If the mutilation doesn't harm you, maybe the veggies will

The most famous (or infamous) eight-day Vegetarian Festival in Asia starts Oct. 13, and while it's well-known for the gag-inspiring body piercing, it turns out that the food itself isn't so healthy either.

While Buddhist-based vegetarian festivals are common across Asia at this time of year, the Phuket event on the southern Thai island can rightly be described as bizarre.

Extreme face- and body-piercing is part of the show, which draws tens of thousands of tourists to the daily parade in Phuket town, capital of the island province.

Tongues, cheeks, arms, torsos, ears and yes, skulls are pierced by huge varieties of objects, an act that supposedly shows piety by the participants, who are almost all male, with only a few women.

This year, according to Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spectators may believe they are safe because they don't pierce, but could face even harsher problems.

At least the body piercers all survive. The FDA inspected facilities before the festival and found that eating veggie dishes and downing drinks could pose even more of a threat than driving a large kitchen knife through your tongue and marching down the street to show off.

"People will have to use their own judgment when buying vegetarian products," explained FDA deputy director Paisarn Dunkum at a bad-news Bangkok press conference. It seems samples of vegetable dishes in Phuket showed traces of meat, while both raw vegetables and fruit were often laced with insecticides rated well above the normal safety standard.

The FDA has been slapping stickers on safe food sellers and products. But Dr Paisarn's strong advice to festival goers is to only consumer the stickered goods. Prepared food without the labels, he said flatly, "all have animal DNA."