Learn to recognize the symptoms
If you’ve gone through life and managed to avoid the major drugs and alcohol addictions, you might think you’ve got all your bases covered. But the threat of overdose lurks even in your own kitchen.
From the most unsuspecting 'healthy' foods, to the cravings that are hard to kick, there are numerous everyday foods and drinks that have the potential to be toxic—some of which have even killed people.
Click through and find out why the phrase “everything in moderation” exists.
After a visit with a private nutritionist, a British man began taking a daily dose of 150,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D, which was "375 times the recommended amount," according to a BMJ Case Report, as per CNN. Within a month, he began suffering from nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, along with leg cramps and a ringing in his ears.
Because vitamin D is not a water-soluble vitamin, which the body can easily eliminate, extra amounts are stored in liver and fat cells until it’s needed. Consuming well over the daily recommended dose can build up to toxic levels, and an overdose called hypervitaminosis D.
Water is essential to our survival and bodily functions, however consuming too much in too short a period can actually result in water poisoning (also called water toxemia, or hyperhydration). There have been a few documented cases, usually in water drinking competitions, wherein the excessive water intake pushes the normal balance of electrolytes off-kilter, which can lead to a potentially fatal disturbance in brain function.
Excessive water intake can also result in hyponatremia, which occurs when the sodium levels in your body become too diluted and your cells begin to swell. The swelling can cause many health problems, from milder symptoms to potentially fatal ones.
Sodium is vital for performing numerous bodily functions, but too much can cause your cells to severely dehydrate in a process called hypernatremia (opposite to hyponatremia), which can lead to seizures, coma, and even death.
In one infamous case from 2013, a young man who was dared by his friends to drink a liter of soy sauce went into a coma and nearly died from an excess of salt.
The rumors are true: apple seeds can indeed be toxic. But it would take quite a lot of them to kill you, and only if they’re ingested a certain way. According to Britannica, apple seeds contain amygdalin, which is composed of cyanide and sugar. When metabolized and broken down in the digestive system, this chemical degrades into highly poisonous hydrogen cyanide (HCN)—a lethal dose of which can kill almost immediately.
Fortunately, the amygdalin is only accessible if the seeds have been crushed or chewed up, and the human body can still process HCN in small doses. It would take around 150 to several thousand crushed seeds (depending on apple variety) to be at risk of cyanide poisoning, and the average apple only has five to eight seeds.
Eating too much raw tuna could lead to serious neurological problems due to the high mercury levels. The reason it's tuna fish specifically is because it's a larger fish that accumulates more methyl mercury in its muscles due to the fact that it consumes many smaller fish over its life.
It’s difficult to definitively say how much is too much, because the amount of mercury varies between every piece. But to be safe, it's recommended to limit your tuna intake to one serving a week. Young kids and pregnant women, however, are recommended to avoid it entirely.
While the caffeine is certainly something to watch out for, it’s more likely you'll overdose on oxalate when it comes to drinking too much black tea.
A 56-year-old man from Arkansas was drinking around 16 glasses of iced tea a day and was eventually put on dialysis due to the damage caused to his kidney, Live Science reports. Sixteen cups of tea made his daily consumption of oxalate more than 1500 mg—which is dangerously higher than the recommended amount of 200-300 milligrams.
Though it would take a lot (we're talking over 80 full-size chocolate bars), it’s possible to overdose on chocolate because it contains theobromine, the same chemical that makes chocolate deadly for dogs.
The side effects of theobromine include arrhythmias, internal bleeding, seizures, and potentially even death.
While not the most popular treat, eating too much black licorice consistently has reportedly been linked to health issues like arrhythmia.
The compound glycyrrhizin, which accounts for the sweet taste of licorice root, is to blame. Though it's mostly dangerous for those over 40, there have been cases of young kids suffering the effects, like a 10-year-old boy in Italy in 2015 who suffered brain swelling and multiple seizures after eating 20 black liquorice squares every day for four months.
