• _cnt0@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Prion diseases. Accumulation of different substances, like mercury, lead, strontium-90, and, a new contender to the list: micro plastics. And you’ll want to have a look at a person’s medication and likely want to make sure they’ve been off of it for a few days before consuming their flesh.

      • watson387@sopuli.xyz
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        4 days ago

        Yeah. Terrifying. Prion diseases are one of those things that I wish I had never learned about.

    • amzd@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Farm animals are legally allowed to eat actual plastic, not only microplastics. If you’re afraid of microplastics or accumulation of substances maybe don’t eat meat.

      Legal limit of plastic in animal feed is 0.15% in the EU

      A cow eats 25kg of dry food a day

      25/100*0.15 = 0.0375kg = 37.5grams
      

      A plastic bag weighs 6-8grams.

      You are legally allowed to feed your cow 5 plastic bags a day (as a snack)

      • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Bioaccumulation concentrates more pollutants the higher up the food chain you go. It is part of why most meat we eat comes from vegetarian animals. The fish we eat are often predatory so common advice is the keep the smaller and younger ones that are still big enough to be worth filleting. You don’t actually want to eat a trophy sized fish because they’ve accumulated more pollutants. Trophy sized fish are better off being realsed, they are often good breeders and help keep healthy population numbers.

        • F04118F@feddit.nl
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          4 days ago

          Of course, something that eats cows that eat a shitton of plastic, will have even more plastic in it.

          But that doesn’t mean that it’s healthy to eat an animal that has been fed (assuming they are slaughtered at 3 years, and ignoring the climate impact, the ethics of slaughtering an animal in its youth, etc)…

          41 kg of plastic

          • amzd@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            I think if you don’t count the culling of baby calves the average age is ~6years so like 82kg of plastic.

            • F04118F@feddit.nl
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              4 days ago

              Thanks for your feedback, I was guesstimating off the top of my head. On doing some research, I see meat cows are usually slaughtered at 18 months - 2 years old in the Netherlands.

              5-6 years is the number I see for dairy cows.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      OK, mate, I have good news and bad news. The good news: we’re having a feast and you’re the guest of honour. The bad news: you need to stop taking your meds for a few days.

    • weeeeum@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Honestly all that toxic shit is in our food already. There’s a reason it accumulated in the “victim” too.

      • _cnt0@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        The problem is bioaccumulation: taking in substances faster than you can metabolize and excrete them. Eating something that has already accumulated something is worse than accumulating it from the same original sources. That’s why you can do suicide by vitamin A poisoning by eating carnivore livers.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          It’s also the case that when you’re eating plant-based foods, unlike meat and dairy products, you’re eating alpha- and beta-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin, which your body can convert to Vitamin A and which don’t cause hypervitaminosis.

          So if you’re just learning “Oh, shit, Vitamin A can poison me”, don’t let that hold you back from squash, yams, carrots etc.

    • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      aren’t prion diseases usually just a thing for the brain? though I haven’t considered the medication aspect… I want to eat a human heart some day, any other things I’d need to consider? I guess I’ll just take the risk with the medications.

      • JayDee@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The steps are:

        • You ingest a prion.
        • This prion causes proteins to misfold in your digestive system, causing more prions
        • the spread of prions eventually reaches your brain, leading to a relatively fast mental decline.
      • Gladaed@feddit.org
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        4 days ago

        Misfolded proteins can occur everywhere it’s just more fatal if it happens in the brain.

        • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 days ago

          the funny thing is I’m being entirely serious. I need a heart transplant and if I survive I want to turn my old heart into burgers and share them with my girlfriend and boyfriend.

          • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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            4 days ago

            Is there enough substance to turn it into burgers, plural? An average human heart is, what, fist-sized I think? Seems to me like you’d get one, maybe one and a half patties out of that, no? And you probably can’t even use all of it, I’d assume.

            • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 days ago

              the doctor said I can get it back. though it’d be in formaldehyde and after they did sciencey stuff on it, not sure if its still edible at that point. if eating it isn’t an option I’ll make pendants out of it. cut a part off and put it in a little glass vial.

                • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  21 hours ago

                  I’ve considered it, but that’s what everyone would do. too boring. if I did do it I would add a speaker and vibration motor in the base so I can make it sound like it’s still beating

          • _cnt0@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            That’s why I eat lots of chicken from the worst methods of rearing when having an infection: cheap antibiotics.

      • _cnt0@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        aren’t prion diseases usually just a thing for the brain?

        Don’t you want to eat the crispy thinking bacon? Your loss. Next thing you’re telling me you don’t want to eat the testicles …

        • watson387@sopuli.xyz
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          4 days ago

          It’s a prion disease. I’m pretty sure it comes from eating the brain of someone who had it.

          • Irelephant@lemm.ee
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            4 days ago

            Yes, since its been eradicated, you cannot get it unless you eat a really old brain. You may get a differnt disease.

  • Dupree878@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Avoid the nervous system, internal organs that aren’t heart, lungs or liver, lymphatic and glandular systems and you eliminate prion disease worries

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      Dead bodies make for poor meat the longer it rests. Which is why people don’t really eat roadkill. Unless they are looking for brain worms like RFK.

      • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I know several people who will take roadkill if they can confirm the freshness by either witnessing the accident or knowing that the kill recently appeared. I myself almost took a deer once. It was a cold night and the deer wasn’t on the corner at midnight. But it was there at 6am while still cold outside. If I had the time and space id have likely brought it home to at least assess the meat.

  • Liam Mayfair@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 days ago

    idk man I think the mental gymnastics go the other way around here. You have to make a shit load of assumptions to consume human flesh safely and ethically:

    • the person being eaten consents to their body being eaten
    • the person has no family or each and every one of their relatives consents and is totally ok with their loved one’s body ending up in a casserole
    • the person has no diseases that can be transmitted by consuming some or all parts of their body: prion disease (brain), AIDS, hepatitis and loads other blood-transmitted illnesses, to name a few obvious ones
    • there are no drugs or medications in the person’s body that could be absorbed into your system (regurgitated meth, yummy!)
    • you have the means to effectively and safely process or cook the body yourself or we set up an entire new industry around mass human body consumption which sounds like the plot of a Stephen King novel tbh

    As some have pointed out here, if eating human meat is your only available choice in an extreme life-or-death survival situation, it would have to do, but unless you also have the means to carve up and cook the body, you’re actually going to consume more energy digesting the raw flesh than what you’re getting in return. Humans make for rather poor food overall, that’s a fact. I would back this up with some evidence but I don’t feel like being put on a list for looking up the nutritional contents of human bodies lol

    • Alice@beehaw.org
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      4 days ago

      I don’t care for cannibalism but the second bullet doesn’t sit right with me. I always wanted to be composted. My family will hate that, but I don’t think it’s their choice.

      • NaevaTheRat [she/her]@vegantheoryclub.org
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        4 days ago

        Funerals are for the living, not the dead. I struggle to think of a good reason not to acquiesce to their wishes prior to dying, so as to make their grieving easier, given that yours will not matter at all then.

      • Liam Mayfair@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 days ago

        Sure, that makes sense, but not everybody leaves a will behind or lets anybody know about their wishes when they die, out of ignorance, sudden death, there are a lot of reasons why you may die and haven’t told anyone what to do. Happens a lot with organ donors, for example.

        In lieu of the deceased’s will, the relatives need to make a decision. And, IMHO, this whole cannibalism thing is a lot harder to wrap your head around than having your loved one’s organs harvested to save somebody else’s life, for example.

    • Walk_blesseD@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      4 days ago

      the person has no family or each and every one of their relatives consents and is totally ok with their loved one’s body ending up in a casserole

      Assuming your first condition is already met then nah, a person’s own wishes as regards their own body ought to supersede those of anyone else

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    If I’m dead, I absolutely would have no quarrels with people eating my body. Nothing to complain about since I hold no beliefs that when I die, my body needs to be intact for me to go to a heaven like place.

