{"id":44709,"date":"2017-12-24T01:22:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T01:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/here-are-the-intriguing-toxins-that-spice-up-our-favorite-holiday-dishes\/"},"modified":"2017-12-24T01:22:19","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T01:22:19","slug":"here-are-the-intriguing-toxins-that-spice-up-our-favorite-holiday-dishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/en\/here-are-the-intriguing-toxins-that-spice-up-our-favorite-holiday-dishes\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are the intriguing toxins that spice up our favorite holiday dishes"},"content":{"rendered":"
Enlarge<\/a>\/ circa 1955: A traditional festive dinner table decorated with sprigs of berried holly. Getty | Chaloner Woods<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the adage goes, the dose makes the poison. But the same can be said for our foods\u2014a morbid morsel to chew on during your holiday noshing.<\/p>\n

While still safe to eat, our favorite dishes have a dark side\u2014a striking amount are laced with toxic and deadly substances. In fact, we flirt with intriguingly dangerous ingredients not just during the holidays, but daily. Potentially poisonous substances arrive in our foods through contamination and hazardous production conditions, and toxins are also naturally present in many plants. Nearly all are present at such low amounts that they pose little risk. But, in large enough quantities or if safety monitoring fails, some of our favorite dishes could easily turn against us.<\/p>\n

This leaves the Food and Drug Administration with the tricky task of keeping our foods safe\u2014and knowing when they slip into the realm of poisons.<\/p>\n

Some contaminants and toxins are unavoidable in foods, FDA spokesperson Peter Cassell told Ars. \u201cSince 1961, the FDA has monitored the levels of about 800 contaminants and nutrients in the US diet,\u201d he said. The agency also keeps track of natural toxins in some produce. \u201cPlants are known to produce, naturally, a number of toxicants and anti-nutritional factors.\u201d These can include neurotoxins and chemicals that burst our blood cells (hemolytic agents). Plants can even contain substances called \u201canti-vitamins,\u201d which block vitamins from doing their normal, helpful activities in the body. Several fruits and vegetables, including blueberries and Brussels sprouts, contain an anti-vitamin (called Thiaminase) that slashes vitamin B1, for instance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these toxicants are present in today's foods at levels that do not cause acute toxicity,\u201d Cassell said. But that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n

For instance, the FDA likes to remind consumers each year around Halloween that black licorice contains hazardous amounts of glycyrrhizic acid<\/a>. This natural toxin in licorice root can cause potassium levels in the body to fall. In people 40 years old and over, eating just two ounces of the candy a day for a couple of weeks can cause irregular heart rhythms.<\/p>\n

Luckily, black licorice isn\u2019t very popular, and the FDA notes that glycyrrhizic acid hasn\u2019t been a significant menace to public health. In other words, they don\u2019t see outbreaks of licorice intoxication among candy lovers every year. Still, the threat is real. Health researchers have recorded several cases where people became gravely ill from the treat. That includes a 1977 report <\/a>of a 58-year-old woman who got into the habit of eating roughly 1.8 kilograms of black licorice each week and went into cardiac arrest. She recovered and her symptoms went away completely when doctors got her to stop eating licorice.<\/p>\n

Of course, Halloween isn\u2019t the only occasion to revel in all the different ways our delicious foods possibly could\u2014but likely won\u2019t\u2014poison us. The end-of-year holidays are just as prime.<\/p>\n

Based on information from the FDA and a 2010 review in the journal Toxins<\/em><\/a>, here\u2019s a quick look at a few of the delicious dangers you\u2019re likely to encounter as you\u2019re kicking back and celebrating:<\/p>\n

Glycoalkaloids (solanine and chaconine) in potatoes<\/h2>\n

You might have heard that you should avoid eating the green bits of potatoes, but you may not know why. It\u2019s because potatoes naturally produce toxic, defensive pesticides called glycoalkaloids \u03b1-solanine and \u03b1-chaconine.<\/p>\n

