On July 9th, 1850, Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of The United States died unexpectedly, four days after consuming cherries and milk. The president died of gastroenteritis caused by the highly acidic cherries combined with fresh milk. This probably isn’t a snack/meal you have thought about preparing. I honestly would have never thought about combining the two. It also confuses me, and probably you too, how those two foods were on the same table at the same time since, in modern times, we usually have milk with our cereal and cherries for a snack. This leads me to my question, what other foods can kill you? Well, here are the odd and unexpected answers:

Lemons and milk

Why would someone even think of combining these two? Ask the dead people, I guess. Milk is already difficult enough to digest so when highly acidic lemons are added to the mix, the two coagulate (turn from a liquid to a gel), and turn highly acidic, causing problems to your digestive system. After being the weirdo you are and eating these two together, you can expect severe heartburn and holes in your stomach that can lead to a painful death. Have fun 🙂

Mint and aerated drinks

Peppermint gum and other peppermint products react very dangerously when combined with any aerated/soft drink in the stomach. Having a piece of peppermint gum like Mentos before or after drinking soda is an example of how these two can be cluelessly consumed together. When these two are mixed in perfect proportions, they can form Cyanide, the deadliest of all poisons. An example of mint and aerated drink reaction is dropping a Mento tablet in a liter of soda. If you’ve ever done this before, you know what I’m talking about. The physical reaction of the two causes a big explosion as the carbon dioxide tries to escape from the bottle. Of course, this reaction wouldn’t occur in the stomach but it wouldn’t feel very enjoyable and can lead to death, but only if you’re unlucky or a complete idiot.

Chocolate and Ritalin

If you have ADHD or ADD, you know what Ritalin is. But for those of you who don’t, Ritalin is a stimulant that can treat ADHD and ADD and help anyone who has trouble staying focused, focus without being hyperactive. So, how does chocolate react with Ritalin? There is a toxic component in chocolate called Theobromine. Theobromine can’t be broken down and digested correctly by pets since it is very slowly digested and eventually builds to extremely toxic levels which is why dogs can’t have chocolate. The Ritalin and Theobromine are both stimulants so when they are consumed together, they overstimulate each other and can increase the drug’s effects. Symptoms of this dangerous mix are seizures, erratic behavior, and death commonly caused by seizures. If you happen to take Ritalin, you can avoid putting your health at risk by waiting a couple of hours between your dosage and eating chocolate or avoiding dark chocolate since dark chocolate contains way more Theobromine than other chocolates.