Toxic Food Myths

Everyone knows the urban legend about the little boy who died from eating Pop Rocks and soda, but have you heard the one about almonds and oysters? How about crab and pumpkin? Oysters and beer? Cherries and milk? Believe it or not, if you dig deep enough you will find a number of stories online about how various foods should not be eaten together because they can be lethal. Each story is usually accompanied by the tale of Uncle Jack or Aunt Rita who became ill and died after eating said combination.

Although it’s easy to dismiss these as ill-informed rumors, after all who doesn’t enjoy some Cherry Garcia ice-cream, where did these rumors start? And are there really any foods that should not be eaten together?

Should you eat almonds and oysters together? Some people believe you shouldn’t. It is passed on in typical urban legend fashion (my sister’s friend’s chemistry teacher) and the reason given is that the two combine to create lethal doses of cyanide in your stomach. As it happens, there is a grain of truth to this story but one that has been greatly distorted. Dietician Rosanne Rust notes that bitter almonds, as well as apricot and apple pips, contain minuscule traces of a substance that can convert to cyanide once eaten. However, the doses would be far too small to cause any damage and the almonds available to us in stores are sweet almonds which do not contain the same substance. It’s easy to see where the rumor may have started.

So what about the oysters? Where do they fit in? According to nutritional coach Susan Marque, almonds and raw oysters may be difficult (but not lethal) for some people to digest together. Since both are fairly heavy proteins, the stomach may sometimes have difficulty producing enough enzymes to break both down. In rare cases, this may lead to an allergic reaction but the reaction is caused by the individual’s own enzyme deficiencies, not by the combination of foods eaten.

Another thing that you will notice about many of the supposedly “toxic combinations” is that they contain a food which already carries certain risks. Many combinations include oysters, crab and other seafood. As most of us know, if not stored or prepared properly, seafood can easily become a breeding ground for bacteria which leads to food poisoning. It is highly probable that Uncle Jack ate a plate of bad shellfish and, upon becoming ill, assumed it must have been the combination of foods he ate. This is even more likely if we consider the lack of medical knowledge about food poisoning in the past. The same goes for myths including milk and other dairy products or alcohol. A little too much beer and a few oysters that are past their prime and you will probably get sick. That doesn’t mean the combination itself is dangerous (which will be a huge relief to most of the Eastern seaboard!)

So remember that while you may not want to drink a glass of milk with your grapefruit, doing so won’t kill you, although the curdled milk may make you feel a little nauseated. Similarly, if you feel a sick in the morning, maybe you had one beer too many or shouldn’t have eaten the crab salad you’d left sitting in the sun all day. Enjoy your cherry cheesecake (it wasn’t cherries and milk that killed President Zachary Taylor, it was most likely typhoid). And one final myth: fish and chocolate. Who’d want to eat that combination anyway? On the other hand, chocolate does make everything better….