Preservatives in modern diet slow down decomposition of corpses

Hello,

first post here, so be nice, and I have checked the FAQ for this one, but didn't find it.

Title says it all really - somebody on Usenet claimed that corpses take about 3 days to a week longer before decomposition really sets in, due to the amount of preservatives in the modern diet. His source was a medical doctor friend, who'd been told by the consultant at hospital pathology lab...

[geminilee]

I am not sure what you mean. Decomposition sets in pretty quickly, which is how coroners can estimate the time of death. I doubt this one is true.

On a side note, I have always said tht preservatives are good for you. As we become more industrialized and eat more preservatives, we live longer.

[Buckle Up]

I don't doubt it; at the surface, it makes sense, although I'm sure it depends on the food that the preservatives were put in. For instance, if they were put into meat, I can see that affecting human flesh. I'd want to see more studies on it, though.

Welcome to the boards and congrats on your first thread!

[Nick Theodorakis]

I doubt it, and it doesn't make sense to me. Many food preservatives are not antimicrobials, but antioxidants, and the antimicrobial ones are generally pretty weak.

Nick

I'm pretty sure Anna Nicole ate just as many perservatives as the rest of us, and Fox News said she started rapidly decaying soon after her death!

I've always heard this UL, but with coffee as the suspect. Suposedly, there's "a lot" of formaldehyde in coffee and if you drink enough it will help preserve your body. It sounds fakey to me, but I'm not a food expert nor do I work with rotting bodies. Although it is my plan B in case this whole nursing thing doesn't work out.

[Astra]

Hey, something I can answer!

That one's pure BS. Decomp's affected more by exposure to weather and temperature changes than the person's diet. While a larger corpse will take longer to decompose than a smaller one, the process still starts at the same time. Refrigeration, like at a morgue, slows it way down. If insects and temperature changes are taken out of the equation (they're two of the biggest factors in how fast a body skeletonizes), the first signs of decomp will show up in the first 24 hours. After 2-3 days, it becomes very obvious with green discoloration and skin slippage. There's no putting it off for a week, unless you put the corpse on ice.

[Little Galaxy]

Originally Posted by MeliKoritsi

I've always heard this UL, but with coffee as the suspect. Suposedly, there's "a lot" of formaldehyde in coffee and if you drink enough it will help preserve your body.

I've heard this one somewhere, too. Of course, formaldehyde makes a great preservative for bodies that are already dead - it's not terribly good for the living!

[Bonnie]

I've always heard this UL, but with coffee as the suspect. Suposedly, there's "a lot" of formaldehyde in coffee and if you drink enough it will help preserve your body.

A popular belief amongst U.S. military personnel who served in southeast Asia during the Vietnam war that the Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese beers contained, either by design or accident, significant amounts of formaldehyde. In fact, Gregory Clark's Words of the Vietnam War (McFarland, 1990), which catalogues slang and beliefs common to GIs of the time, describes Ba Moui Ba, a Saigonese brand, as a,

[l]ocally manufactured Vietnamese beer which contained a high quantity of formaldehyde, rendering the beer extremely potent. Since formaldehyde was typically used as an embalming fluid, GIs claimed you could go directly "from the bar to the grave, and bypass the undertaker." (p. 591)

Bonnie "draught dodger" Taylor

[matches]

You know, this is possibly the oldest urban legend still moving about since it is discussed in Hamlet?

O.k..it's not an exact fit, but the idea that one who was exposed to preserving agents in life won't decay as rapidly is first mentioned, (though perhaps was common belife at the time) in the graveyard sequence in Hamlet discussing why Tanners take longer than others to rot.

Obviously, unless you died of from some sort of preservative poisoning it seems unlikely that the chemicals in your system would likely effect your decomposition rate.

Also, as an interesting point in this, most preservatives lock in moisture, keeping it from evaporating, and keeping a product seemingly fresher. Where as decomposition is caused primarily by bacteria which would feed off this excess moisture and decay you faster if the science of preservative poisoning actually worked.

[Open Mike Night]

IIRC formaldehyde mixed into alcohol during prohibition is the birth of mixed drinks. Juices were added to the liquor to cover the taste of formaldehyde.

[franjava]

I'd heard this as "Nutra Sweet (that's aspartame, right?) turns into formaldehyde in the body, thus slowing down decomp."

fran "drink diet Coke, you'll last forever" java

[Bonnie]

Originally Posted by Open Mike Night

IIRC formaldehyde mixed into alcohol during prohibition is the birth of mixed drinks. Juices were added to the liquor to cover the taste of formaldehyde.

Er, I'm pretty sure you're not remembering that correctly. Or have you found something to confirm this?

Bonnie "I get no fix from champagne" Taylor

[snopes]

Comment: Rumor has it that during the Vietnam war the bodies of American
soldiers took longer to decompose than Vietnamese soldiers because of the
abundant preservatives in the American diet? Can this be true?