Tag Archives: Beef

Did McDonald’s Lose Toxic Meat Legal Battle With Jamie Oliver?!

Did McDonald’s just lose its legal battle against Jamie Oliver over its toxic pink slime meat?! Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : McDonald’s Loses Legal Battle With Jamie Oliver!

People are claiming on social media that McDonald’s just lost its legal battle against British chef Jamie Oliver over its toxic pink slime meat!

Keep it Real : [McDonald’s loses the legal battle with chef Jamie Oliver, who proved that the food they sell is not fit to be ingested because it is highly toxic.

Chef Jamie Oliver has won a battle against the world’s largest junk food chain. Oliver proving how buyers are made.

Colin Young : Did anyone hear Jamie Oliver took McDonald’s to court last week and winning the case stating their food wasn’t suitable for human consumption

Didn’t think you would but it’s true
Absolutely disgusting 🤮

Amanda RN :🚨 [McDonald’s loses the legal battle with chef Jamie Oliver, who proved that the food they sell is not fit to be ingested because it is highly toxic.

Chef Jamie Oliver has won a battle against the world’s largest junk food chain. Oliver proving how burgers are made.

According to Oliver, the fat parts of meat are “washed” with ammoniac hydrogen and then used in the packaging of the meat “cake” to fill the burger. Before this process, according to the presenter, already this meat was not suitable for human consumption.

Oliver, a radical activist chef, who has waged a war against the food industry, says: We’re talking about meat that would be sold as dog food and after this process it’s served to humans. In addition to the quality of meat, ammonium acid is harmful to health. Oliver says this: “The process of the pink crap”.

What sane human being would put a piece of meat soaked in ammonium hydrogen in the mouth of a child?

In another of his initiatives Oliver has demonstrated how chicken nuggets are made: after selecting the “best parts”, the rest: fat, skin, cartilage, visuals, bones, head, legs, are subjected to a mec split smoothie canica – it’s the euphemism that engineers use in food, and then that blood pink paste is deodorant, bleached, re-refreshed and repainted, dipped in flour and fried melcocha, this is left in usually partially hydrogenated oils, that is, toxins.

The food industry uses ammonium hydrogen as an anti-microbial agent, which allowed McDonald’s to use meat in its burgers, which is not suitable for human consumption.

But even more disturbing is the situation that these substances based on ammonium hydrogen are considered ‘lawful components in the production process’ in the food industry with the blessings of health authorities worldwide. So consumers will never be able to discover what substances they put in our food.

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Truth : McDonald’s Did Not Lose Legal Battle With Jamie Oliver!

This is yet another example of fake news circulating on WhatsApp, and social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : There Was No McDonald’s – Jamie Oliver Lawsuit

Let me start by pointing out that there was no legal battle between McDonald’s and Jamie Oliver. McDonald’s did not sue Jamie Oliver, and Jamie Oliver also did not sue McDonald’s.

Fact #2 : Jamie Oliver Did Not Target McDonald’s

Jamie Oliver did not actually target McDonald’s. So there is really no reason for McDonald’s or Jamie Oliver to sue one another.

In the episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution that aired on 12 April 2011, Jamie Oliver spoke out against Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB), which he derisively referred to as “pink slime”.

Fact #3 : Jamie Oliver Did Not “Discover” Pink Slime

While much has been made about Jamie Oliver’s “battle” against pink slime, he did not create that term, and he wasn’t even amongst the first to speak out against LFTB, which has been sold since 2001.

The term “pink slime” was reportedly coined by USDA microbiologist Gerald Zirstein in a 2002 email to his colleagues. He was, arguably, also the first to criticise LFTB.

I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.

Michael Moss from The New York Times posted not one article, but at least two articles on the safety of LFTB – on 3 October 2009, and then on 30 December 2009,.

Two years later, ABC News would air a series of reports on LFTB in March 2011. It was only after the extensive coverage by ABC News that Jamie Oliver actually featured LFTB on his show.

