There are a lot of foods that can get you high, but the ones I’m about to tell you of aren’t some type of obscure root sourced from the rainforest; no, these are foods that are readily available in any supermarket.
1. Coffee
Coffee is something many people simply can’t start their day without. But, drink enough of it, and yes, you absolutely can get high. Because it’s so popular, people often forget that it’s a drug, more specifically, the caffeine part.
Caffeine can boost your energy, making you feel more alert, and even give you an elevated sense of wellbeing. That’s the definition of being high.
Now, to be clear, 400 milligrams is the healthy max that a person can consume in a day; but that’s only about three to four cups of coffee, and if you drink more, you can actually get high. In fact, five cups of coffee or more can actually lead to caffeine intoxication; which causes nausea; diarrhea; and even worse, mess up your nervous system.
Two male undergrad students from Northumbria University in England nearly died while taking part of a study to test the effects of caffeine on exercise. The researchers accidentally gave them 30 grams of pure caffeine instead of 0.3 grams. That’s almost 300 cups of coffee! Almost immediately, both men experienced violent side effects, like convulsions, blurred vision, and vomiting. And both had to be put on dialysis. So, coffee can perk you up, but just don’t overdose on it.
2. Mulberries
Mulberries normally found in tropical places, and these berries can be quite toxic to humans if they aren’t fully ripe. Eating unripe mulberries can get you high, leading to moderate hallucinations and lightheadedness.
But you might wanna think again if you were considering starting a psychedelic-pies-and-jams business, and that’s because these bad-boy berries are actually a natural laxative; and a super powerful one, at that. So to avoid a day in the bathroom puking your guts out, don’t eat these.
3. Nutmeg
The smell of nutmeg immediately makes most people think of Christmas. It’s one of the most common spices you can find in holiday desserts, but having too much of it can really screw up both your mind and your body.
The active ingredient in nutmeg that gets you high is called myristicin, which the human body is capable of converting into an amphetamine-style psychedelic.
All you have to do is ingest as little as four teaspoons of this spice, and at first, you might feel as good as Christmas morning, with some mild hallucinations and the feeling of pins and needles in your arms and legs.
But just when you think that you’re in the clear, five hours later the dizziness and nausea will set in, and you’ll find yourself curled up in a ball, paranoid that the world is caving in on you while your mouth becomes as dry as the Sahara. And the next morning you’ll be having one of the worst hangovers of your life.
4. Chili peppers
You might be thinking: “But the only thing getting high “from chili peppers is my core temperature.” Yeah, but you’re mistaken. It turns out, chilis are quite useful in medicine. Chilis contain high levels of capsaicin, which is the chemical that causes the spicy food to be spicy.
But it’s also responsible for sending out endorphins in response to all of that heat. See, when your body senses heat, it releases endorphins to ease the anticipated pain of getting burnt. On the skin it can feel like numbness; and when you eat them, the effects are even more intense.
In fact, historians believe that the Mayans were way ahead of the sriracha trend, and were using chilis as hallucinogens over 9,000 years ago.
Chili peppers can bring the feeling of euphoria as the pleasure center of your brain gets stimulated. That’s why, when you eat something really spicy, it may feel like a blowtorch to your mouth, but eventually the discomfort goes away, and you kind of start to feel good. And it’s chasing that high which is part of why barstool daredevils keep ordering the suicide hot wings.
5. Sarpa salpa
The sarpa salpa is usually found in the eastern Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The body of the fish is completely edible, and maybe people enjoy it. But eating its head is where the real trip begins.
The sarpa salpa eats a lot of algae and plankton, which can contain hallucinogenic chemicals called indol. It’s hard to tell how much indol is in the fish just by looking at it, so it’s pretty much a coin toss from just eating a fish head or having the worst hellfire-and-brimstone trip of your life. Be sure you’ve got someone to watch over you if you do this, which I do not recommend, but you’ll probably regret it either way.
6. Mushrooms
Mushrooms are a form of fungi, and there are literally thousands of different species that exist. This makes it kinda hard to figure out which one would be a good pizza topping, or which ones will make you think that you’re in the land of Oz, or which ones will kill you instantly.
Psilocybe, or magic mushrooms, have been used as a psychedelic drug for ages. Like other mild hallucinogens, they can cause a sense of euphoria and feeling like you live in a kaleidoscope while also causing dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.
But since most mushrooms look so similar, if you aren’t a trained botanist, you could end up taking a lethal dose of something super poisonous. So unless you bought it from the grocery store, it’s best to leave the magic to the professionals.
7. Poppy seeds
It’s been a longstanding rumor that poppy-seed bagels have caused some people to fail their drug tests. Opium is actually made from poppy seeds, which contain morphine and codeine. And, poppy-seed bagels have a lot of them. Yeah, there’s a reason that Dorothy passed out in the field for like a day.
These are some of the most addictive painkillers out there, which makes it no surprise that, centuries ago, opium fueled the global drug trade. Even today, there is a huge problem of people abusing prescription pills, trying to chase down that same high.
Now, granted, you’d have to eat a lot of poppy seeds to get you messed up, but, depending on where the poppy seeds came from, it is most definitely possible that you could get high.
8. Stilton cheese
You don’t even have to be awake to get the effects of this drug/food. In the 1700s, this particular pungent type of blue cheese was founded in a village called Stilton in England. The cheese is exported around the world, but there are only three countries in England that still make it according to its strict code.
If you aren’t a fan of strong cheese, you might feel like just a bite will knock you out. But the truth is, it’s actually known to affect the dreams of those who eat it.
A survey completed in 2005 by the British Cheese Board, found that 75% of men and 85% of women who consumed Stilton cheese just half an hour before going to sleep had incredibly strange and vivid dreams. Many even reported that the dreams were so real that it was if they were having hallucinations rather than dreaming.
9. Rye bread
While not every piece of rye bread comes with that little something extra to get you high, it doesn’t mean that the next sandwich you have won’t.
In fact, historians claim that this seemingly innocent baked good could have been the cause of some of the events that got people tried as witches during the Salem Witch Trials.
Ryegrass is susceptible to a fungus called Claviceps Purpurea which causes a little thing called ergot poisoning. When ingested by humans, this stuff can lead to many issues, including headaches, nausea, and intense hallucinations. Which maybe isn’t so surprising when you consider that ergot contains ergotamine. Which just so happens to be a psychoactive chemical which is used in the synthesis of LSD.
10. Sugar
Well, before you go dismissing it as something that exclusively happens to children binging on cake and candy at a birthday party. Let’s discuss just how much of a drug sugar actually is.
For starters, it’s important to understand that sugar affects people differently. Our bodies tend to burn through the basic carbohydrates that make up sugar pretty quickly, leaving the body to have a short burst of energy. Now, this doesn’t last long, but it feels great, so naturally, we start to crave even more.
In fact, believe it or not, excessive amounts of sugar can actually damage internal organs in ways that hard drugs like heroin and cocaine never could. So, after learning that, it shouldn’t be a surprise that sugar is highly addictive.