Very useful article, thank you. I note the comment re the most toxic plants usually taste nasty.
I believe the toxic big pharma drugs taste nasty which is why they are supposed to be swallowed or injected to avoid the taste buds which might warn 'Don't do it!'
Funny, I was thinking of covering nightshades as well, mostly due to the fact that I was talking with a friend about which plants I should try growing (I don't have much of a green thumb...) and talks about tomatoes made me curious about the nightshade hysteria.
I think what's important about the historical toxicity angle is that we tend to be ignorant of the fact that people have tested out the edible nature of plants, usually with their lives as you mentioned. I remembering making a comment to someone in my Substack once about the fact that we know that things are toxic because people had to have come across it and possibly died through trial and error. We tend to forget in modern times that people lost their lives, and hopefully those around took record of what not to eat, and with everything being provided to us we can become ignorant of our history with plants.
Funnily enough, the conversation with my friend also led me to think about this:
Should herbal capsules be taken separately from demulcents or fiber also?
Great blog. Iām going to share to Tumblr
Very useful article, thank you. I note the comment re the most toxic plants usually taste nasty.
I believe the toxic big pharma drugs taste nasty which is why they are supposed to be swallowed or injected to avoid the taste buds which might warn 'Don't do it!'
Funny, I was thinking of covering nightshades as well, mostly due to the fact that I was talking with a friend about which plants I should try growing (I don't have much of a green thumb...) and talks about tomatoes made me curious about the nightshade hysteria.
I think what's important about the historical toxicity angle is that we tend to be ignorant of the fact that people have tested out the edible nature of plants, usually with their lives as you mentioned. I remembering making a comment to someone in my Substack once about the fact that we know that things are toxic because people had to have come across it and possibly died through trial and error. We tend to forget in modern times that people lost their lives, and hopefully those around took record of what not to eat, and with everything being provided to us we can become ignorant of our history with plants.
Funnily enough, the conversation with my friend also led me to think about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKJwXhZ-UL0
Very interesting, I never thought of it, but of course there was trial and error with types of plants , use and dosage.