Fact #4 : LFTB Is Ammonia-Treated Beef Paste

Despite its gross sounding name and look, LFTB is simply meat that has been separated from the fat in beef trimmings, and treated with ammonia to kill pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli.

The LFTB technology basically recovers meat that would otherwise be wasted and thrown away. Think of LFTB as low-fat beef paste. Regular ground beef consists of about 30% fat, while LFTB only has about 5% fat.

Fact #5 : McDonald’s Stopped Using LFTB In 2011

McDonald’s announced on 31 January 2012, that it stopped adding Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) to its burgers since the beginning of 2011, and that it was no longer available in its products since August 2011:

At the beginning of 2011, we made a decision to discontinue the use of ammonia-treated beef in our hamburgers. This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year. This decision was a result of our efforts to align our global standards for how we source beef around the world.

In other words – McDonald’s made the decision to stop using LFTB in its burgers in early 2011 – months before ABC News or Jamie Oliver covered LFTB. It was only in August 2011 that all of its LFTB-based products were cleared out of its supply chain.

Fact #7 : Ammonia In LFTB Isn’t Toxic

Even though McDonald’s no longer uses “pink slime” in their burgers, I should point out that the amount of ammonia used in LFTB isn’t dangerous.

The amount of ammonia present in Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) is actually comparable to ammonia levels present in existing foods:

Food	Ammonia Level
American Cheese	813 ppm
Unblended LFTB	400-500 ppm
Ketchup	411 ppm
Onions	342 ppm
Blended Beef Patty with 15% LFTB	200 ppm
Ground Beef	101 ppm

Ammonium hydroxide isn’t just used to treat LFTB meat trimmings, it is also used to produce a wide variety of foods like cheese, puddings, chocolate, and even as a leavening agent in bread. In fact, the ammonium hydroxide is classified as GRAS (Generally Recognised as Safe) by the US FDA, when used in appropriate concentrations.

Fact #8 : LFTB Uses Ammonium Hydroxide Gas

In his viral video, Jamie Oliver is seen showing a front loading washing machine filled with meat, with ammonia-based cleaning products in the background. He then pours from a bottle marked with “Ammonia” and a skull and crossbones symbol into a large tub filled with pieces of beef.

That is not an accurate reflection of how LFTB products are made, because the ammonium hydroxide used in the LFTB process is gaseous, not liquid. In addition, the LFTB process only uses the ammonium hydroxide gas to increase the pH of the separated meat trimmings, from 5.7 to 9.6 (source).

If there ever is a lawsuit over that Jamie Oliver video, he would be hard-pressed to explain how that demonstration accurately replicates how LFTB meat is really produced.

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Can Bak Kut Teh Herbal Soup Cause Liver Damage?!

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Did an Australian study show that Bak Kut Teh herbal soup can cause liver damage?!

Take a look at what the study showed, and what the facts really are!

Updated @ 2023-11-24 : Refreshed after claims went viral again
Originally posted @ 2022-07-15

Study : Bak Kut Teh Herbal Soup Can Cause Liver Damage!

Australian scientists caused a ruckus in 2022 when their study alleged that the Asian herbal soup called Bak Kut Teh can cause liver damage.

The media excitedly jumped on it, with alarming titles to draw attention (and drive traffic?) :

Adelaide Now : Adelaide forensic expert issues safety warning over liver failure soup

ABC : Bak kut teh herbal soup may cause liver damage and interact with medication, study finds

Medical Xpress : Popular Malaysian soup can cause liver damage when mixed with medication

The Epoch Times : University Professor Warns of Risks Caused by Popular Chinese Soup

Says : Australian Researchers Find Bak Kut Teh Can Cause Liver Damage When Taken With Medicine

Truth : Study Does Not Show Bak Kut Teh Causing Liver Damage!

Despite the alarming titles, there is no need to panic… because the study does NOT show the herbal soup causing any liver damage.

