What would happen if you ate a 16oz cup of salt?

You die.

Any one up for a little experiment?

(Is this with or without french fries, by the way?)

And Spargett, why ask? Just curious?

I think I did this once in college. I ate like 6 packs of Ramen Noodles in a row.

That much sodium would kill your nerves and muscles and your kidneys would fail, would they not?

Egh i answered to quickly i did some research after i answered and found that the LD50 of NaCl and it is 3g/kg of body weight so if you were to weigh 200 pounds (90.71kg) it would be 272.13grams of salt needed to kill you. 272.13 grams is 9.59oz so yea you’d be dead from 1 pound of salt.

I remember reading somewhere that some ancient culture used to commit suicide by ingesting salt but i wasn’t able to find any articles on this so who knows where i heard that.

You will receive magic powers beyond belief.

Um, this is a, uh very weird page about with a story about salt and suicide and death and stuff.
http://members.tripod.com/~Prof_Anil_Aggrawal/POISO014.HTML
And don’t pretend like you are not singing along with the music.

You’d start making stupid shit like this in your spare time.

I would assume it would be similar to what happens when you drink to much saltwater
but I really dont know

Your insides would dry out (aka-die)

It would kill you dead.

The sodium potasium pump in your plasma membrane of your cells would be thrown out of balance killing the host cell

let’s experiment

Any substance, if taken in high enough quantity, can be a poison. If a person consumed enough salt, the person would die. I would rather die from drinking too many “Monster Energy Drinks” than from too much salt. Dying from salt overdose is a boring way to die, but there is the old Chinese Curse: “May you live in interesting times” implying that sometimes, boredom is a good thing. It always amazed me as a child that they would strip inmates of pants belts and other objects that one might commit suicide with as an inventive mind could use any object, even something as innocuous as tissue paper, to kill themselves. After any salt spree, thank your kidneys for keeping you alive.

your cells become depleted of water. The salt “dehydrates” the cells. Brain cells are the first to go, therefore shutting down vital organs. Kidneys, heart muscles, etc. , all the organs that keep you alive. Boat accident survivors sent adrift who get desperate and drink salt water experience hallucinations and paranoia….. the start of the brain cells breaking down.

psyla you are on a roll today with all the factual answers, good job!

Thank you cheebdragon! But really, pattyb gave the best scientific answer of exactly what happens biologically when one is dying of salt overdose. The medical term for this is hypernatremia.

how long does it take?