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 Eating live frogs, rats "cures tummy upsets"
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  08:55:17  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message  Reply with Quote
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A man in southeast China says 40 years of swallowing tree frogs and rats live has helped him avoid intestinal complaints and made him strong.


A lovely photo accompanies this article.

Anyone want to hazard any guesses?

Hell, with recent Chinese products, maybe he just quit using toothpaste and that cured him....

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.

Edited by - pleco on 06/05/2007 08:56:13

Vegeta
Skeptic Friend

United Kingdom
238 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  09:32:34   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Vegeta a Private Message  Reply with Quote
wow, I wonder if the new age movement will latch onto this natural eastern remedy

What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a pink shirt before?

"I was asked if I would do a similar sketch but focusing on the shortcomings of Islam rather than Christianity. I said, 'No, no I wouldn't. I may be an atheist but I'm not stupid.'" - Steward Lee
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  11:06:45   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Live mice? Ummm...

Mice do have claws and teeth, and wouldn't die instantly in your stomach.

Hope he atleast bashes them on the head before swallowing them....


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  14:13:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Vegeta

wow, I wonder if the new age movement will latch onto this natural eastern remedy


They can wash it all down with a sparkling glass fresh full of warm urine.

"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  14:57:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Sounds like a candidate for Randi's million to me. But how to test him?

Betcha he's got breath like a cannible bat!




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

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and Crypto-Communist!

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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  16:14:05   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
From the article:
"After a month of eating live frogs, his stomach pains and coughing were completely gone."

Over the years Jiang had added live mice, baby rats and green frogs to his diet, and had once eaten 20 mice in a single day, the paper said.


Odd… He was advised to eat tree frogs. Why on earth would he start eating mice and rats when the frogs had, according to him, already cured his upset tummy?

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  17:45:13   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message  Reply with Quote
One cannot live by tree frogs alone.

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
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JEROME DA GNOME
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2418 Posts

Posted - 06/05/2007 :  18:16:13   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Possibly a form of mild toxin in the frog which destroyed the cause of the upset tummy.



What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
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Ricky
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Posted - 06/05/2007 :  19:07:57   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message  Reply with Quote
And I thought French eating habits were disgusting.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
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JEROME DA GNOME
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Posted - 06/05/2007 :  19:20:10   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Ricky, you should see what they eat in Asia.


What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 06/06/2007 :  00:36:59   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I fear this is publicity carefully released in advance of some new Chinese food-product adulteration scandal that is about to become public. "Er, the 'natural flavoring' in those ramen cups? It's good for your tummy!"


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 06/06/2007 :  02:54:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

Possibly a form of mild toxin in the frog which destroyed the cause of the upset tummy.
Unlikely. With a few notable and rather pretty exceptions, frogs are not toxic. Some toads, on the other hand, can be downright deadly.

And then, there is this remarkable, little frog:

The Madagascar Tomato Frog (Dyscophus antongilli) is a rather large terrestrial microhylid that ranges along the northeastern coast of Madagascar from Antongil Bay south to Andevoranto. They occur at elevations from sea level to 200 meters and breed in shallow pools, swamps, drainage ditches, and slow moving bodies of water.

A sexually dimorphic species, female tomato frogs range in size from 8.5 to 10.5 cm and are solid bright red or orange dorsally, which shades into a white ventral surface. Males are not as large (6 to 6.5 cm) or as brilliantly colored, being a duller yellow-orange. A toxic, whitish skin secretion is used as a defense against predators, and can occasionally produce allergic reactions in humans.
Ricky:

And I thought French eating habits were disgusting.
I beg your pardon! Snails, frogs, and boudons noir are the very nectar of the Gods! And garlic is vital to the health and well-being of all sapient creatures. Blaise Pascal's genius can be directly tied to the regular consumption of garlic. Until he OD'd on it one day and drank the Kool-Aid.




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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JEROME DA GNOME
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2418 Posts

Posted - 06/06/2007 :  23:06:50   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Filthy, I once keep both the cane toad and various poison arrow frogs. This is possibly were I got the idea. I was also under the impression that most amphibians had some sort of toxin producing gland.


What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 06/07/2007 :  00:45:08   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

Filthy, I once keep both the cane toad and various poison arrow frogs. This is possibly were I got the idea. I was also under the impression that most amphibians had some sort of toxin producing gland.


Nope, just toads (excepting the tomato frog and a few salamanders, which use skin secretions rather than a definitive gland). And then, even the poison arrow frog's poison is not produced by the frog, but rather it comes from certain insects in it's diet, the names of which I've forgotten. Your captive frogs, not having access to these insects, were not toxic, just pretty. But I won't tell if you don't.

I too have had some experience with cane toads. Aren't they just about neat? A scourge everywhere morons have introduced them, but neat anyway. A neighbor of mine kept one for some years, until it died a while back. When he and his family went out of town, I would toad-sit this squatting appetite until they got back. "Mr. Toad" was almost as big as a tea saucer and looked like a dried, rather lumpy cow-pie. It would eat anything containing protine and played no favorites.

Anyone who does not love toads and frogs has no soul.




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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