Here is a quick summary for those who just need to know the basics :

It was a laboratory study, which means the results may not translate into actual effect in a living human being.
What we eat is digested and broken down, so our body absorbs the nutrients and not the actual food. Hence, the study does not accurately replicate what happens in our body.
They didn’t test bak kut teh… they only tested four soup bases used to make bak kut teh.
The soup concentrations were unspecified, so it is unknown if the doses are equivalent to what our livers are subjected to after a meal.
They did not test drug interactions, so it is amazing how so many media outlets claimed that the study showed that bak kut teh may interact with medication!

In short, this study does not show that bak kut teh causes liver damage. Neither does it show bak kut teh causing drug interactions of any kind.

I understand Professor Byard’s concerns about the “unknown” contents of these soup base preparations. Certain traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) have been associated with acute liver failure.

However, that isn’t so much a “bak kut teh” problem, but rather a problem with traditional Chinese medicine or Chinese herbal medicine.

For those who are interested in the details, please scroll down to the next section.

Why Study Does Not Show Bak Kut Teh Causing Liver Damage

Let’s start with the basics, and work our way through the Australian study.

Fact #1 : Study Was Conducted By Australian Scientists

First, the study was conducted by University of Adelaide and University of Melbourne scientists – Susan M. Britza, Rachael Farrington, Ian F. Musgrave, Craig Aboltins and Roger W. Byard.

It was published in the journal Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology, and you can read the study here.

Fact #2 : It Was A Laboratory Study

It is important to note that this was an in-vitro study – a laboratory study, not a clinical study.

In-vitro studies are important, but they cannot be extrapolated to make any conclusion about what actually happens in a human body.

For example, in-vitro studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin have an inhibitory effect on the SARS-CoV-2 virus; but once tested in actual human beings – they were shown to have no clinical benefit.

In other words – what happens in a test tube, may not happen in an actual human being.

Fact #3 : What We Eat Is Not What Our Body Absorbs

There is one big problem with doing in-vitro tests on food – what we eat is not what our body absorbs.

Food gets digested, and broken down into nutrients that are absorbed in our intestines. Even simple sugar gets broken down into glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, sucrose, etc.

So soaking liver cells in a bak kut teh soup would most definitely not reflect what our liver cells actually experience after a bak kut teh meal.

In short, this study does not replicate what happens in our liver when we eat bak kut teh.

Fact #4 : There Are Many Types Of Bak Kut Teh

Bak Kut Teh is not so much a “herbal soup” as it is a pork soup dish. The name “bak kut teh” literally means “meat bone tea” in the Hokkien dialect, but there is no tea in it.

It is usually just a dish of pork ribs simmered for hours in a broth of common herbs and spices like star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dong quai, fennel seeds and garlic.

But there are many variants of bak kut teh. In Malaysia and Singapore where bak kut teh is most popular, there are at least four main “styles” :

Teochew style : light in colour, with more pepper and garlic
Hokkien style : darker and more fragrant, thanks to a variety of herbs and soy sauce
Cantonese style : includes medicinal herbs for a stronger flavoured soup
Klang style : a thick and sticky gravy, like a stew

On top of that, there are also chicken and beef versions of bak kut teh. Muslims, for example, love the chicken version, which is colloquially called chi kut teh, chi being short for chicken.

And the Malaysian town of Melaka serves a delicious beef bak kut teh, which is based on a unique black pepper soup with red fermented bean curd.

Fact #5 : They Tested Four Soup Bases

The Australian team were somewhat aware of the wide variety of bak kut teh soup bases. They tested four varieties :

Formulation 1 : Dried hawthorn
Formulation 2 : Goji berries, ginseng, bark, and dried mushrooms
Formulation 3 : Polygonatum odoratum, ligusticum chuanxiong, codonopsis pilosula, cinnamomum cassia, angelica sinensis, illicium verum, piper nigrum, and Eugenia caryophyllata
Formulation 4 : Spices, pepper and salt

It is important to note that instead of preparing bak kut teh like you and I would – with meat, vegetables, bean curd slices, etc., the researchers tested soups that were created only using the ingredients listed above.

In short, they did not actually test bak kut teh… they tested soups made from the ingredients above.

