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Poison in Honey: How Contaminated is it With The Highly Toxic Ragwort?

Traces of Jacob’s Ragwort have been found in honey. This is a highly poisonous plant that is now even being fought nationwide. The poison can cause severe liver damage.

Ragwort is becoming a problem in pastures

Jacob’s ragwort is not a popular sight on the pastures of cattle, sheep or horse farmers.
As a rule, the inedibility of the animals is noticed by the animals before they are eaten, but even the smallest amounts are enough to poison the grazing animals over a long period of time. In the silage or in the hay, the ragwort can no longer be recognized by the animals as such and they eat it with them.

The herb can have fatal consequences for the grazing animals, but for our bees it is a blessing due to the lack of food and the lack of flowering areas. Bees like to use ragwort as an alternative forage plant.

Liver-damaging toxin in honey

The proliferation of ragwort probably has something to do with the fact that wild rabbit populations are declining sharply. Rabbits are resistant to the plant’s toxin and prefer to eat the plant’s roots.

In the meantime, the poisonous plant, which is spreading rapidly, is being combated by uprooting it and mowing it in a targeted manner before it flowers, so that propagation via flying seeds can no longer take place.

Furthermore, it is recommended to pay attention to the careful disposal of the clippings after mowing the Ragwort so that there is no new sowing.

Imported honey particularly polluted

Because bees and other pollinators value ragwort as an alternative food source, ragwort has made its way into some foods, such as honey and teas. So far, German honey has been less contaminated with the liver toxin of Jacob’s ragwort than honey imported from abroad. Not infrequently, however, German honey is mixed or diluted with honey imported from abroad.

Due to the high level of toxicity of the plant, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment requires zero tolerance for the detection of the plant’s poison in food. To this day, however, we have no regulations, guidelines or controls on the maximum levels of the poison from ragwort in food. It is currently unclear when and if this requirement will be implemented at all.

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Food

Sprouting Garlic and Onions: Is It Still Eatable or Is It Toxic?

Are sprouting onions and garlic bulbs safe to eat, or do they become toxic like potatoes? We have the answer.

Germs Despite Proper Storage: But Are They Toxic?

Despite correct storage, it is unavoidable that onions will start to germinate over time. For a long time it was disputed whether one should still eat sprouting onions. In the meantime, there are no longer two opinions on this – onions do not develop any toxic substances and can be eaten without hesitation, according to the Federal Center for Nutrition

It also doesn’t matter under what circumstances and after how long the sprouts sprout from the vegetables: It doesn’t matter whether the onion or garlic was stored in the dark, in the refrigerator or in the cellar for several months during the winter, the sprouts are always harmless .

Nevertheless, one should make sure that the vegetables are consumed as soon as they have budded. As a result, the tuber loses its firmness and becomes softer. That doesn’t mean an onion will go moldy. The softening only shows that the onion is gradually losing its fleshy nutrient reservoir as it sprout. They also become drier because the germs use their water reserves.

Onions and garlic with sprouts become soft and dry: the result is a reduced nutrient content

Onions and garlic are also dried out and still edible when soft, but in this state they are significantly poorer in valuable ingredients. Garlic, in particular, is a wonderful home remedy when fresh to naturally lower blood pressure, and eating both types of vegetables can also prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Cooking tip: The green of the onion and garlic can also be integrated into many recipes, similar to spring onions or wild garlic: to refine soups, herbal quark or salads. Therefore, it is even a good idea not to eat one or more onions or garlic bulbs immediately and let them germinate. You can always harvest fresh shoots and save yourself a trip to the supermarket to get spring onions.

If an onion goes moldy, you can tell immediately. An onion then develops clear signs of mold and feels mushy and soft. There is also a noticeable smell. These onions should definitely be thrown away – the same applies to garlic.

Eating them quickly is advised: This is how the vegetables taste best

Basically, the bulb of onion or garlic should be consumed as soon as possible. Before the vegetables are used, they should definitely be smelled. You should only overcook vegetables that smell fresh and pungent as usual. For older germinating onions or garlic bulbs with little substance, it is better to use only the green onion shoots. Dishes that use a lot of onions are potato goulash, French onion soup, roasted onions or onion tart.

If you still don’t like the germinating onion for consumption, you might have a place for it on the balcony or in the garden. The sprouted onion can also be planted. However, it takes a while for new onions to sprout from a kitchen onion. The germinated bulb will grow first and produce a beautiful flower. These are an absolute eye-catcher in the bed or on the balcony. When the flower then forms seeds, new bulbs can be grown from them later.

Conclusion: Even germinating onions and garlic bulbs can be consumed without hesitation and are not poisonous under any circumstances. Although the germ dries out the vegetables, which can cause them to become soft and lose nutrients, there is no risk to health. A sprouting onion or potato tuber can even be helpful when cooking, because you can refine many dishes with the sprouts.

Potatoes are different from onions. The poisonous substance solanine collects in their shoots. This leads to intestinal problems. Potatoes with large sprouts are therefore best discarded.

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Lifestyle

Avoid Toxic Fumes When Tinkering

If you want to craft with the family, you should avoid toxic fumes. These are often contained in special adhesives and can cause damage to health.

