5 yummy foods that can kill you

Natural foods, not foods soaked in chemicals—have the potential to kill you. Not to be alarmist, or prevent you from enjoying some nutritious fruits, veggies, and the sort, but you should know the dangers. From pits to leaves, and everything in between, take note of where these foods’ naturally occurring chemicals and toxins are lurking.

Here are 15 foods that can kill you

1. Rhubarb

If your culinary skills aren’t up to speed, rhubarb is a vegetable with bright ruby leaf stalks similar to celery that’s mostly used in jams, pies, and other desserts. The key is only to eat the stalks.

2. Mushrooms

Some fungi are anything but fun. With names like the ‘death cap’ and ‘destroying angel’, these mushrooms aren’t messing around.

3. Octopus

Not just any octopus…live octopus! It’s true; in some parts of the world, people eat octopus alive. Leaving all else aside, this practice can be quite dangerous as the suckers can get stuck in your throat and cause asphyxiation.

4. Cassava

This root veggie is cultivated in South America and can be quite delicious if prepared correctly. If prepared incorrectly or eaten raw, however, cassava has this funny little tendency to turn into hydrogen cyanide. There are two varieties of cassava, sweet and bitter, and the sweet is 50 times less deadly with only 20 mg of cyanide per root.

5. Cashews

When you see “raw cashews” at the store, know that they are lying to you. Those store cashews are actually steamed to remove a chemical called urushiol, which is also found in poison ivy if that helps paint a picture.