10 Innocent-Sounding Ingredients That Are Potentially Dangerous

Cook with Caution

If an ingredient is sold right on the shelf at your local grocery store, it's gotta be safe, right? Not exactly. In a Reddit thread inspired by the realization that nutmeg can be toxic and cause hallucinations, commenters shared a laundry list of other ingredients that can have potentially dangerous effects if they are not consumed correctly.

1. A Nutty Trip?

And here I thought if I got a little overzealous with the nutmeg the next time I made French toast, my breakfast would start dancing and singing to me while the rest of the room spun out of control. As it were, it seems that you probably wouldn't be able to choke down the amount of nutmeg it'd take to make you hallucinate.

2. Keep Your Kidney (Beans) Clean

Sooooo, maybe reach for canned kidney beans next time? If you don't have five hours to kill soaking your kidney beans before cooking and eating them, you'll probably want to opt for the canned version for convenience because YIKES.

3. Leave the Leaves Alone

For starters, don't be a rabbit and leave the rhubarb leaves out of your pie. Now that we got that out of the way, it's also a good idea to understand the difference between chili powder and chile powder. While mistaking the two might not be life threatening, it could threaten the sanctity of your tastebuds and make you breathe fire.

4. H2-Overdose

In a world where we've been conditioned to hold water in high regard and drink plenty of it, this Redditor reminds us all that you can in fact have too much of a good thing. Even something as naturally refreshing as water.

5. Boil and Boil Again

If poke salad sounds tasty to you, just make sure you boil the pokeweed leaves twice before digging in. Maybe it's just us, but if something is poisonous unless you boil it twice, it better be pretty damn tasty to take the risk.

Related: Dining Dangerously: 10 Foods You Should Never Eat, According to Nutritionists and Health Experts

6. Murder by Mushrooms

We don't have all the details of this case and we didn't take or pass the Bar exam, but we're gonna go out on a limb here and say this woman may have used those mushrooms knowing she was about to poison those people. Tread lightly around fungi, folks.

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7. Lentil Etiquette

I mean, it kind of goes without saying that you should know the proper way to cook things so you don't wind up with food poisoning, or even so they taste good, right? Right.

8. Canning is Not for Everyone, Guys

Damaged packaging in canned goods or improper canning of at-home preserved foods is an accident waiting to happen ... and we do mean accident. Of the "you're gonna need new pants" kind.

Related: Thinking About Home Canning? Here’s Everything You Need to Get Started

9. An Acquired Taste

We're gonna go out on a limb and say that the average person, even the ones who love the taste of black licorice, probably aren't going to consume enough of it in one sitting to get deathly ill.

That said, there are some foods that are great to eat if you have high blood pressure.

10. Thanks for the Suggestion

Who peed in this Redditor's Cheerios?

Wondering about other foods? Here are more foods that can be dangerous if not prepared properly.