Fact #6 : Soup Concentration Was Unspecified

To prepare the four soups for testing, researchers added a sachet of each soup mix to boiling water (of unspecified quantity) for 5 minutes.

The concentration of each soup base was unspecified. They only listed the dilution factor. As such, it is quite impossible to draw any sort of conclusion from the results.

As any toxicologist will tell you – the dose makes the poison. This is why the concentration of any substance is critical in any study. Even water and oxygen – essential to human life to be sure – is toxic at high doses.

Fact #7 : Soups Were Prepared In 5 Minutes

It is important to point out that the soups the researchers used were prepared in just 5 minutes. Bak kut teh is usually prepared by simmering the meat in the soup for hours.

It would have been a good idea to prepare the soup bases like real bak kut teh soup, because boiling the soup for several hours could potentially break down toxins present in its ingredients.

In fact, it would have been better for the researchers to just buy real bak kut teh, instead of resorting to their soup bases prepared in just 5 minutes.

Fact #8 : They Tested Using HepG2 Liver Cancer Cells

It is also important to note that the researchers tested the soup bases by adding them to HepG2 cell cultures, not normal liver cells.

HepG2 is a hepatoblastoma (a type of liver cancer) cell line that was obtained from a 15 year-old boy suffering from liver cancer in 1975.

Now, there is nothing wrong with that – HepG2 is commonly used to test cytotoxicity of substances. Still, it must still be pointed out that HepG2 is not the same thing as normal liver cells.

In-vitro studies based on these cells should not be used to draw any conclusion, only used to drive further research.

Differences	HepG2 Cells	Normal Liver Cells
Cell Size	12-19 µm	15 µm
Cell Shape	Polygonal	Cube
Nuclei	Single large nuclei with 3-7 nucleoli	Two or more nuclei
Mitochondrial Content	Low	High
Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum	Poorly Developed	High
No. of Chromosomes	50-60	46
DNA Content	7.5 pg	~6 pg
Genome Stability	Unstable	Stable

Fact #9 : Spices, Pepper + Salt Did Worst In Their Tests

What I found most interesting in their results was the fact that the most “toxic” soup was Formulation 4, which consisted of nothing more than spices, pepper and salt.

Formulation 4 showed the most significant toxicity to the HepG2 cell line with approximately 83% cell death before dilution (p < 0.0001) and persistent toxicity even with dilution 1:10 (15% ± 3.7, p = 0.023) and 1:1000 (14% ± 3.8, p = 0.024)

Well, that’s gonna worry fans of Kentucky Fried Chicken, which boasts 11 herbs and spices, including pepper and salt!

Jokes aside, this result suggest that common spices, pepper and salt are more toxic to HepG2 liver cells than the more fanciful bak kut teh preparations!

Fact #10 : They Did Not Test Drug Interactions

I’m not sure how this study touches on drug interaction, since they didn’t test the soup bases with common hepatotoxic drugs like paracetamol to see if there is a synergistic effect.

No matter how you slice and dice this study’s results, they tell us nothing about any possible interaction with other herbs / drugs.

Yet so many media outlets made the startling claim that the study showed that bak kut teh may interact with medication! Nowhere in the study does it say that!

It appears that most of these journalists probably did not even bother to read the study, and perhaps only paraphrased what other people were writing.

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Was Human Meat Found In McDonald’s Factories?!

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Did US meat inspectors find human meat in several McDonald’s factories across the United States?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Human Meat Found In McDonald’s Factories!

People are sharing a video which purportedly shows meat inspectors discovering human meat in McDonald’s factories across the United States. Here is a transcript of the video :

Oklahoma City – first, horse meat, then the mysterious “pink slime”. Now, human meat?

A shocking discovery has been made in an Oklahoma City McDonald’s meat factory and other McDonald’s meat factories nationwide.

Meat inspectors reportedly found, what appeared to be, human meat stored in the meat factory freezers of an Oklahoma City meat factory, and human meat already in trucks right outside the factory ready to be shipped to McDonald’s restaurants.

Health inspectors immediately demanded inspection in various McDonald’s meat factories across the country, and horrifyingly found human meat in about 90% of the factories inspected thus far.

