as they can not only make you sick,

but if not prepared properly, poison you to death.

Stay tuned till the end of this video

to also see what food you're not eating

that you definitely should be.

Appleseeds, no it's not cause an apple a day

keeps the doctor away.

It's because apple seeds contain amygdalin,

a compound that's broken down by your gut into cyanide.

That's why they actually taste bitter.

Cyanide is actually a poison that hurts your blood's ability

to carry oxygen leading to hypoxemia and eventually death.

Good news though,

your body can actually break down small amounts of cyanide

and you'd have to eat hundreds or even thousands of seeds

to be at risk for poisoning.

Fugu or puffer fish.

As seen in movies, puffer fish in the dish prepared

can be extremely poisonous.

The ovaries, intestines and liver of fugu

contain tetrodotoxin, which is a neurotoxin

that's up to 1200 times more deadly than cyanide.

Fugu chefs must undergo years of training

to obtain a proper preparing license.

And despite these precautions,

numerous people still die every year from their fugu

being improperly prepared.

This puffer poisoning

usually results from consumption of incorrectly prepared

puffer soup called fugu chiri,

or occasionally from raw puffer meat

known as sashimi fugu.

If it's not correctly prepared,

fugu can paralyze your nervous system

and shut down your respiratory muscles,

meaning this fish can cause you to drown

when you're not even in the water.

Rhubarb, rhubarb is a plant whose stock

is often used in pies, muffins, cakes.

And although rhubarb is botanically a vegetable,

it's classified as a fruit here in the United States.

Their leaves contain high levels of oxalic acid,

which is a corrosive and acidic substance

that can lead to kidney failure and even death.

And I stress high levels because other healthy vegetables

like broccoli and spinach also have oxalic acid

and they're just fine for us.

Don't use this as an excuse to skip out on your veggies.

It's surely the dose that makes the poison.

Actually a wild story is that during World War I

when vegetable stock was real low,

the leaves were mistakenly recommended as a food source

in Britain, leading to poisonings and even deaths.

Elderberries, I admit elderberries are delicious

and actually not poisonous if cooked and ripe,

but the rest of the tree they grow on

including its twigs, leaves, roots and seeds

contain bitter alkaloids that produce hydrocyanic acid.

If elderberries are fully riped or strain properly

when they're processed,

they can cause nausea, vomiting,

and severe, severe diarrhea.

According to the CDC,

there was actually an instance where eight people

attending a religious ceremony in Monterey County

were airlifted to the hospital

after drinking a special juice that had been made with,

among other things, elderberry leaves and branches.

They all survive,

but not before violently violently vomiting,

just 15 minutes after drinking the juice.

Make sure you know who's making your drinks and with what.

Red kidney beans,

actually a lot of legumes can cause an upset stomach

when under cooked, but red kidney beans

certainly take the cake

and that's because red kidney beans

contain a natural protein called lectin.

Within just a few hours of consuming PHA,

symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,

and abdominal pain may appear.

This PHA is the bean's natural defense system

like our immune system, but rest assured,

as PHA is destroyed by proper preparation

and legumes are most definitely a healthy source of protein

if properly prepared,

but it's not just a matter of cooking them.

In fact, according to the FDA,

cooking dried red kidney beans for less

than 10 minutes at any temperature

less than boiling can actually increase

the toxicity five fold making them far more toxic

than if you just ate them raw.

Castor oil seeds or beans.

Castor oil is notoriously known for being used as a laxative

to help you poop, specifically to stimulate laxative,

meaning that increases the movement of the muscles

and the intestines helping out with constipation.

However, if you watch the show Breaking Bad,

or my reaction to the show,

you know that the deadly poison ricin shown on the show

is made by crushing castor seeds.

It is reassuring to know that to make castor oil

from the seeds,

we use heat during the oil extraction process

to actually destroy the toxin.

Lychee, lychee sangria, lychee martini,

lychee ice cream, yum.

Lychees are delicious and are a hydrating fruit

that have many health benefits if eaten correctly

and in moderation.

But if you're eating raw, green, unripened lychees

on an empty stomach,

that can prove to be extremely dangerous to your health.

For 20 years, doctors observed an alarming trend

in the Northern region of India, where every spring,

hundreds of children would randomly have seizures,

slip into comas, dying in 40% of the cases.

Failed test after failed test later,

scientists finally determined that the underfed children

were eating unripened lychees that fell to the ground

and they contain high levels of a naturally occurring

amino acid derivative called hypoglycin.

This caused the children to wake screaming in the night

before suffering convulsions and losing consciousness

as they suffered acute swelling of their brains.

Luckily since this discovery,

incidents from unripened lychees in India

have fallen to under 50 a year.

Nutmeg, get this, the delicious little bit of nutmeg

that you add to your pasta, eggnog and sauces may be yummy,

but over ingesting the spice can actually be fatal.

Nutmeg contains a compound called myristicin,

a psychoactive substance that in larger doses

can actually poison your system and cause organ failure.

Myristicin is actually cytotoxic,

meaning that it instructs your own cells

to destroy themselves.

In fact, just eating two, three teaspoons of nutmeg

can result in seizures,

irregular heartbeat, nausea, dizziness,

dry mouth, pain and hallucinations,

similar to the ones people get when taking peyote.

I still remember my med school toxicology professor

sharing that nutmeg is metabolized into MMDA in the body

to produce hallucinogenic effects

and as a result has romantically and historically

been linked as a potential way to get high.

Trust me though, this is a horrible, horrible idea

as the vomiting and toxicity make it

a terrible recreational drug.

There are also no known current antidotes

for myristicin poisoning and treatment focuses

on symptom management and airway protection only.

Potatoes, potatoes are not poisonous in the way

that we usually consume them so relax,

but if you consume a green potato

or even one with a greenish tint,

it likely means that a glycol alkaloid poison

named solanine is also present.

This is an actual nerve toxin that can result in vomiting,

diarrhea, paralysis, and even death

if ingested in very high amounts.

Also, you know those little sprouts and stems

that we commonly refer to as eyes that grow on potatoes?

As they age, they contain the same glycol alkaloid.

So don't eat the stems, don't eat green potatoes

and remember just because potatoes are technically

a vegetable doesn't mean

they can replace your broccoli at dinner, I'm watching you.

Cashews, did you know that unlike money,

cashews do grow on trees

and you probably have seen me eat raw cashews

on this channel as a snack, but truth be told,

they're not actually wrong.

And thank God for that

as cashews have to be heat-treated to move urushiol,

which is a poisonous chemical.

It's actually the same chemical

that causes a poison ivy rash.

Consuming truly raw cashews straight from the tree

can cause skin rashes and extreme,

sometimes fatal, allergic reactions.

Now for the one that you're supposed to eat, kiwi skin.

Some of you may not like its texture,

but health benefit wise, it's really solid.

The skin contains nutrients like fiber, folate,

vitamin C and E.

Adding the skin of the kiwi

boosts the fruit's fiber content by 50%.

And as someone who's struggling to get my fiber,

the furry skin texture may be worth the trade off.

However, as a little word of warning,

if you have a tendency to develop kidney stones,

you may want to look elsewhere for your antioxidant.

Which is healthier, real meat or fake meat?

Click here to find out and as always,

stay happy and healthy.