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I don't eat stuff that I don't totally, 100% know and trust. Wild shit, never. There's this fascination of people towards eating exotic stuff (defined as "non

I don't eat stuff that I don't totally, 100% know and trust. Wild shit, never. There's this fascination of people towards eating exotic stuff (defined as "non domesticated plants"), like wild garlic (Allium Ursinum), I see people selling leaves at the market. A slight mistake and they're buying Lily Of The Valley which looks very similar but will kill you. Or wild mushroom people. I'm not touching wild mushrooms with a barge pole, couldn't give a s*it what experts say and how great they taste. I'd rather eat bread and water and stay alive than risk kidney failure and agonizing death. I guess people are curious on experiencing interesting tastes but as they say "curiosity killed the cat".

jimbob45 3y ago
In fairness, there’s a method to eating exotic plants that isn’t just “ram it down the hatch”. You smell, look, and feel for anything that seems off-putting. You touch it to your tongue and wait 30 minutes to see if anything happens. You make sure you’re within range of EMS with people around. You eat a very small bite to begin with. But yeah, unironically please don’t eat exotic plants I don’t want anyone to die for a silly reason.
- angiosperm 3y ago
  We have this method nowadays not so available to our recent ancestors, "look it up". Do that one first.
  - jimbob45 3y ago
    There's a theory[0] that the bloke from "Into the Wild" died from seeds that weren't in his fieldbook because they had never been known to be poisonous at the time. Again, though, I agree - pack your own food into the campsite. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless#Swainsonine_in_Hedysarum_alpinum_seeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless#Swainsonine_i...
    - angiosperm 3y ago
      If it's not in your fieldbook, don't eat it.
  - elsonrodriguez 3y ago
    This is the only way. It is a tautology, but a plant is only safe to eat if you know it is safe to eat and can identify it correctly.
- Modified3019 3y ago
  It misses the step of crushing it and applying it to a patch of sensitive skin and waiting days waiting for rash or boils to show up, which comes before putting it in the mouth. That said, these sort of strategies are for actual explorers living off the land, not people that have all human knowledge beamed to their phone.
- MichaelRo 3y ago
  Isn't this method failing with the most toxic of mushrooms? "Death caps (Amanita phalloides) have been reported to taste pleasant.This, coupled with the delay in the appearance of symptoms—during which time internal organs are being severely, sometimes irreparably, damaged—makes them particularly dangerous." So funk that, unless some life or death situation like facing starvation, there's a zillion things to eat and taste without the need to try what I don't know for sure.
angiosperm 3y ago
The South American tapir eats toxic plants all day long But only one leaf off of each, and then eats kaolin clay.
- Jun8 3y ago
  The tapir is wise as was Mithridates, as told by Housman: There was a king reigned in the East: There, when kings will sit to feast, They get their fill before they think With poisoned meat and poisoned drink. He gathered all the springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, thence to more, He sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, seasoned sound, Sate the king when healths went round. They put arsenic in his meat And stared aghast to watch him eat; They poured strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up: They shook, they stared as white's their shirt: Them it was their poison hurt. I tell the tale that I heard told. Mithridates, he died old.
  - angiosperm 3y ago
    But don't neglect the kaolin.

jimbob45 3y ago

In fairness, there’s a method to eating exotic plants that isn’t just “ram it down the hatch”. You smell, look, and feel for anything that seems off-putting. You touch it to your tongue and wait 30 minutes to see if anything happens. You make sure you’re within range of EMS with people around. You eat a very small bite to begin with. But yeah, unironically please don’t eat exotic plants I don’t want anyone to die for a silly reason.

angiosperm 3y ago
We have this method nowadays not so available to our recent ancestors, "look it up". Do that one first.
- jimbob45 3y ago
  There's a theory[0] that the bloke from "Into the Wild" died from seeds that weren't in his fieldbook because they had never been known to be poisonous at the time. Again, though, I agree - pack your own food into the campsite. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless#Swainsonine_in_Hedysarum_alpinum_seeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless#Swainsonine_i...
  - angiosperm 3y ago
    If it's not in your fieldbook, don't eat it.
- elsonrodriguez 3y ago
  This is the only way. It is a tautology, but a plant is only safe to eat if you know it is safe to eat and can identify it correctly.
Modified3019 3y ago
It misses the step of crushing it and applying it to a patch of sensitive skin and waiting days waiting for rash or boils to show up, which comes before putting it in the mouth. That said, these sort of strategies are for actual explorers living off the land, not people that have all human knowledge beamed to their phone.
MichaelRo 3y ago
Isn't this method failing with the most toxic of mushrooms? "Death caps (Amanita phalloides) have been reported to taste pleasant.This, coupled with the delay in the appearance of symptoms—during which time internal organs are being severely, sometimes irreparably, damaged—makes them particularly dangerous." So funk that, unless some life or death situation like facing starvation, there's a zillion things to eat and taste without the need to try what I don't know for sure.

angiosperm 3y ago

The South American tapir eats toxic plants all day long But only one leaf off of each, and then eats kaolin clay.

Jun8 3y ago
The tapir is wise as was Mithridates, as told by Housman: There was a king reigned in the East: There, when kings will sit to feast, They get their fill before they think With poisoned meat and poisoned drink. He gathered all the springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, thence to more, He sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, seasoned sound, Sate the king when healths went round. They put arsenic in his meat And stared aghast to watch him eat; They poured strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up: They shook, they stared as white's their shirt: Them it was their poison hurt. I tell the tale that I heard told. Mithridates, he died old.
- angiosperm 3y ago
  But don't neglect the kaolin.