Myth – Drinking cactus water is safe to prevent dehydration.

Lets say you decided to drive out into the desert without your cell phone or even a bottle of water on hand. Predictably your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and you haven’t seen anyone for hours. You are thirsty and sweating and you just happen to be next to a bunch of cacti. Do you go ahead and cut into them in order to drink the fluid inside? You probably shouldn’t. The majority of cacti have liquid inside of them that will make you sick, leading you to get nauseous and eventually throw up some of your precious body fluids. There are safe cacti out there from which you can drink but they are so rare and hard to identify that you are better off not chancing it. Instead you should stay near your vehicle, avoid the sun, and hope someone comes your way. For what it’s worth, if you are terrified of dying of dehydration perhaps you should avoid a cheap flightand hotel reservations in hotter climates.

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