The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has seized McDonald’s production and shipping, and will call for more meat factory inspections, and restaurant inspections.

The FBI is also investigating the factories. FBI agent Lloyd Harrison told Huzler reporters “The worst part is that it’s not only human meat, it’s child meat. The body parts that were found across the US factories were deemed too small to be adult body parts.”

The situation brings up many unanswered questions. How long have they been using human meat? Where did they get the children from? Were they already dead when brought into factories?

Investigators and inspectors are currently being deployed for intensive investigations all around the US. Here is another clip, when earlier McDonalds was caught!

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Did US meat inspectors find human meat in several McDonald's factories across the US?! 😱😱

Here is my FACT CHECK : https://t.co/wlnVyzitQm #TechARP #McDonalds #Food #FoodSafety #Meat #Human #Crime #FBI #Children #Facts #FactsMatter #FactCheck #Fake #FakeNews #Viral #TikTok pic.twitter.com/dMxq6RQCYk

— Dr. Adrian Wong (@AdrianTechARP) May 4, 2023

Truth : No Human Meat Was Ever Found In McDonald’s Factories!

This is another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on social media and WhatsApp groups, and here are the reasons why….

Fact #1 : No Human Meat Was Ever Found In McDonald’s Factories

Let me be very clear – no human meat was ever found in McDonald’s factories or restaurants.

If this actually happened, it would have been worldwide news, and McDonald’s would have been shut down for good. Many McDonald’s executives and their suppliers would also face criminal charges.

Yet, there has been ZERO mention of this on any legitimate news website. There is also no mention of such an incredible find in any USDA or FBI press releases.

Needless to say, McDonald’s factories and restaurants continue to operate normally. That’s because this never happened. No human meat was ever found in McDonald’s factories or restaurants.

Fact #2 : Human Meat Patty Picture Was From Resident Evil 6 Promo!

The pictures of “human meat” used in the fake video was misappropriated from a Resident Evil 6 promo in London.

Back in September 2012, Capcom created a pop-up butchery called Wesker & Son (Wholesale Meats) in Smithfield Meat Market.

Once at the butchery, members of the public will be invited to sample and purchase a dizzying array of edible human limbs including hands, feet and a human head, which will be available to buy directly from the shop.

As well as these specially created products, gamers will be able to buy ‘Peppered Human & Lemon Sausages’ and ‘J’avo Caught Human Thigh Steaks’ along with some specially made pots of Red Herb and Green Herb.

All proceeds from the sale of the meat will be donated to the Limbless Association, which provides information and support to the limb-loss community.

Fact #3 : Story Was Created By A Fake News Website

This fake story created by a content aggregation (copy and paste) website called Huzlers, that also creates fake stories to go viral. This particular Huzlers article was written by Pablo Reyes Jr, and published on April 7, 2014 – more than 9 years ago!

To give their fake story a “veneer of satire”, they added a tagline below the writer’s name – “Believe half of what you see and nothing you read online“.

The truth is – they intentionally created the fake story to trigger you into sharing their article, so they can go viral and make money from the increased page views.

Fact #4 : McDonald’s Sells Billions Of Burgers Every Year

Let me just point out that McDonald’s sells over a billion pounds of meat every year, just in the United States. That means their suppliers have to slaughter thousands of cows every day to keep up with the demand.

Children are much smaller than cows. Those suppliers would need to slaughter tens of thousands of children a day to replace the cows. Does that really make sense to you?

The American continent would run out of children to slaughter within a year! And how does killing children for burgers make economic sense, never mind common sense?

Fact #5 : Pink Slime No Longer Used In McDonald’s Food

The fake story and video used a picture of pink slime, claiming that it was also used in McDonald’s foods.

That’s also false, because by the time the fake story was written (in 2014), McDonald’s stopped using “pink slime”, which is really Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB).

Q : Have you ever used so-called ‘pink slime’ in your burgers?

A : Yes, we used Lean Finely Textured Beef between 2004 and 2011. We do not use this today.