These can exist throughout a potato tuber, but sprouts, peels, and sun-greened areas contain the highest levels. If eaten, glycoalkaloids can disrupt nerve signaling and the membranes around cells. At high enough doses, they cause gastric or neurologic problems, such as vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping, fevers, headaches, weakness, hallucinations, and coma, Cassell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotato growers, packers, and commercial users have built safeguards through FDA\u2019s current Good Manufacturing Practices to limit the concentration of glycoalkaloids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The FDA considers the maximum acceptable content of glycoalkaloids in potatoes to be 20mg to 25mg per 100g of fresh potato weight. Ingesting doses of 1mg to 5mg per kilogram of body-weight is known to cause toxicity, and doses 3mg to 6mg per kilogram of weight can kill.<\/p>\n

In 1993, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences found that the average person eats about 12.75mg glycoalkaloids per person per day from potatoes. That works out to about 0.18mg per kg of body weight based on a person weighing 70kg (154 pounds). In all, that dose is around a fifth of the lowest dose known to be toxic to humans (1mg per kg of weight).<\/p>\n

So, second helpings of the mashed potatoes or latkes are OK\u2014but maybe don\u2019t eat five times the amount you usually eat.<\/p>\n

Myristicin in nutmeg<\/h2>\n

What holiday isn\u2019t more fun with hallucinogenic drugs? Myristicin is a natural insecticide in nutmeg that has a chemical structure similar to mescaline, a psychedelic alkaloid in peyote that has hallucinogenic effects akin to LSD.<\/p>\n

At high enough doses\u2014about 6mg to 7mgs per kilogram of body weight\u2014myristicin also causes psychotropic effects, including feeling euphoric and free. That\u2019s sometimes accompanied by nausea, tremors, rapid heartbeat, and anxiety. But, as Cassell notes, such high doses are \u201cvastly greater than the usual levels of intake in the average diet.\u201d Only about one to three percent of nutmeg\u2019s content is myristicin, so this isn\u2019t something anyone has to worry about while eating pumpkin pie or sprinkling the spice over their eggnog.<\/p>\n

For the true thrill seekers, researchers have found that gulping down five grams of nutmeg<\/a> straight (about 1mg to 2mg per kilogram of body weight of myristicin) can accomplish making you feel a little drunk. But the effects don\u2019t last long. The FDA currently doesn\u2019t have any guidelines or regulations about how much myristicin can be in food.<\/p>\n

Cucurbitacins in zucchini, pumpkins, and squash<\/h2>\n

Produce in the Cucurbitaceae<\/em> family (the gourd family, which includes zucchini, pumpkins, and squash, among others) can produce toxic steroids called cucurbitacins that protect the plants from herbivores. These toxins are among the most bitter tasting compounds identified by researchers.<\/p>\n

There are a variety of cucurbitacins, which are designated by letters, i.e.<\/em>, cucurbitacin A and cucurbitacin B all the way to T. But, A, B, and C are the relatively toxic ones, Cassell said. At high enough doses, these cause lethal amounts of fluid to fill the lungs (pulmonary edema).<\/p>\n

High levels of cucurbitacins can build up in zucchini and other plants if they\u2019re grown in stressful conditions, such as in high temperatures or droughts. A signal that cucurbitacins are high is if your produce is excessively bitter. Eating extremely bitter zucchini has been linked to stomach cramps and diarrhea. During the 1980s, there were 22 recorded cases in Australia and the US of poisonings from bitter zucchini<\/a>. The cases were all linked to specific species of zucchini called \u201cBlackjack\u201d and \u201cBlack Beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are not common, Cassell said. \u201cMost zucchini species commonly consumed either don\u2019t contain cucurbitacins or do not contain enough of the compound to pose a health risk,\u201d he said. \u201cLike with potatoes, producers and growers take precautions to reduce the risk to consumers through FDA\u2019s current Good Manufacturing Processes.\u201d<\/p>\n