No Need for Panic in the Supermarket Aisles
Don't Add These to Your Pasta
It’s no surprise that in an effort to grab eyeballs, “Time Magazine” has produced a list of The Top 10 Most Dangerous Foods. But in order to avoid a panic in the supermarket, I will reassure you that there’s no real news in this list. In fact, my guess is that most folks have never heard of several of these items, and will probably never run across them in their lives.
Fugu, the Japanese blowfish delicacy won’t hit many plates in the U.S. or elsewhere at $200 a dish. And you’ll only need to worry about the unripe ackee fruit on your next trip to Jamaica. I’ve never met a person allergic to tapioca pudding, but be cautious the next time you run into a cassava plant.
The next couple of warnings fall into the “this isn’t news category”. Anyone with a kid in grade school knows that peanuts are both villains and heroes with peanut butter the lunchtime staple for many, and peanuts the fearful allergen of others. Tuna is another dual personality food, wonderful for its brain boosting abilities, and dangerous for the mercury levels. Just be sure not to eat too many pounds of it each week. Rhubarb has been around as a springtime pie ingredient for years, but any baker using it knows to toss the leaves away.
Hot dogs are another “dangerous” food that moms have been warned for years to cut into small pieces for their children. But really, are they any more dangerous than other large chunks of food? Apples? Soft pretzels? Grapes? And I’m sure that many kids will be happy to hear that leafy greens made the top 10 dangerous list. “But Mom, the spinach is too dangerous for me to eat.” You know “Time”, it’s not the plants, it’s the humans that are mishandling them.
That brings us to the last two items, mushrooms and coffee. This is just plain silly. Mushrooms? A most dangerous food? Only if you’re picking wild mushrooms and don’t know what you’re doing! That’s like saying picking and eating poison ivy leaves is dangerous. And coffee. “Time” must be joking with this one. They’re not referring to the elevated heart rate or sleep deprivation. No, coffee has made the list because of the dangers related to hot coffee being spilled on your lap. In hindsight, this article must have been an April Fool’s piece that was run a little too soon.
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I wonder if any of those Olympic Aerial get an adrenaline rush form eating those most dangerous foods?
Only the ones that end up not sticking their landings eat those dangerous foods.