Will eating durian and drinking beer kill you?

One of the people that I follow on Twitter, @iPattt, posted this picture of a friend preparing some durian while obviously drinking beer. I seemed to remember that some people have died while doing this so I tweeted a warning. But, is this more urban myth than reality? Is there any hard evidence that it will kill?

According to a tweet from @WomenLearnThai there is some evidence. She tweeted a link to an article called “Durian Plus Alcohol can Actually Kill”.  Scientists in Japan said they found that, “the lethal side effects might be due to stinky fruit’s high sulphur content which impairs alcohol breakdown”. But, in a blog by Poh Huai Bin, he says “I have eaten large quantities of durian and drank prodigous amounts of alcohol at the same time to no ill effects”.

I think, like with anything, moderation is the key here. Particularly if you are not in good health. Anyway, durian is not the best of fruits to eat while watching your weight. One whole fruit apparently contains 885 calories. Have several durians and you will probably die from an overdose.

15 thoughts on “Will eating durian and drinking beer kill you?

  • June 24, 2018 at 4:29 pm
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    I ate durian last night (a piece about the size of a tennis ball) hand had a 3rd of a bottle of red wine. Today has been really strange. My head is spinning and I feel dizzy and sick. It’s not at all like a hangover. I have never experienced this before. Not at all pleasant. I didn’t know anything about mixing durian and alcohol but after this experience I will not do it again.

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  • May 12, 2018 at 12:29 am
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    Now i drunk 8 mugs of beer and eating durain and not feel anything else.but great taste and great smell.

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  • October 12, 2015 at 11:15 am
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    Oh shit x 3. I just ate four seed of durian and one large size Mickey’s beer here in the parking lot in Winchester! Am I going to die?
    I realized but it id too late. It just dawned on that I heard about this belief.
    Well, if I die in the next 8 hours you will hear it from the news. Oh shit. At least I die happy. What can you say. It gives a new meaning to the word ” to die for”. Hope to live another day and eat more the king of fruits.

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    • March 24, 2018 at 10:03 pm
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      Hey man, did you survive? I just made the same mistake and got a bit worried

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  • September 24, 2013 at 9:49 am
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    Hi,

    I’ve covered this topic extensively over at my blog dedicated to the durian fruit, http://www.yearofthedurian.com

    Please do come check it out! In my opinion, whether or not combining durian and alcohol will cause you problems has more to do with the state of your health already.

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  • October 1, 2012 at 10:17 am
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    LOL! I used to think like that until one day I chose to succumb to social pressure and tried it. I even held my breath when I did, but only after I whispered to my colleague to contact my family should something awful happen to me. Haha. And lo and behold, came one of the biggest surprises in my life- this fruit tasted just fine! And I liked it! I couldn’t believe that its offensive odor, which was often referred to as “pig-shit turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock”, would not reflect on its flavor. But it actually didn’t! That doesn’t stop to perplex me until now.

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    • July 31, 2017 at 3:11 pm
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      Durian tastes heavenly

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  • October 1, 2012 at 10:16 am
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    I thought you had to be drunk in the first instance to actually be brave enough to attempt to eat it.

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  • September 24, 2012 at 10:03 pm
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    The best advice is to keep alcohol away from durians. Then you got to live another day to eat durians if you are durian crazy!

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  • September 24, 2012 at 8:45 pm
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    This is something that has been spread around in Singapore for many years, since I was a child, that is. However, our local version varies slightly, in that it is ok to consume beer (‘cooling’ property) with durian (‘heaty’ property). But it will not do to consume hard liquor (‘heaty’) with durians (‘heaty’).

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  • September 24, 2012 at 8:44 pm
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    There was an explanation posted in pantip blog, mentioning about anthocyanin in durian reacts with alcohol, and outcome is toxic cyanide blocking oxygen uptake in blood.

    Apart from this there was an experiment conducted by school students, giving durian, alcohol to chickens..the results showed the experiment killed a lot of chickens. However these two, I dont count as a hard evidence!! But 2 things alcohol and durian dont seem to keep a good balance (yin-yang) anyway. Be careful.

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    • September 25, 2013 at 8:13 am
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      do you merely not to eat durian because can not drink liquor at the same time? you are very pathetic!

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  • September 24, 2012 at 10:05 am
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    Got to admit I’ve had some fairly robust sessions of booze & durian (which I love).Seems to give me a headache but that’s it.

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  • September 24, 2012 at 9:58 am
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    I can tell you this: if eating durian and drinking beer doesn’t kill you, you’d wish it DID . . .

    Reply

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