kilikini wrote:
>
> "Arri London" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> >
> > jmcquown wrote:
> > >
> > > The thread about Crab Legs, and also the one about 10 Foods it Takes
> Guts to
> > > Eat, leads me to post this.
> > >
> > > Here are a few of my thoughts which don't necessarily count for a hill
> of
> > > beans, as some will tell you
> > >
> > > I suspect people first decided to eat crabs because they saw sea-birds
> (or
> > > maybe even bears in certain areas) cracking them open on rocks and
> plucking
> > > out the meat. Probably the same with oysters, clams, mussels, etc.
> >
> > Makes sense.
> >
> > >
> > > Drinking milk is rather a given; human women have always breast fed and
> so
> > > do goats, cows, sheep. Naturally it would follow, milk the cow.
> >
> > Also makes sense.
> > >
> > > Berries and fruit I can also understand; watch the birds and the deer,
> they
> > > eat them so they must be pretty much okay.
> >
> > Some risk in that of course. Some berries are poisonous to humans but
> > not to other animals.
> > >
> > > But what made that first brave soul pluck a mushroom from the ground and
> eat
> > > it?
> >
> > Rather what made the *second* brave soul try again after the first one
> > died...
> >
> > >So many nightshades are deadly.
> >
> > True. Could have been a case of desperation. Someone was starving and
> > ate the nightshade berries that didn't look like the other nightshade
> > berries.
> >
> >
> >
> > What wild critters were they watching
> > > to determine this one was okay and that one wasn't?
> >
> > As was said before, there probably was a lot of trial and error. Not
> > everything that animals can eat is completely safe for humans. After
> > all, birds don't suffer chile burns the way mammals do.
> > >
>
> Okay, this kind of follows what I was saying about the blowfish. How many
> people tried it and died before someone found that one little spot that
> wasn't poisonous? Jack ate it and died, Johnny died, Herman died, now
> Trevor didn't die, Casey died......I mean, how did they EVER figure out that
> one spot?
>
> kili


It's not just a question of one spot. Many of the internal organs and
the skin are toxin-loaded, so must be removed carefully. There are still
traces of toxin in the flesh; that's part of the buzz of eating it
apparently.
It's not such a hard stretch to think that the fish were gutted and
skinned the same way as other fish. Those who did the gutting and
cleaning carefully lived; the sloppy died.