Is there any part of my body that's poisonous?

Eating too much this of part of the body can lead to irritability, delirium and eventually death. But that doesn't, and shouldn't necessarily, stop people.


Asked by: Anonymous

The most poisonous part of your body is probably your liver - more specifically, the fat-soluble vitamin A that is stored there. Your liver stores it in a safe form, and releases it and its breakdown products in a controlled manner for use by your body. But if you were to eat another adult's liver (which weighs approximately 1kg, and would make a rather substantial meal) you would receive half the toxic dose in one hit. Vitamin A toxicity progressively produces irritability, delirium and death, as the Australian explorer Douglas Mawson and his Swiss companion Xavier Metz found during a 1911 Antarctic expedition when they ran out of food and were forced to shoot and eat their dogs. Metz suffered more seriously, and eventually died, because Mawson gave most of the comparatively tender liver meat to his travelling companion, as he could not bear to chew on the very tough flesh of his beloved dogs. Don't let this put you off eating liver, though. Just don't eat too much at one sitting!

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