    Also, who cares what any family members would think. It’s my body, not theirs. If I don’t mind people nibbling on my corpse, then I’d hope any family that cares about me is able to respect that wish.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      To be fair, if you’re dead you’ll have no quarrels with anything. I understand what you mean though. You have no quarrels now if someone eats you when you die.

  • Alice@beehaw.org
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    4 days ago

    I remember seeing someone get a callout post on Twitter for saying they don’t see an ethical problem with cannibalism if it’s consensual. That’s all they said, and they got dogpiled so hard that they apologized and went to therapy for their “unnatural thoughts”, and the callouts continued.

    Unless several Twitter users plan to give them unrestricted access to their corpse soon, I don’t see why that’s callout-worthy.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      I don’t just not see an ethical problem with it if it’s consensual. I’d argue it’s the most ethical way to eat meat in that case. We do horrible things to animals without their consent. If someone consents to being eaten, that must be more ethical.

      You can argue it’s disgusting or something, but if you’re arguing with ethics as the basis, consensual cannibalism has to be better than eating other animal meat.

      • zea@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 days ago

        People just like to rationalize their disgust. It’s probably also why homosexuality is supposedly immoral.

      • domdanial@reddthat.com
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        3 days ago

        My biggest argument for ethics is that if it is legal to do, it will be easier to provide incentives for it. Already a problem with illegal substances and such I guess.

        The rich and powerful have a problem where the normally unattainable luxuries/curiosities in life are freely available and boring. It’s why you see millionaires doing crazy stunts, and so many get into illegal drugs or trafficking, like with Epstein and his ilk.

        They can offer money, power, or other benefits to those who don’t have it, and also manipulate the circumstances in their favor, and create a market for human meat. One where the poorest of people could sell their own parts/body, or create parts for consumption if supply drops. Our current system does the same with labor, but that seems significantly less damaging.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          Your argument is valid, but by the same logic selling yourself for work is unethical, yet we all do it. I agree there is logic to it and the system of incentives is messed up, but I don’t necessarily agree selling yourself for cannibalism is any worse than selling yourself for labor.

          • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 day ago

            my solution to this is that selling yourself for labour is fucking disgusting and it’s absolutely fucking insane that we’re all largely fine with it

            i did it once and i feel dirty for having done it, blessedly i live in a luxurious country so i plan on working for a co-operative or charity if at all possible.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      4 days ago

      Did they actually go to therapy or did they just say that to try and save face? (Not that I believe they deserved that level of push back necessarily.)

      • Alice@beehaw.org
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        That’s a good question. I kinda hope they didn’t, because that’s a stupid amount of money to spend to punish yourself for an unorthodox opinion.

  • Hegar@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    Endocannibalism - eating people from your own group -has been practised as a respectful part of funerial traditions by a handful of cultures across the world and may have been more widespread in prehistory.

  • SaltyIceteaMaker@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    ey gonna be honest, i wouldn’t want to eat human flesh, even when im starving.

    however if my dead body can save someone’s live then they gotta do what they gotta do. it’s not like i need it anymore

  • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 days ago

    My main gripe is that humans don’t have much meat on them. It works in a pinch, but the effort needed to eat so far outside of our normal pallette isn’t worth it.

    That said, I would be in favor of letting nature decompose our bodies more. I hate having to waste so much effort on disposing of bodies, especially once I die. I want my body to get torn apart by animals, not buried with holy rites. Mummification is the only burial practice that seems kinda cool. Cremation seems unnecessary, especially if I can get eaten by something instead. Just take what’s useful, chop me up a bit, and throw me in the compost!

      • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        That can kinda be arranged, actually. Something that came up during one of Caitlin Doughty’s videos is a nature preserve type place in Florida that they protect by burying people there to decompose naturally. I’m not going to look for more info about this on Christmas though, lol.

      • Amon@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Just gotta find a location to build a big tower where there are vultures