more easily digestible forms. For example, fermented dairy products, such as yogurt and kefir, contain lactase, which helps break down lactose (the sugar in milk) into simpler sugars that are easier for the body to absorb. When milk is fermented to make yogurt, the yogurt’s bacteria break down the milk’s lactose. This can make it easier for people who are lactose intolerant to digest and absorb essential nutrients in the milk.

Another example of fermented food that increases your nutrient absorption is sauerkraut. When sauerkraut ferments, the cabbage breaks down, increasing the vitamin C and providing our bodies with far more nutrients than raw cabbage. And it tastes delicious!

7 Try Weight Loss or Maintaining a Healthy Weight

Fermented foods are low in calories and high in fiber, making them a good choice for weight management. Additionally, the beneficial bacteria in fermented foods can help regulate metabolism and control hunger, leading to weight loss.

For example, probiotics have been shown to reduce the production of the hunger hormone ghrelin and increase the production of the hormone peptide YY, which signals fullness. In other words, you may not feel quite so hungry, and you may feel fuller than you normally would.

It is essential to talk with a doctor or health professional to make a responsible and well-thought-out decision before making any drastic dietary shifts to lose weight.

6 Reduce Your Inflammation

Fermented foods have anti-inflammatory properties and can help reduce chronic inflammation. Inflammation is a natural response of your body to injury or infection. Still, when it happens chronically, it can lead to heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and several other serious health issues.

Along with probiotics, fermented foods are typically full of antioxidants. Antioxidants help protect cells by neutralizing free radicals (unstable molecules that can lead to oxidative stress and increased inflammation).

According to a study by Stanford University in 2021, eating a diet full of fermented foods is much better for inflammation than high-fiber foods that are typically thought of as healthy, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts.

5 Improve Your Overall Digestion

Fermented foods can help improve digestion by reducing symptoms of bloating, constipation, and abdominal pain. This is because the beneficial bacteria in fermented foods can help regulate bowel movements and support the gut’s ability to absorb water—the bacteria, such as lactic acid, help to maintain your gut balance.

Another benefit relates to your body’s production of digestive enzymes. Eating fermented foods can increase the production of these enzymes, allowing you to break down food more effectively and reduce bloating. Increased production of digestive enzymes can also keep your bowel movements regular and reduce constipation.

While these effects may not occur overnight, and everyone’s digestive system is different, incorporating fermented foods as a part of your diet is a good step toward improved digestion.

4 Improve Your Bone Health

Fermented foods are a good source of calcium and other minerals important for bone health. For example, kefir is a fermented food with two crucial nutrients for bone health—vitamin K and calcium. Another fermented food that can improve your bone health is yogurt. Yogurt is rich in calcium and phosphorus, both key to good bone health. And all fermented foods have probiotics that promote your body’s absorption of calcium.

Fermented foods can contain all the following nutrients that improve overall bone health:

• Dietary fiber
• Vitamin K2
• Manganese
• Phosphorus
• Magnesium
• Calcium

As a part of a balanced diet with regular exercise, fermented foods can improve your bone health in a big way.

3 Boost Your Immune System

The next benefit on our list may seem a little counterintuitive. Bacteria are bad for us, right? After all, we wash our hands with antibacterial soap and take antibiotics when sick. Well, bacteria are not always bad for us; sometimes, it’s actually the opposite.

Fermented foods contain beneficial bacteria that can help boost the immune system by strengthening the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). The GALT is an important part of the immune system, and you want it to be as healthy as possible. The probiotics in fermented foods can also help stimulate your body’s production of antibodies and other immune cells, which can help fight off infections and diseases.

By including fermented foods such as yogurt in your diet, you may get sick less often, can recover more quickly when you do, and have improved overall health. Just thinking about it makes me want to eat a bowl of kimchi!

2 Get Glowing Skin

Fermented foods can improve skin health in a few different ways. They contain probiotics and antioxidants, which can:

• Protect against oxidative stress
• Maintain your skin’s natural barrier function
• Reduce inflammation in your skin

One example is kombucha. Okay, it’s technically a drink, but it is fermented! Kombucha contains organic acids as well as antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Another fermented food with skin health benefits is sauerkraut, which contains vitamin C. Vitamin C boosts collagen production, keeping your skin looking youthful and less wrinkled.

Miso is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans, salt, and koji (think miso soup). This mixture is fermented for months (and sometimes years). Besides being delicious, miso is highly concentrated with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, all of which can help protect your skin from UV rays and, ultimately, sun damage.

1 Positively Impact Your Mental Health

There are a few different ways that fermented foods can improve not just your physical health but your mental health as well. Fermented foods have been linked to improved mental health, including reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. This may be due to the role of gut bacteria in producing neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which play a role in regulating mood.

Other connections include some of the health benefits we have already mentioned. After all, who wouldn’t feel happier with less inflammation, constipation, and illness? Fermented foods can also help regulate the gut-brain axis, the connection between the gut and the brain. The live bacteria in fermented foods (probiotics) have been proven to regulate your mood and reduce anxiety symptoms.

And that’s not all; probiotics in fermented food may be able to regulate your neurotransmitter levels as well. Finally, with regulated stress and reduced inflammation, fermented foods can actually help you sleep better. Improved sleep can have a huge impact on your mental health and your well-being overall.