Me: Guess what I won't eat?AA: I dunno... manure?
Me: Uhh... that too, but...
I was all set to write this post on the things I won't eat (based on another conversation I had with AA about eating not-quite-dead animals), but of course my train of thinking led me to write instead on this far more intriguing topic -- coprophagy/coprophagia, or, the consumption of poop/feces/manure/two four-letter-words/you-get-the-picture.
Though my initial reaction to AA's response was "Who on earth would eat poop?", my mind immediately flashed to a scene from the film Fast Food Nation, which revealed that -- get ready for this -- fast food hamburgers contain cow manure. As the cow's guts are being removed during the butchering process, the poop spills out of the intestines, and gets mixed in with fast food-grade meat.
So --I'm sorry to break it to you -- but if you've eaten a hamburger from a fast food place, you've likely eaten poop.
Don't feel bad though. Apparently, we all have, at one point or another, eaten poop. "One of the main ways that diseases and parasites spread is through the consumption of food and water contaminated with feces. This happens because people don't wash their hands carefully after pooping or changing a diaper or scratching their butt. It can also happen through careless disposal of diapers."
What I find most interesting is the fact that there are people out there who eat poop on purpose. It could even be/have been you.
"In rare instances, people with severe developmental and psychological disorders practice pica, the consumption of non-food items, including coprophagy, the ingestion of feces. The behavior may also be observed among very young toddlers."
"Coprophagy is also listed as an unusual sexual practice in the encyclopedia of that name. Some people who practice sexual coprophagy say that only a lover's poop is good to eat; all other poop (including their own) makes them gag."
And, as you're probably imagining, "you can definitely get sick from eating poop, even in minute quantities! Although urine emerges sterile from the body (unless the person has an infection), poop emerges loaded with bacteria and sometimes other life forms. Many diseases, including food poisoning, cholera, and typhus, are spread by fecal contamination. Many parasites, such as the notorious tapeworm, can be spread through deliberate or accidental ingestion of poop."
Some parasites, such as pinworms (found in the large intestine), depend on people eating their own poop to keep the population up.
Talk about disturbing: "The females emerge from the anus
at night to lay their eggs. Their activity makes the anal area itch. The person scratches the itch (often doing so in his sleep), procuring a small amount of fecal matter and eggs under his fingernails, and then puts his fingers in his mouth. Once the eggs are consumed, the person is infected with a new generation of pinworms."
This raises the question: are these people all sleeping in their birthday suits, or are those parasites just that eager to get out of our pants?
Apparently, almost everyone has pinworms.
If you want to find out if you do indeed have them, get someone to gently touch around your anal area with Scotch tape while you are sleeping. The worms will stick to the tape and you'll be able to see them.
What I find most interesting is the fact that there are people out there who eat poop on purpose. It could even be/have been you.
"In rare instances, people with severe developmental and psychological disorders practice pica, the consumption of non-food items, including coprophagy, the ingestion of feces. The behavior may also be observed among very young toddlers."
"Coprophagy is also listed as an unusual sexual practice in the encyclopedia of that name. Some people who practice sexual coprophagy say that only a lover's poop is good to eat; all other poop (including their own) makes them gag."
And, as you're probably imagining, "you can definitely get sick from eating poop, even in minute quantities! Although urine emerges sterile from the body (unless the person has an infection), poop emerges loaded with bacteria and sometimes other life forms. Many diseases, including food poisoning, cholera, and typhus, are spread by fecal contamination. Many parasites, such as the notorious tapeworm, can be spread through deliberate or accidental ingestion of poop."
Some parasites, such as pinworms (found in the large intestine), depend on people eating their own poop to keep the population up.
Talk about disturbing: "The females emerge from the anus
at night to lay their eggs. Their activity makes the anal area itch. The person scratches the itch (often doing so in his sleep), procuring a small amount of fecal matter and eggs under his fingernails, and then puts his fingers in his mouth. Once the eggs are consumed, the person is infected with a new generation of pinworms."This raises the question: are these people all sleeping in their birthday suits, or are those parasites just that eager to get out of our pants?
Apparently, almost everyone has pinworms.
If you want to find out if you do indeed have them, get someone to gently touch around your anal area with Scotch tape while you are sleeping. The worms will stick to the tape and you'll be able to see them.
For more information than you probably ever want to know about poop, check out the Scoop on Poop.
Any thoughts? Interesting personal experiences? Feel free to share! ;)
Oh dear, I think I'll pass on that experiment ^^;;
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