Bananas are often a staple in the healthiest of diets, but they actually hold the potential to be lethal. It’s not anywhere near the common mythical number of six bananas, but if you somehow managed to eat 400 in a single day, your heart could stop beating (if your full stomach hasn’t already killed you).
That’s because of a condition called hyperkalemia, which results from an overdose of potassium in your blood.
Despite being packed with all sorts of good vitamins, minerals, and fibers, carrots also contain a ton of beta-carotene—the molecule responsible for carrots' orange color—and if you eat too much, you could actually turn yellow or orange.
Known as carotenemia, the condition is the result of an excess of the molecule carotene in your blood, which tends to accumulate in the outermost layer of skin, and consequently discolor it. You’d need to eat half a cup of chopped carrots every day for months, or take too many carotene oral supplements, like a 66-year-old woman did in 2006, according to a case report published in The Journal of Dermatology.
Coffee is a hotly debated drink, with many trying to cut back and others singing its praises. It's true that too much coffee is bad for you, but only mostly because of the caffeine, which can cause a heart attack if consumed in large amounts—though if you're not drinking 70 cups at once, you should be fine.
It's still a good idea to watch your caffeine intake, however, as the recommended amount is less than 500 to 600 milligrams a day. Consuming more than that won't kill you, but you may experience negative side effects like insomnia, restlessness, nausea, arrhythmia, muscle tremors, anxiety, and headaches.
Commonly available in Southeast Asia and South America, this uniquely shaped fruit is fine in moderation for healthy people, but it’s been linked with acute kidney failure in people with a history of kidney diseases. All it took was two for a 76-year-old woman with chronic renal disease to end up in the hospital with an accelerated heart rate and a mental state of drowsiness, according to a 2006 case report in the Journal of Nephrology.
According to Live Science, star fruit poisoning was first described in 1980 in Malaysia. It was found to have a depressive effect on the central nervous system and included symptoms like hiccups, vomiting, weakness, insomnia, altered consciousness, convulsions, and hypotension.
This delightful, warm spice won’t do a thing when sprinkled on eggnog, but in excessive quantities nutmeg has been found to work like a hallucinogenic drug. There are numerous unpleasant side effects, however, and a case report published in the Emergency Medicine Journal in 2005 says that some people may also experience acute psychotic episodes and detachment from reality.
As for its ability to kill you, nutmeg is rarely deadly. There were apparently only two reports of fatal nutmeg overdoses, the first of which was in 1908 and involved an eight-year-old who ingested 14 grams of it, the second of which was a 55-year-old who is suspected to have died from both a compound from essential oil of nutmeg and a powerful sedative.
The sugary, black tea fermented by a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts (that weird-looking thing you see at the bottom) is hailed for its probiotic, immunity-boosting effects, but it also poses some serious threats. The American Cancer Society has warned that certain kombucha starter cultures may contain contaminants such as molds and fungi, some of which can cause serious problems for those with preexisting conditions.
There have been cases of toxic reactions to kombucha tea, including a 22-year-old man in Los Angeles who was newly diagnosed with HIV and quickly felt ill, short of breath, feverish, and disoriented soon after drinking it. The CDC emphasized that people with preexisting health problems or those who drink excessive quantities are at highest risk of adverse effects.
Don’t cut off all the foods on this list, but also don’t enter contests where you have to eat or drink a dangerous amount of anything. Everything in moderation!
Sources: (Tastemade) (CNN) (Live Science) (FitDay) (Britannica)
See also: What happens to your body when you drink wine every night?
Surprising things you didn’t know you can overdose on
Everyday foods and drinks that have the potential to be toxic
HEALTH Food
If you’ve gone through life and managed to avoid the major drugs and alcohol addictions, you might think you’ve got all your bases covered. But the threat of overdose lurks even in your own kitchen.
From the most unsuspecting 'healthy' foods, to the cravings that are hard to kick, there are numerous everyday foods and drinks that have the potential to be toxic—some of which have even killed people.
Click through and find out why the phrase “everything in moderation” exists.