Despite its gross sounding name and look, LFTB is simply beef that has been separated from the fat in beef trimmings. LFTB technology recovers meat that would otherwise be wasted and thrown away.

Think of LFTB as low-fat beef paste. Regular ground beef consists of about 30% fat, while LFTB only has about 5% fat.

Fact #6 : Pink Slime Picture Not From McDonald’s Factory

The picture used in the fake story and video isn’t from a McDonald’s factory. However, it should be pointed out that LFTB looks like that – pink-coloured paste.

The pink colour comes from the ammonia hydroxide – an antimicrobial agent used to treat LFTB and prevent bacterial growth.

Fact #7 : Ammonia In LFTB Isn’t Toxic

Even though McDonald’s no longer uses “pink slime” in their burgers, I should point out that the amount of ammonia used in LFTB isn’t dangerous.

The amount of ammonia present in Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) is actually comparable to ammonia levels present in existing foods :

Food	Ammonia Level
American Cheese	813 ppm
Unblended LFTB	400-500 ppm
Ketchup	411 ppm
Onions	342 ppm
Blended Beef Patty with 15% LFTB	200 ppm
Ground Beef	101 ppm

Everything published by Huzlers should be regarded as FAKE NEWS, until proven otherwise.

Please help us fight fake news websites like Huzlers – SHARE this fact check out, and SUPPORT our work!

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Fact Check : Foods You Should Never Eat With Durian?!

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Are there foods that you should never eat with durian, because they will make you sick… or even worse, kill you?!

Take a look at these viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : These Are Foods You Should Never Eat With Durian!

Durian has long been popular in South East Asia, and yet, there are so many myths and misinformation about this King of Fruits.

Many of these myths and misinformation have been circulating on social media, and spread on websites.

Even TikTok influencers, like a certain Malaysian Dato, are trying to ride on the durian gravy train to Internet stardom.

Here is a list of foods these “Internet gurus / experts” claim you should never eat with durian, because they will make you sick… or worse, kill you!

Coca-Cola
Coffee
Milk
White wine / alcohol
Crabs / seafood
Beef / mutton
Brinjal / Eggplant / Aubergine
Mangosteen / Lychee

I will add more, as and when I find new foods that people believe are dangerous to eat with durian.

Truth : You Can Eat These Foods With Durian!

The truth is – these claims are made up by self-professed Internet gurus / experts who have absolutely NO IDEA what the heck they are talking about, and here are the reasons why…

Note : Some of these claims are based on Chinese traditional medicine “beliefs”. I can only tell you what has been scientifically proven or known.

Fact #1 : You Can Drink Coca-Cola While Eating Durian

There is no scientific basis for the claim that Coca-Cola or other soft drinks are dangerous to drink while eating durian.

Coca-Cola and other soft drinks are nothing more than flavoured carbonated water with a lot of sugar in them. They do not interact with durian to produce anything toxic.

However, it is not advisable to imbibe in durian and soft drinks often, as they are both very high in calories.

Fact #2 : You Can Drink Coffee While Eating Durian

There is no scientific basis for the claim that drinking coffee while eating durian can increase your blood pressure and cause a heart attack!

In fact, there are many companies selling durian coffee – basically coffee with durian extracts. Such drinks would have caused many deaths if this claim was true.

It is possible that this false claim originated from a 2018 case in Penang, Malaysia; where two Nepali men were hospitalised after drinking durian coffee that had been tampered with an unknown drug.

The coffee mixture also contains a foreign green substance which is not available in the original packaging. There is a marked difference in weightage, contents and packaging.

The instant durian coffee mixture is laced with a kind of drug, which has yet to be identified, based on the symptoms shown by the two men.

Besides, heart attacks are caused by blockage of your heart’s arteries, by blood clots and arteriosclerosis that develop over years. The mixing of durian and coffee cannot produce instant arteriosclerosis or blood clots.

Fact #3 : You Can Drink Milk While Eating Durian

The claim that drinking milk after eating durian is lethal, because it will increase your blood pressure and cause a heart attack, is nonsense.

