10 Foods That Can Actually Kill You

Ackee The national fruit of Japan, the ackee is 100-percent safe — and delicious — when it’s ripe. But when it’s not, it contains toxic hypoglycin A and hypoglycin B, which, when converted to acid in the body, can lead to vomiting, unconsciousness, coma, and death. In 2011, unripe ackee was responsible for more than 20 deaths in just three months, so beware! \


Elderberries Elderberries have become extremely popular as a flavoring for many drinks, as well as a medicinal tea, but the uncooked green parts are extremely poisonous. They contain glycosides that are converted into cyanide when metabolized in the body. Elderberry jam is a pretty safe bet though, given that the fruit has to be cooked first.




Blowfish You’ve probably heard about the dangers of blowfish, given that its organs contain a lethal amount of terodotox. But blowfish, or fugu, remains a delicacy in many parts of the world. It must be cooked properly, however, or victims will find their muscles all paralyzed, leading to asphyxiation.


Kidney beans Kidney beans need to be boiled for a minimum of 10 minutes, or they will retain their natural toxin, phytohaemagglutinin, which leads to severe nausea and vomiting. Even cooking kidney beans at a temperature below boiling will not remove the toxin, so be sure to cook them correctly before you toss them in your next pot of chili!


Potatoes Green potatoes are more than just gross to eat – they’re also toxic. Packed with solanine, green potatoes can cause severe vomiting and can even lead to cardiac arrest if consumed in large portions. It’s unclear why you would want to eat large quantities of green potatoes, but here’s the warning all the same.


Rhubarb Rhubarb pie is delicious, unless you use the leaves. The stalks fine, but rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid, a common ingredient in most bleaches. Eaten, oxalic acid can lead to severe vomiting and can sometimes cause victims to go into shock and die. So maybe just the stalks?


Wild almonds Don’t worry — there are two types of almonds, and we really only eat one of them. Sweet almonds are a fantastic snack, packed with great nutrients, but bitter raw almonds are packed with something else — cyanide. Cooking bitter almonds neutralizes the substances, or you could just play it safe and stick to the sweet variety.


Cherries Though cherries themselves aren’t actually toxic, the pits are a bit more dicey. Cherry pits are packed with hydrogen cyanide, which is definitely not something you want to be consuming on a daily basis – or an anytime basis, for that matter. But even if you swallow a pit whole, don’t fret – the pits are too thick to break down inside the body, and usually just come out whole. Better to be safe, though, and spit those suckers out!


Apples An apple a day keeps the doctors at bay, but if you eat massive amounts of the seeds, you’ll have those same doctors beating down your door. The chemical compounds in apple seeds break down into cyanide in the body, so maybe just avoid those bits when you chow down on your next apple.


Castor beans Castor oil was traditionally used as a medicinal laxative, and is often used in cooking today. But raw castor beans also contain ricin, which isn’t good for you. So much so that a dose of purified ricin powder the size of a few grains of table salt can kill an adult. Just last week, a Texas actress who admitted to sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was sentenced to 18 years in prison, CNN reports. Unless you prefer poison in your diet, steer clear of those suckers until they’re well cooked and blended into something else.