[jonah]

Stonefruit pits contain cyanide. (Including almonds.) I made apricot preserves one time and the recipe called for slivered pits to add a bit of flavor. Research it, it appears that you'd need to eat several hands full to poison yourself. And since it doesn't bioaccumulate, eating tiny bits is probably okay. (YMMV/not a doctor/don't rely on this/etc.)

[stvltvs]

"The dose makes the poison" but I'm not in a hurry to make myself a test case for no good reason. Tastier preserves might be a good enough reason.

[nick238]

Cody's Lab on YouTube drank 17 mg of cyanide for a video, but not surprisingly it's now private. Quotes include:

* It tastes like baking soda

* I've got a tremor [in my arm] and my breathing is slightly more rapid

Cyanide fortunately can't accumulate, so it's far less spooky than heavy metals (lead, chromium, mercury), perfluoroalkanes (PFAS), or some other strange organic molecules that might cause cancer.

[cactacea]

I have no idea how that guy is still alive after all the things he has gone out of his way to expose himself to.

[BoatyPrint]

He has danced very close the edge with his experiments. However, he appears to be very knowledgeable with what he does.

[skyyler]

The mercury mouthwash video was really something.

[supernewton]

Your body actually produces a small amount of cyanide endogenously, if it makes you feel any better. It has some role in cell signalling.

[stronglikedan]

I think apple seeds are the most common (non-stone-fruit anyway) example of this.

[inciampati]

I recently had a friend-of-a-friend's apple seed liquor. It smelled of almonds...

[carlob]

Bitter almonds contain amygdalin which is cyanogenic. You can't make a number of preparations without them (some types of marzipan or almond pastries and Disaronno come to mind).

[carabiner]

Seems like eating this whole bag could kill you? https://www.apricotpower.com/item/852-Turkish-Organic-Bitter...

[jonah]

Yikes!

[nartho]

This is not the case, however, for bitter almonds.

[riffraff]

even with bitter almonds a grown up needs to eat quite a bit, many old recipes ask for a few bitter almonds in a preparation.

A child could die with 5-6 whole bitter almonds, but they are really, really bitter so it's not that easy to accidentally do that.

[AStonesThrow]

My grandmother introduced us to a world of old-school delicacies, including Jordan almonds, candy-coated in a thick hard shell, and in pastel colors.

On more than one occasion, I ate a box or two of those, so many that I had painful bellyaches and worse. It may not have been cyanide, but it was an instructive childhood lesson in "too much of a good thing".

It's scary to think how much knowledge of poisons was in our home with my father's profession, and mother's hobby of murder mysteries. When the 1982 adulteration scandal hit the news, I honestly had mixed feelings about the message it sent to consumers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders

[groby_b]

> ate a box or two of those, so many that I had painful bellyaches and worse.

Yes. That's what happens with a lot of sweets, and has absolutely nothing to do with "poisons".

Many things aren't good when consumed in massive quantities. All the way to water. Somewhere between 1-4l in an hour, hyponatremia kicks in. Goes all the way to falling into a coma. (Depends on body mass, amongst other things)

> It's scary to think how much knowledge of poisons was in our home with my father's profession, and mother's hobby of murder mysteries.

A simple AP chemistry class will do the same trick. Or just gardening at home. Or probably two seasons of House, M.D.

What's keeping us alive isn't lack of knowledge, but a functioning society where people shy away from murdering for their gain.

[euroderf]

It's interesting to think that we didn't use to have those peel-away inner caps on all sorts of products.

[kens]

Does anyone else still worry about cyanide when finding a grape with a puncture?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Chilean_grape_scare

[progmetaldev]

Like you, I more than once ate a large amount of Jordan almonds, both times after grabbing bags left on tables after a wedding. I'm 45, but the Tylenol tampering was still alive and well in my conscious even as a teenager, and to this day. I still check the safety seal and will bring anything back to the store if it's more than a few dollars, if the seal looks broken.

[sitkack]

It is trivial to both procure the machines as well as hone the technique to reseal those packages. Safety seals are largely security theater.

[AStonesThrow]

Tylenol is "pain relief theater".

I've come to the conclusion that pain relief drugs are always a racket, and as my pain becomes exquisite in old age, I'm choosing to allow nature run its course, rather than go to great expense and effort to destroy my internal organs, by subscribing to them on amazon or something.

The American War on Drugs and ___ Epidemics are, in actuality, pandemics of pain, suffering, and people willing to pay any price.

[southernplaces7]

>Tylenol is "pain relief theater".

Say again? How exactly is this so if it does really relieve certain types of pain?

Also, choosing to let nature run its course is usually a surefire path to needless misery with no benefit. Pain relief drugs don't necessarily destroy your organs. You're badly overblowing that and even if it were the case in a very gradual way, it could still be a better option than being destroyed anyhow and much more painfully by "nature running its course".

Odd take.

[criddell]

I was surprised to find Amazon promoting customer reviews suggesting bitter apricot seeds can heal cancer.

https://www.amazon.com/Apricot-California-Pesticide-Herbicid...

The AI-generated summary of reviews ends with:

> The seeds are also mentioned as having cancer-healing properties.

Click on the "Health benefits" link to get many more suggestions of their cancer curing properties. One person was consuming them every hour and started to have difficulty breathing. IMHO, Amazon probably shouldn't be helping to spread this kind of misinformation.

[felipemesquita]

In NileRed’s video “Does cyanide actually smell like almonds?”[0] he purchases some bitter almonds to measure the amount of cyanide in them. He is also worried about the baseless health benefits claims.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYagO-nup6c

[progmetaldev]

I love that channel. Especially turning (I believe) nitrile gloves into hot sauce. Some of the chemistry he performs, I would never think of even existing. It's like people that say margarine is one molecule away from plastic, without understanding that all of chemistry works like that.

[sitkack]

Wait, can we just recycle plastic into margarine? Bubble wrap marmalade?

[userbinator]

Naturally occuring polymers like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatty_acid are indeed very similar to synthetic ones, in that they both contain long hydrocarbon chains of varying length.

[sitkack]

So we can take a barrel of crude oil and turn it into nacho cheese? What would that entail.

[userbinator]

One person was consuming them every hour and started to have difficulty breathing.

That's a Darwin Award candidate.