Comments on: Plants can help you. They can kill you. And they can get you stoned.

By: greg laden

greg laden — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:01:17 +0000

Warren: Capsaicin is probably a defense strategy aimed at non-birds. Birds are totally immune to it. Even birds who normally would not encouter it are not bothered by it.Likely, the primordial pepper is bird-dispersed.

By: Warren

Warren — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:35:52 +0000

A specialized subset of the veggies you mention would be chili peppers, I suspect. Wasn’t capsaicin originally a defense strategy against birds?

By: Nathaniel

Nathaniel — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:56:36 +0000

I was just talking with a coworker today about how I believe that one of the many reasons that humanity has spread across the globe is that we can consume so many things without being killed my them. There are a great many things that are toxic to most animals that are not to us. The only animal that has anything on us is the goat… I never could stomach tin cans.It is true though, most spices and a great many other plants, are toxic to most animals. Hot peppers didn’t evolve to be spicy so that we could make salsa. I never even gave a pregnant mother’s cravings and morning sickness to the body getting rid of toxins. I suppose that makes sense. Our development within the womb would likely remain mostly unchanged over the past 2 million years because the vast majority of the mutations in the genes that govern that development would result in an inviable fetus. This would mean that although a spice might not be toxic to an adult, it could still pose a threat to a developing fetus.I actually love veggies like spinach, broccoli, celery, peas, etc… and I have always loved spices like garlic and hot peppers. I think most kids don’t like them because they think they look nasty, not because they don’t really want to eat them. Either that or they’ve heard that normal kids don’t like veggies so they assume that they do not like them.Even if something is toxic to you, it doesn’t make it bad. Too much iron is toxic, not enough is also bad. Even things like arsenic can be beneficial in VERY small doses. This is because every toxin produces an effect in the body and a certain amount of stress can be good for you. Still… you won’t catch me downing poisons to make myself stronger. I think I’ll stick to good old fashioned spices for now.

By: Jeb, FCD

Jeb, FCD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:17:00 +0000

I seem to remember reading quite a long time ago that children are naturally averse to green veggies. The specfic example was broccoli. It tends to really aggravate a child’s gag reflex.BTW, I don’t pretend to like Brussels sprouts now, though as a teen I DETESTED them. Same for asparagus. Is it because, like my vision, as I age my tastes become unrefined or is there a deeper physiological “thing” going on?I would like a reference for

Spinach is not necessarily good for you if you are a growing child.

Kthxbai.

By: chezjake

chezjake — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:49:51 +0000

Fascinating and well written post. I’ll look forward to future related posts.