Be careful when using special glue

Crafting is a great activity for kids. But when tinkering, you may be working with special glue or plastic glue, which can develop toxic vapors due to their solvents and lead to health problems if inhaled intensively. Therefore, the following always applies: Only use special glue if there is no other option. This is the case, for example, with plastics. It is better to use craft glue that is also suitable for children.

Tips on avoiding toxic fumes

However, if you and your family have to tinker or work with special glue, you should take certain precautions. As a result, you can avoid health problems and the inhalation of toxic fumes. In addition, read how to remove glue and superglue.

1) Ventilate well and avoid toxic fumes

Particular caution with such handicrafts applies to open flames because the special glue is often highly flammable. To avoid burns and keep the glue away from fire. In addition, you should definitely open a window and ventilate well if you want to heat and glue plastics. Good ventilation ensures that the toxic vapors can escape quickly.

2) Crafting outdoors

If you must work with special glue, try doing it outdoors. Thus, the toxic haze in the air can quickly dissipate. Consequently, the risk of inhaling them is minimized and you protect your health. You can also make great ideas for advent calendars.

3) wear masks and avoid toxic fumes

Wearing masks is not a measure against corona, but also an effective way to protect yourself against toxic gases when doing handicrafts and DIY. These ensure that harmful vapors or particles do not enter your body through inhalation. This makes working and handicrafts with special glue safer.

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Food

Eating Raw Potatoes: Toxic or Safe?

Even as a child you learn not to eat raw potatoes. But what is behind it? Are raw potatoes toxic or even healthy? We have put together the most important information for you.

Eating raw potatoes – poisonous or not?

Anyone who has ever tried to eat potatoes raw will have noticed that they don’t taste very good. On the one hand, this is due to the starch, which uncooked has a very floury taste and is difficult to digest.

On the other hand, raw potatoes taste unpleasantly bitter. Like other nightshade plants (e.g. aubergines), they contain toxic alkaloids. In potatoes, it’s solanine. This toxin is a natural protection of the plant against putrefaction pathogens, pests, predators and fungal infestation.

A lot of solanine accumulates, especially under the skin and in green and germinating areas. Green potatoes can reach solanine levels averaging 35 milligrams per 100 grams. So, eating too much raw potatoes can be harmful. Possible symptoms of poisoning are, for example:
Nausea,
Vomit,
Diarrhea,
breathing problems and
Cramps.
Children are particularly at risk.
Store the potatoes properly to prevent them from sprouting and forming solanine. A dry, cool, dark place is best.

Proper handling of potatoes: Avoid solanine

It is therefore advisable not to eat potatoes raw. Boiled potatoes are usually edible. When you peel the potatoes, be sure to remove sprouted and green areas generously. Such spots indicate a high solanine value – potatoes that germinate strongly are not edible even after cooking: solanine is heat-resistant and does not become harmless even through cooking

Raw potatoes – are they healthy?

Even if you shouldn’t eat potatoes raw, eating a small piece of peeled raw potato probably won’t hurt. In juice form, raw potatoes may even have health benefits:

In the case of stomach problems such as heartburn, freshly squeezed potato juice can provide relief if taken regularly.
Raw potato juice contains a particularly large number of antioxidants because the phytochemicals have not been destroyed by heating.
There are raw foodists who like to eat raw potatoes. They point out that one would have to eat over five kilograms of raw and unpeeled potatoes before a lethal dose of solanine is reached. In principle, however, the frequent consumption of raw potatoes is not recommended.

Potatoes are so healthy

Potatoes are a very healthy food. They are a good source of carbohydrates and make you feel full for a long time. Due to the high water content of 80 percent, they are also low in calories. Potatoes contain high levels of protein, potassium, magnesium and iron, as well as vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and vitamin C. Potatoes contain folic acid, which supports cell renewal.

In addition, the potato belongs to the category of basic or base-forming foods. This means that when potatoes are metabolized in the body, bases are formed. In contrast to acid-forming foods, these have positive effects on the body.

In the case of gastrointestinal complaints such as diarrhea, mashed potatoes can have a calming effect. It is easily digestible and the starch content binds acids and toxins.

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health

Eating Rhubarb Raw: Toxic or Harmless?

Can you eat rhubarb raw? Opinions differ on this question. Here you can find out whether raw rhubarb is poisonous or harmless.

A common piece of advice is that raw rhubarb should be cooked before eating. The fact is that raw rhubarb contains a lot of oxalic acid. This is a naturally occurring fruit acid that can be harmful to the body. When rhubarb is cooked, much of this oxalic acid migrates into the water and thus disappears from the vegetable.

However, rhubarb itself is not poisonous and oxalic acid is not harmful per se. We explain why this is so and in what quantities you can eat raw rhubarb.

Eating rhubarb raw – unhealthy or healthy?