It is also not logical. Heart attacks are caused by blockage of your heart’s arteries, by blood clots and arteriosclerosis that develop over years. The mixing of milk and durian cannot produce instant arteriosclerosis or blood clots.

Fact #4 : You Can Drink Some Alcohol While Eating Durian

It is claimed that drinking alcohol while eating durian can cause severe indigestion, heartburn and even death. Allegedly, the high sulphur content in durian helps to break down the alcohol in your body… killing you?

As you can tell, even the premise behind this claim is ridiculous – how does the higher metabolism of alcohol injure or kill you? If the high sulphur content in durian increases metabolism of alcohol, it would allow you to better sustain higher levels of drinking!

It is really the other way around – durian have disulphide (disulfide) compounds that may have a disulfiram effect.

Popularly known as Antabuse, disulfiram is a drug that prevents our body from properly metabolising alcohol, causing unpleasant side effects like headache, nausea, vomiting, sweating, chest pain, hyperventilation, vertigo, etc. – what you would experience with an alcohol hangover.

A single 2009 laboratory study showed that the raw durian fruit has disulphide compounds that inhibit up to 70% of the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzyme, potentially producing the disulfiram effect. However, this has not yet been confirmed in actual human or animal studies.

There is, therefore, no actual scientific basis for the claim that drinking alcohol while eating durian is dangerous. Even if the disulphide compounds in durian do produce a disulfiram effect, it will only cause hangover-like effects that are unpleasant but won’t kill you.

However, out of an abundance of caution, it would be a good idea to limit your alcohol intake while eating durian, while monitoring for the disulfiram effect. If you do experience it while eating durian, you should stop consuming alcohol.

Original credit : Year of the Durian

Fact #5 : You Can Eat Crabs / Seafood While Eating Durian

This myth is based on TCM belief that crabs / seafood are “cooling” while durian is “warming” or “heaty”.

Apparently, they believe that it is not good for “cooling” and “warming” foods to mix in your stomach, because it “confuses” the digestive system and causes the stomach to be “upset”.

This belief is not backed by any scientific evidence. It isn’t even consistent – TCM practitioners also advise against mixing alcohol and durian because they are both “warming” foods.

There is no reason or evidence that eating crabs or any kind of seafood with durian, or after eating durian, is bad or dangerous in any way.

Fact #6 : You Can Eat Beef / Mutton While Eating Durian

This myth is based on TCM belief that beef and mutton are “warming” or “heaty” foods. Apparently, they believe that eating two “warming” foods together increases the “heatiness” of your body, and cause inflammation.

There is simply no scientific evidence that any of that mumbo-jumbo is true, never mind any actual evidence eating beef or mutton with durian causes any harm.

These false claims are not even consistent. In Fact #5, I shared how TCM believes the opposite is also true – that mixing “cooling” and “warming” foods is bad.

Angus beef burger with D24 durian by Lombardo’s

Fact #7 : You Can Eat Brinjal / Eggplant With Durian

This myth is based on TCM belief that brinjal / eggplant and durian are both “warming” foods, and that eating them together will make you sick by increasing the “heatiness” and inflammation of your body.

Again, this is utter nonsense that has no scientific evidence or basis whatsoever.

Fact #8 : You Can Eat Mangosteen / Lychee With Durian

Now, this is a real test in logic. TCM practitioners say that mangosteen and lychee should not be consumed with durian because… get this – they are “cooling” and “warming” foods respectively!

Mangosteen + durian is apparently bad because mixing “cooling” and “warming” foods confuses the digestive system, leading to an upset stomach.

Lychee + durian is apparently bad because mixing two “warming” foods increases your body’s “heatiness” and causes inflammation.

Twisted yourself into a pretzel trying to figure this nonsense out? Don’t bother.

There is simply no scientific evidence or basis whatsoever that it is dangerous or bad to eat mangosteen or lychee with durian.

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Warning : Please avoid creating TikTok videos after eating durian, because it apparently makes you Tok Kok (talk cock)!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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