The most harmful dishes from different countries that you will never eat

When it comes to strange or dangeroushealth dishes, haukarl usually comes to mind - this is the partially decomposed meat of the Greenland polar shark. These inhabitants of the North Atlantic do not have organs for excreting urine, so their tissues accumulate a huge amount of ammonia and trimethyl - compounds that are extremely toxic to the human body. To make the meat suitable for food, the inhabitants of Iceland for many centuries buried it in containers with gravel, and then hung it on hooks. The yellowish meat is then served to the table, but has a terrible smell and is still a health hazard. Many peoples have such dangerous dishes - we suggest that you get acquainted with the most interesting of them.

Icelandic haukarl smells terrible

Content

• 1 Carambola is a neurotoxic plant
• 2 Edible octopus tentacles
• 3 Edible bats
• 4 Edible snail eggs
• 5 Icelandic dish kiwiak

Carambola is a neurotoxic plant

Let's start with something simple.On the territory of some warm countries, the carambola plant grows, which has fruits in the shape of stars - they are even called "starfruits". They are crunchy and sweet and sour in taste, and are also considered a good source of vitamin C. Because of this, carambola fruits are often served as a dish, but they must be consumed with caution, because otherwise very serious health problems can arise.

fruit of carambola plant

First of all, the danger of carambola is associated withthe presence of oxalic acid. In large quantities, this substance can cause kidney problems and disrupt salt metabolism in the body. Therefore, carambola should never be eaten by people with problematic kidneys, stomach ulcers, and a number of other diseases.

Carambola should not be eaten by people with kidney problems

Carambola is also dangerous because it containsdangerous neurotoxin - caramboxin. In healthy people, it is excreted by the kidneys, but if they do not work properly, a person can become very ill, and sometimes the outcome is fatal.

See also: Popular foods that contain poison

Edible octopus tentacles

Octopuses are considered very intelligent animals, butwhile some peoples eat them. Korean and Japanese restaurants sometimes serve sushi with cephalopod tentacles that remain movable even after slicing. There are no toxic substances in octopuses, but they are dangerous precisely because of their mobility - there have been cases when the tentacles blocked the airways of visitors and they died. However, in the future, there should be fewer such dishes, because due to the ability of octopuses to feel pain, they began to be protected more strongly.

Dish with octopus tentacle

See also: Why should scientists leave octopuses alone?

edible bats

When visiting hot countries, many touriststry to eat as many exotic dishes as possible. In Asian countries, you can try stewed bats - they are boiled in chicken broth without any processing. That is, tourists are offered to cut them on their own and eat the insides. In this case, pieces of wool, membranes between the fingers and other parts of animals float in the broth. Not only does the idea of ​​preparing such a dish seem crazy, but these creatures can also be carriers of deadly diseases. The world was already convinced of this in 2019, when a resident of Wuhan consumed a bat and launched a terrible coronavirus pandemic.

Bat Soup

edible snail eggs

Escargot is a popular snail dish in France.served with white wine. Before serving, they are carefully cooked, and the delicacy contains a large amount of protein. This is a safe and even healthy dish.

Snail caviar

However, something dangerous is also prepared from snails,"snail caviar". In fact, these are raw eggs of gastropods, which are laid out on the leaves of vegetables or hard-boiled quail eggs. Perhaps this would be a great dish for lovers of everything exotic, but raw snails and their eggs can be inhabited by parasites that affect the human brain. We once told how visitors to the Hawaiian Islands died of meningitis by eating unwashed slugs.

You will be interested: 5 horror stories from childhood from the point of view of science

Icelandic dish kiviak

Let's end with a dish that hardly anyoneWill agree to try even for a lot of money. The Icelandic kiwiak is the decomposed carcasses of birds that have been aged inside the skins of seals. To prepare it, people catch sea gulls and put them in the body of a seal. After that, all this mass is buried in the ground for up to three years. All this time, the birds are slowly pickled in fat. Not only does this dish look terrible and is impossible to eat without vomiting, but there is also a very high chance of poisoning with Clostridium botulinum toxin. As a result of poisoning, peripheral nerve damage occurs and a person may die.

Kiviak is considered a festive dish

Do not forget to subscribe to our Zen channel, where you will find a lot of interesting things!

It is worth noting that even some products that are sold in stores are dangerous. My colleague Andrey Zhukov spoke about them in more detail - here is the link.