4 ms·

The first person to discover their edibility would not have known if they were about to crap liquid until they died when they ate it, but they likely would have

The first person to discover their edibility would not have known if they were about to crap liquid until they died when they ate it, but they likely would have known that in general rotten food can make you ill, hence the hard decision, chancing survival against a potentially earlier death.

M_Grey 10y ago
The fact that any of us are here to have this chat leads me to believe that the basic principles of testing edibility have been handed down since antiquity. Smell it. "Oh that's rank! Yet, I am starving." Touch it to your lips. "They're not numb! Result." Touch it to your tongue. "No burning, no numbness, no tingling, good!" Eat a very little bit, "Tastes better than I'd have thought." Wait. "I'm alive, and I feel a very little bit less hungry!" Eat some more. "I'm not hungry, I don't have dysentery, and I can still see."
- danharaj 10y ago
  Not to mention the permutations a human living in subsistence conditions would try. What if I cook it? What if I dry it? What if I soak it for a while? And so and and so forth.
  - M_Grey 10y ago
    Definitely. Especially anytime that food was likely to spoil rapidly and was incredibly valuable, like dairy. It also explains things like pemmican, which clearly evolved from a, "What if I add some berries and pound the ever loving crap out of it?" experimental lineage.
- Zancarius 10y ago
  I'd imagine it's also influenced by our stomach acid which plays a pretty substantial part in killing off most of the nasty things that could make us ill, although most of those same nasty things have defensive mechanisms that can help them survive the initial onslaught of the acid (high protein foods seem to provide some refuge [1]). Your comment reminded me of a YouTube channel I find weirdly (perhaps morbidly) fascinating [2]. Once your body is acclimated to eating dubious quality materials, even in modern society, it seems that you're less likely to get sick provided you're still relatively careful (not that I'd recommend it). Steve1989 has gotten sick from his adventures, although surprisingly it was from a more recent Ukranian MRE contaminated with E. coli, and not from some of the more expected sources. It's worth watching a few of his videos if you can stomach it, if not for the surprise at what questionable materials he actually gets down, but for the unusual number and types of things that have survived (he's eaten a cookie from 1951, 61 year old peanut butter, and even Civil War era hardtack). I guess my memory was triggered by your mention of numb lips. As I understand it from the channel above, rancid nuts are particularly bad at causing numbness and swelling. I certainly wouldn't recommend trying anything of the sort unless you were absolutely desperate! Definitely check out his channel. It's gross, I'll warn you, but it's also fascinating. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC106573/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC106573/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA/vid...
  - M_Grey 10y ago
    That's one of the few youtube channels I find myself going back to again, I do enjoy it in a bizarre way. Many times he opens an MRE and I assume, "Well, there's no way he tastes that..." and then he does.

M_Grey 10y ago

The fact that any of us are here to have this chat leads me to believe that the basic principles of testing edibility have been handed down since antiquity. Smell it. "Oh that's rank! Yet, I am starving." Touch it to your lips. "They're not numb! Result." Touch it to your tongue. "No burning, no numbness, no tingling, good!" Eat a very little bit, "Tastes better than I'd have thought." Wait. "I'm alive, and I feel a very little bit less hungry!" Eat some more. "I'm not hungry, I don't have dysentery, and I can still see."

danharaj 10y ago
Not to mention the permutations a human living in subsistence conditions would try. What if I cook it? What if I dry it? What if I soak it for a while? And so and and so forth.
- M_Grey 10y ago
  Definitely. Especially anytime that food was likely to spoil rapidly and was incredibly valuable, like dairy. It also explains things like pemmican, which clearly evolved from a, "What if I add some berries and pound the ever loving crap out of it?" experimental lineage.
Zancarius 10y ago
I'd imagine it's also influenced by our stomach acid which plays a pretty substantial part in killing off most of the nasty things that could make us ill, although most of those same nasty things have defensive mechanisms that can help them survive the initial onslaught of the acid (high protein foods seem to provide some refuge [1]). Your comment reminded me of a YouTube channel I find weirdly (perhaps morbidly) fascinating [2]. Once your body is acclimated to eating dubious quality materials, even in modern society, it seems that you're less likely to get sick provided you're still relatively careful (not that I'd recommend it). Steve1989 has gotten sick from his adventures, although surprisingly it was from a more recent Ukranian MRE contaminated with E. coli, and not from some of the more expected sources. It's worth watching a few of his videos if you can stomach it, if not for the surprise at what questionable materials he actually gets down, but for the unusual number and types of things that have survived (he's eaten a cookie from 1951, 61 year old peanut butter, and even Civil War era hardtack). I guess my memory was triggered by your mention of numb lips. As I understand it from the channel above, rancid nuts are particularly bad at causing numbness and swelling. I certainly wouldn't recommend trying anything of the sort unless you were absolutely desperate! Definitely check out his channel. It's gross, I'll warn you, but it's also fascinating. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC106573/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC106573/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA/vid...
- M_Grey 10y ago
  That's one of the few youtube channels I find myself going back to again, I do enjoy it in a bizarre way. Many times he opens an MRE and I assume, "Well, there's no way he tastes that..." and then he does.