[Lawtan]

Welcome to the 18 most Disgusting food ingredients!
Find out what will encourage you to never touch food again.
http://www.health.com/health/gallery...8763_1,00.html
Muahahahaha!!!

[Espy]

Before I go and actually read that, you should change the "11" in your link to "1" since that starts halfway through the articleo.o

[Lawtan]

Did not know that, thanks!

[Espy]

So like. None of that really grosses me out. Buuuut I'm pretty glad that it isn't an article about weird/gross /food/ but rather food /ingredients/.

EDIT: All the slashes.

[Gallagher]

The picture they have for the mechanically separated meat has been around for forever and a day. It gets made into processed meats. I don't know what else people would expect.

The saltwater injections isn't a biggie either. Brining is supposed to be great for meats. And people have gotten so obsessed with keeping salt to a minimum that they forget that having too little can be bad for you, too.

Erm... A bit stuck on the pink slime thing, aren't they?

Yeah. I'm with Espy on this one, none of that is really gross. Some people are serious babies, lmao.

[Lawtan]

Honestly, I just thought the fact about the artificial flavorings was hilarious. (And I thought it would gross everyone else out...no grossouts yet :-(

[Lawtan]

So...I am a tad confused on what people consider horror/too gross...
What makes "Alien" scary and "Exorcist" gross, but "Natural Flavoring comes from something's balls" not?

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Well, for one thing, horror and gross-out I'd consider two different things, so I wouldn't lump them together. Also, both of those depend quite a lot on what people have encountered before, I expect. I eat seaweed, so anything seaweed derived hardly bothers me. I don't eat insects but (if memory serves) more people in the world eat insects than beef or chicken, so that's nothing unusual either. I already knew the bit about gelatin, and my dad brines turkey all the time so salt solution is no big deal.

[Lawtan]

Guess that explains some things...It is just odd to come across people who hate horror yet like skeletons/doomsday stuff (classic example)

[Espy]

Also, gross-out in terms of movies vs in terms of food = pretty different, I think. I don't watch horror or gross-out films, soooo.

And like...Since I grew up with parents who were relatively good (for first-generation Asian immigrants) with exploring different cultures, I learned to eat basically everything. The only things I don't eat are spicy foods (unfortunately) and certain foods whose texture and taste just don't appeal to me, rather than the /concept/ of that food being "gross". I'm not sure if that makes sense....? (Like, I don't eat olives, Western pickles, eggplants...)

Oh, and I'm a bit wary of pufferfish, but if I ever have a chance to try it out, I probably will.

But I do eat stuff that many people cringe at, and here're a few examples:
-Uni (Sea urchin)
-Sea cucumber
-Liver
-Pig/pork ears
-Ox tail (my mom was really creeped out by ox tail at first, and then started liking it after she realized ox tail soup is actually pretty good and helps with colds)
-Sea snails (Thisssssss. A certain type of small sea snail, pulled out if their shells en masse, boiled, and sprinkled with chopped garlic and soy sauce = one of my favorite dishes ever.)
-Mushrooms (*)
-Sashimi (yes, raw fish.)


Mushrooms are a bit strange for me. I'm totally fine with any sort of /cooked/ mushroom. But raw mushrooms (especially when they still have their stem-things or are in clusters), any sort of mold, toadstools, and sort of non-edible fungus...my fear of them is so strong I'm considering it a phobia.

For example, I hate biology and nature-related books and textbooks. There often are pictures of fungus and such, and staying on those pages for too long makes me queasy. I couldn't and still can't bring myself to touch those pictures. So, turning the page was often an anxiety-filled moment, with either "How do I flip the page without touching it?" or "Will I accidentally flip to a page with fungus?"

Not long ago, I was checking Tumblr on my phone, and there was a picture post about fairy circles. Mobile Tumblr stretches/shrinks all images in your dash to the width of your screen.

...Yes, scrolling past that was incredibly difficult.

I've had nightmares about toadstools. The two I can remember involve thousands of toadstools near me; one dream had a mass of white mushrooms coming at me in a wave, chasing me through a forest, and the other had these vivid red and white bulbs spring up all around me, trapping me in the middle of a gym.

...I could go on and on about this.

I suppose I would consider that to be "gross".

[Lawtan]

Umm...double posty...

Hmm...as said, I just found it funny to a degree. The degree of "gross/creepy" for me relies on 3 things:
1) My own degree of awareness - I have driven my body to the point of hallucination from dehydration or malnutrition...and it turns shadows into things resembling my current avatar...
2) Emotion - I find needless misery scary to a degree...perhaps that is an off shoot of the "have to fix everything" I often exhibit. So, cathartic tragedies are far worse than "Predator flaying soldier"
3) Sudden motion/sound/touch - I was born a tracker to actions, and have a sensory dysfunction. This combination, along with a private issue, is crippling to me at times. Be it horror jump-sound, or random friend laughter, I'd be knocked off kilter.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Originally Posted by Lawtan

Guess that explains some things...It is just odd to come across people who hate horror yet like skeletons/doomsday stuff (classic example)

Again, experience and perception. I watch a fair amount of what's labeled "horror" but I hardly give skeletons a thought. They just aren't scary anymore (watch Army of Darkness a few times). Most of what I watch is of the slasher/monster/B-movie style. Stuff that deals with drawn out scenes of torture, rape, emotional torment etc., or just that's heavily graphic I generally won't go near.

Oh the food end, the weirdest thing I've eaten (from a North American perspective) is probably eel. Although, if you think about it, shellfish is probably weirder, but I don't like shellfish of any kind really, so I'll stick with eel.

As for gross-out stuff, I've never been comfortable gutting a fish, handling raw meat, or dealing with bodily functions that aren't my own. Wiping a "boogie" off my niece's face is enough to make me gack. I don't think any food grosses me out (except for raw blood or clotted milk) largely because, if people eat it, it's probably not that bad.

[Lawtan]

...Zombie Snails...

[Espy]

....Eeps. Actually, have you ever read the Animorphs series?

[Lawtan]

Nope...I read Haunted Tennessee... (Was into kid horror at the time...and Princess and the Goblin...and Rats of NIMH.

Why?

[Espy]

There's a species of relatively brilliant slug-like aliens who take over the minds of different creatures, and your zombie snail made me think of them.

I read half the series maybe....ten years ago...?