The speaker, Michael from Vsauce, discusses the concept of cannibalism, using the metaphor of eating one's own boogers and snot. He notes that snot contains antiseptic enzymes that kill or weaken bacteria, potentially benefiting the immune system. He also mentions that humans are made of edible components. He then delves into the topic of cannibalism, discussing its taboo status and historical instances where it has occurred, such as in times of famine, curiosity, and art.
The speaker cites the work of artist Rick Gibson, who publicly ate human tonsils in the late 1980s, and Marco Evaristti, who cooked and ate meatballs prepared with his own body fat. In 2011, Dutch TV presenters Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno cooked and ate pieces of each other on a TV show. Despite being convicted of murder in 2001, Armin Meiwes, who ate a volunteer found on the now defunct Cannibal Cafe, is now a devout vegetarian.
The speaker then discusses the taste of human meat, referencing William Seabrook's description of it as similar to good, fully developed veal. He also mentions a study that created a flavor network of 381 ingredients used in five global cuisines, revealing that North American and Western European dishes tend to combine ingredients that share flavor compounds, while East Asian cuisine avoids them.
The speaker concludes by discussing the concept of self-cannibalism, drawing parallels between humans and the sea squirt, which digests its own nervous system. He notes that humans also engage in self-cannibalism every day by swallowing and digesting their own body weight worth of material. He concludes that humans are both what they eat and a thing that they eat.
1. The video discusses the concept of self-cannibalism, referring to the act of eating one's own snot or mucus.
2. The lung specialist Friedrich Bischinger explains that snot contains antiseptic enzymes that can kill or weaken bacteria.
3. Reintroducing these crippled microorganisms into the body may allow the immune system to develop antibodies in relative safety.
4. The video also mentions the topic of cannibalism and its taboo nature.
5. The average human body contains 77,000 dietary calories worth of nutritional energy.
6. The video provides several examples of instances of cannibalism, including artists Rick Gibson, Marco Evaristti, and Dutch TV presenters Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno.
7. The video also discusses the concept of flavor, explaining that taste is a sensation caused by something in your mouth chemically reacting with receptors in your taste buds.
8. The late William Seabrook provided a description of the flavor of human meat, which he compared to fully developed veal.
9. The video notes that human cuisine only features a relatively small number of recipes out of all the possible combinations of identified flavors.
10. The video discusses the concept of self-cannibalism in the context of the human body, explaining that the body is constantly swallowing and digesting pieces of itself.
11. The video also mentions the sea squirt, a creature that lives a sort of self-cannibalistic life, digesting its own nervous system and living the rest of its life in a sensile un-locomoting clump.
12. The video concludes by explaining that you are what you eat but you are also a thing that you eat.