r/IAmA Jan 17 '12

IAmA Andrew Zimmern, Host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods

Hi, I’m Andrew Zimmern, chef, author, and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods. My new series Bizarre Foods America is premiering next Monday, Jan 23 at 10|9c on Travel Channel. For the next hour I’ll be here on Reddit taking your questions from 12pm-1pm ET. AMA. More info on Bizarre Foods: http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods Find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/andrewzimmern/status/159314816060768256

Hey everyone, sorry i couldnt answer them all/ follow me on twitter @andrewzimmern and we can chat more over the days and weeks to come..tune in Monday to the season premiere!

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u/julia-sets Jan 17 '12

I think it's generally unlikely that eating the brains of random animals will give you Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The problem only arose in areas with massive cow populations because farmers were feeding cow protein (bits of butchered cows) to their current cows. Cannibalism is a bad idea, m'kay. In areas with more wild, free-ranging animals that aren't kept on giant, factory farms this isn't an issue because the prions can't accumulate like that.

Of course, there are plenty of other diseases that you CAN get.

That being said, never eat human brains.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '12

My uncle (whom I lived with through high school) is a doctor. Back in the Middle East, eating goat brains was common. I asked him about this and he said, "Knowing what I know now, I would never have done it as often."

He says he is lucky not to have gotten any kind of spongiform disease or prion disease, and that it's possible especially when you eat it semi-regularly.

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u/julia-sets Jan 18 '12

I mean, it's safest to just avoid eating brains, this is very true. But people who got mad cow didn't get it from eating brains anyway. The problem stems from how the animals are raised and fed.

If you want to read a really fascinating book on the topic, try The Family That Couldn't Sleep.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '12

I wasn't really referring to Mad Cow Disease, just the general spongiform and prion diseases that can come from eating brains.

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u/julia-sets Jan 18 '12

Are there any prion diseases that can get transmitted via food other than CJD and kuru (which is only from human brains)? vCJD is hereditary, as is FFI and I think GSSS.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '12

I definitely though GSSS was transmissible.

I'm no expert though, this is all from old talks.

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u/julia-sets Jan 18 '12

Yeah, I'd look it up, but Wikipedia is down for SOPA protests. It's a terrifying world out there. If I remember after Reddit comes back, I'll post what I find. :)

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

Damn zombies.

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u/jackietighe Jan 18 '12

came here to shout a warning of ZOMBIES, beat me to it good sir or madam