In fact, the human body itself produces oxalic acid during certain metabolic processes. We also absorb them every day from many plant-based foods – not just from rhubarb. This is what oxalic acid does:

In the body, oxalic acid combines with minerals such as calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium or ammonium. As a result, these can only be absorbed by the intestinal mucosa to a limited extent or are withdrawn from the body.
The combination of oxalic acid and calcium in particular can prove problematic. The crystals it forms can eventually deposit and lead to kidney stones. They also reduce the absorption of nutrients from food.
In particular, the absorption of iron in the intestine can be inhibited. If you are prone to kidney stones or iron deficiency, you should (temporarily) avoid foods that contain a lot of oxalic acid or only consume them in very small amounts.
Important: If in doubt, you should seek medical advice and clarify whether you can eat foods high in oxalic acid, such as rhubarb, raw or even eat them at all.

Recommendation: Only eat raw rhubarb in small quantities

Raw rhubarb is therefore only toxic to the body in a few cases. Above all, it depends on how much raw rhubarb you eat and how ripe it is:

You can easily enjoy one or two stalks of raw rhubarb.
But make sure that you eat red stalks if possible: the riper the rhubarb, the less oxalic acid it contains. Incidentally, the rhubarb leaves contain the most oxalic acid – so you should never eat them raw.
If you eat (raw) rhubarb together with dairy products, the oxalic acid is better processed by the body. In this way, it combines with the calcium in milk and not in the body.

Do you know that furry feeling on your teeth after eating rhubarb? It occurs because oxalic acid and calcium react with each other in the mouth and their compounds are deposited on the teeth. This attacks your tooth enamel. Therefore, after eating rhubarb, you should wait 30 to 60 minutes to brush your teeth.
If you want to eat rhubarb raw and still want to reduce the oxalic acid, you can peel the rhubarb.
By the way: If you don’t cook rhubarb, many good nutrients are retained. For example, rhubarb is high in vitamin C.

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Food

Prussic Acid: These Foods Contain the Toxic Substance

Hydrocyanic acid is a highly toxic substance that is also found in some foods. We will show you which plants produce the toxic substance and which foods you should avoid.

Prussic Acid: A highly toxic substance

Prussic acid (or hydrogen cyanide) is a highly toxic substance that is deadly even in small quantities. The smell of the colorless liquid is slightly reminiscent of bitter almonds, but not everyone can smell it. Prussic acid is water-soluble and, with a boiling point of 26°C, is an extremely volatile substance.

Throughout history, the poison has been used against humans several times; among other things during National Socialism and for the execution of the death penalty in the USA until 1999.

Prussic acid: effect of the toxic substance

The absorption of hydrocyanic acid inhibits an important enzyme in the human organism that is responsible for cell respiration. The result is what appears to be a lack of oxygen in the cells, which leads to internal suffocation and death within seconds.

Just one to two milligrams of hydrocyanic acid per kilogram of body weight can be deadly. The amount that is still harmless can vary greatly from person to person, which is why the tolerance range of the human body is quite wide at 1-60 milligrams per kilogram of body mass.

Hydrocyanic acid in food

There are some foods that contain hydrocyanic acid. Over 1000 plants worldwide are known to produce the toxic substance. This serves as a natural protection against feeding and germination inhibitors, for example with stone fruit. Only after the pericarp has decomposed can the hydrocyanic acid evaporate and the seeds begin to germinate.

These plant foods contain hydrocyanic acid:

Immature bamboo shoots (up to 8 g/kg)
Bitter Almonds (2.5 g/kg)
Bitter apricot kernels
stone fruit pits
cassava tuber
kidney bean
lima bean
yam
Certain varieties of sweet potato
sweet millet
linseed
You should be particularly careful with bitter almonds and apricot kernels. Even 5-10 bitter almonds or 10 drops of bitter almond oil can have a fatal effect on children. A safe alternative is bitter almond flavoring. Bitter apricot kernels also have a relatively high hydrocyanic acid content.

Unlike bitter almonds, apricot kernels are not only sold in controlled small quantities, but are offered in 200 gram packs. You should therefore be careful when using apricot kernels as a dietary supplement with an alleged healing effect on cancer, because the amygdalin they contain splits off hydrocyanic acid when the kernels are digested.

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) warns against eating more than two bitter apricot kernels a day and emphasizes that there is no scientific evidence of any healing effects. Sweet apricot kernels can also contain hydrocyanic acid.

Eating unripe bamboo shoots is particularly dangerous because they have a very high hydrocyanic acid content (up to eight grams per kilo). In Asian countries, there are repeated cases of poisoning from bamboo shoots if they are not sufficiently cooked.

Hydrocyanic acid in food: How to protect yourself

In order to render the toxic hydrocyanic acid in food harmless, it is sufficient for you to boil the vegetables beforehand. With a boiling point of 26°C, the poison evaporates during cooking and you can safely eat foods that have a low level of hydrocyanic acid when raw. Cassava tubers or haricot beans, for example, must be boiled before consumption.

Also: Small amounts of hydrocyanic acid, which occur in natural foods, can be rendered harmless by the body itself. The enzyme rhodanase converts the poison into the substance rhodanide, which is harmless to humans.

You should largely avoid foods that contain relatively large amounts of hydrocyanic acid (such as bitter almonds or apricot kernels).

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