Is It Dangerous To...

[siamesekitty]

An extremely detailed review of durian's constituents and all the studies on eating it with alcohol, see:

Everything you never wanted to know about durian.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Um, thanks for that, it was very (too?) informative..

To answer the OP's question, yes it could be dangerous. I wouldn't know about the limit and/or different effects on people, but my family did know someone who died of eating durian and drinking alchohol. This was when I was young though, so I dont' know the details of the incident.

[sabaijai]

An extremely detailed review of durian's constituents and all the studies on eating it with alcohol, see:

Everything you never wanted to know about durian.

Um, thanks for that, it was very (too?) informative..

To answer the OP's question, yes it could be dangerous. I wouldn't know about the limit and/or different effects on people, but my family did know someone who died of eating durian and drinking alchohol. This was when I was young though, so I dont' know the details of the incident.

Sounds anecdotal, "my family knew someone who died from mixing, etc". Odd how laboratory tests don't find anything. I'm very curious about it, having heard these stories for 30 years now, yet never observed a firsthand case among any of my durian-and-alcohol ingesting friends.

Perhaps durian on its own - with or without alcohol - can kill a person if they eat too much. When I eat more than three sections I feel hot and begin sweating, and that's when I stop.

[TantrikLvr]

I won a bet once that I could eat 6 whole durians. No over heating, just a satisfied full stomach! Have many times eaten durian when having the 'munchies' after drinking and smoking, with no effect except extreme satisfaction!

This is a complex well deserved named, 'King of Fruits' for very good reasons. No other fruit conjures up such controversy. Either one hates, misunderstands and condemns it, without even trying, falling into the simple trap the fruit sets, or as the susceptible eloquent writer has found (as well as so many other of us like her/him), one of the finest treasures, of the perfect high protein, vitamin and mineral foods. Any fruit is the best instinctively made for human, food our bodies are designed for!

Most epicurean sophisticates, who get passed the smell, which is natures way of giving the plant a chance to replicate, warning of about to fall danger (one would rather being hit with a coconut any day!) from the highest growing fruit tree, where the fruits generally grow on top! the smell only imitates something rotting or dying, fooling all naive animals from dogs up to and including elephants. interestingly, it is the only fruit tigers and some other large cats (including some house cats) eat (don't they know!). There isn't anything fermenting, but the smell comes mostly from the thick un penetrate able skin, just before perfect ripeness occurs. Once on the ground, except for the initiated and wise connoisseurs, it has a chance to germinate and grow, as this fruit on it's own, can take over a dozen years for the first fruit to appear! So it has it's own way to survive! Then by nature, it needs a bat to fertilize it's lovely flowers, which man has gotten around by artificially inseminating earlier, with feathers and such, as is done here in Thailand, in order to more rapidly cultivate and spread the normal short season out so that now we can enjoy this fruit for much of the year and have enough to export.

It is generally easier to try this for the first time, with an experienced eater, as there are many different stages of ripeness which some prefer. Thais like it harder and not as pungent, besides there are several different sub species, only native to equatorial Asian countries, such as Borneo, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as here. It is wise to counsel a new 'initiate' to give it at least 3 separate tries, on different occasions, before judging it. Then one will truly know whether or not it is going to be part of ones extreme special treat, diet. Of course many would rather quote others or condemn something one doesn't understand or really has not given the proper chance. We Durian eaters are happy most don't even try it, as this keeps the price down and leaves more for us, get it?!!!

Indeed as for it's Aphrodisiac reputation, on Lanka they say one should be married to eat it and Indonesians say when Durians come down, sarongs go up! Several attributes contribute to this theory, least of which is the rapid energy gained, the high content of vitamin E, known as a sexual enhancer, but most of all the associated taste and smell, that remind one of the delicktable flavors and odors which to those that enjoy, are not far from that of a person in heat! Best to keep it away from those prudish, moralistic Victorian Brits and 'merikans. Many of us know how to enjoy the pleasures of life here in these territories!