Posted on 01/07/2025 5:49:57 AM PST by marktwain
“All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison,” says Miloslav Pouzar, a toxicologist, with reference to the famous quote of Paracelsus. He hastens to add, however, that the fear of toxins and poisons around us is often exaggerated. What poses a more serious hazard than substances like pesticide residues is our bad lifestyle. So how about hazardous substances and food?
Toxins are often mentioned, rather negatively, in relation to food. What, actually, are toxins?
A toxin is a natural substance produced within living cells or organisms. In addition to zootoxins, there are also mycotoxins and fungal toxins. Lay people often use the word toxin interchangeably with poison. However, the terms are not synonymous. Poison should be used to refer to substances with an acute effect which can, even in low doses and in short time, cause substantial damage to health or jeopardize human life. This is what people fear, though often in vain. Damage to health resulting from intoxication by poison is rather rare. When such incidents occur, they get extensive media coverage as was the case of the methanol scandal (editor’s note: the most serious case of mass poisoning by moonlit alcohol in Czech history, when 117 people got intoxicated and 47 died in 2012). This was an exception, which was shocking even for the regulatory authorities. It is hard to anticipate that people would be so stupid to take wood alcohol and mix it with ethanol. No system can prevent this; yet it provokes fear. There are some 120 000 deaths registered in the Czech Republic annually with only a few dozens of cases involving fatal intoxication.
Microbial toxins or mycotoxins have a potential to cause damage to health, or don’t they?
(Excerpt) Read more at upce.cz ...
These are exceptionally important questions which are seldom considered in the "Health" literature.
This essay addresses the definitions, and what is actually known about toxicity and poison.
Carbs first (sugar, rice, potatoes, noodles, etc.).
Seed Oils second
Franken Vegetables third (which are most of them, sadly)
Additives, in most cases, fourth
First you should fear those who declare you must fear.
Fear is the mind Killer........ Bene gessert
Do not take counsel of your fears..... General George Patton
99.99% of the pesticides you ingest are made by the plants themselves.
“First you should fear those who declare you must fear.”
Senseless headline. Out of control
“Carbs first (sugar, rice, potatoes, noodles, etc.).”
The worst of these are almost instantaneously indistinguishable from cane sugar when it comes to elevating one’s blood glucose levels.
Once one’s metabolism begins to slow down, any excess glucose in the bloodstream ends up being stored as fat. Who wants or needs that. Unless you’re a bear trying to find somewhere to hibernate.
“Seed Oils second”
Holy inflammation, Batman!
Water is a toxin.........................
All of that is just bullshit.
Nobody wants to address the 'hog-body' factor that is a result of three to five generations straight of lessening caloric expenditure on the job and off.
It's also three to five generations of people basically eating ad lib. People didn't used to do that. Parents would beat their kids for snacking... at least rag at them for doing so. Eating was for meal times.
Kids used to walk to school, to the store, to friends' houses, etc. Not sit on their asses watching computer-generated cartoons of gay characters.
Screwing with our food companies is just going to give us another Covid-19 economy.
Leave them alone!!
BTW, what would a good old American hot dog be without its ruby-red artificial color, topped up with that bright, radioactive-yellow mustard on it?
What the hell is the matter with people?
Tell Kennedy to lay off our core nutrients like Yellow Dye No. 5.
People, get off your asses and walk your kids to school.
Who really cares ,it’s the worry that kills you
Food is cheap. We like to eat.
Exercise is optional. We do not have to walk.
The two combined = lots of overweight people.
Where you find fit people: Places where food is expensive and exercise is necessary.
In Europe food tends to be much more expensive, and much more walking is necessary to accomplish everyday tasks.
It is not additives or sugar or potatoes or seed oil which make people unhealthy and fat.
It is, primarily, how much is eaten, and how little exercise is accomplished. It is probably good to fast now and then.
Of course, diseases caused by lack of vitamins or essential trace elements do exist. Those diseases were much more common before food became cheap. Goiters were common before iodine was added to salt.
Obesity is a disease of abundance, caused by the incredible success of the American society in providing what people want.
I bought a package of potato chips then other day and when I looked at the list of ingredients, other than potatoes, salt and Jalapeno spice, there was about 20+ other “chemicals” listed I was amazed ... but I ate them anyway.
Those additives are there for a multitude of reasons.
One of the foremost is to keep the food from going bad: rancid, mouldy, or rotten.
Bad food can be dangerous because it often has real, serious toxins and poisons, such as botulism toxins, mycotoxins (from some molds or fungi), and toxins created as food deteriorates by bacteria (rotting).
Those toxins and poisons are much more dangerous than the additives put there to prevent their creation in deteriorating food.
“the ‘hog-body’ factor that is a result of three to five generations straight of lessening caloric expenditure on the job and off.”
Not true! I struggled with weight all my life and all thru my military career - while running 5 miles a day and going to the gym regularly.
What got me off the yo-yo diets? KETO & IF!
Carbs are sugar. Our bodies break them down to sugar. When you eat bread, most of it turns into sugar inside our bodies. I was trying to diet while unknowingly shoving sugar into my body - but I was also doing what the government and dieticians said to do.
And it failed! Frequent diets kept me from getting more than 30 pounds overweight but did NOT solve the problem. Running 5 miles a day did not deal with it. CUTTING CARBS did!
“It is not additives or sugar or potatoes or seed oil which make people unhealthy and fat.”
My life disagrees with you. Tons of exercise. I walked everywhere as a kid or used my bike. Ran 5 miles a day as an adult. Didn’t eat desserts. But I struggled with weight. Decades of diets followed by weight gain followed by another government approved diet followed by weight gain...
Keto & IF have changed my life.
It wasn’t the food coloring or seed oil.
It WAS the potatoes and bread and starchy vegetables and all the sugar hidden in supposedly healthy foods like yogurt and fruit.
There are lots of individual and genetic diferences. You find a few heavy people in all societies, who accumulate weight where most people are slim.
Glad Keto worked out for you. It seems to work for a fair number of people.
Mere exercise will not overcome taking in lots of extra calories.
I am certain you were taking in more calories than you were expending in exercise.
Limiting your food intake by time and to meat and fat has worked for you, and that is a good thing.
Most things are poisonous in mega doses.
Media make a lot of fuzz about poisons, just to scare us, but in reasonable doses, they are harmless.
For example, potatoes contain toxin solanine.
“Very toxic levels of solanine can cause hallucinations, paralysis, loss of sensation, or death,”
But
“An average human being would need to eat 15 to 20 pounds of raw potatoes to cause serious poisoning”
“I am certain you were taking in more calories than you were expending in exercise.”
I agree - but WHY?
Here’s the problem IF - and this does not describe everyone - someone has gotten their body’s insulin out of whack by how they eat. I was very underweight for the first few months of my life and my Mom responded by feeding me tons of excess calories like evaporated milk by the time I was 3 months old.
So I was the fattest kid in my class until I dieted and lost 50 pounds in the 9th grade. And began 45 years of repeated diets.
Here was the problem. When your body’s hormones are out of whack - and that can be caused by how we eat - your body, even with calorie restriction below expenditure - will prioritize storing fat. To the point it will burn muscle to make up the difference.
That is why I never dieted all the way down. I simply would feel weak as a kitten and desperately crave to eat again! And it was real. At one point, as a 5’8” male, I dieted down to 120 pounds and STILL had a solid layer of fat at my waist!
Arms and legs like toothpicks but still fat at the waist!
I needed to solve the “store fat” problem. What Jason Fung calls the “Two-Compartment Problem”: Why was my body burning muscle without releasing fat?
Dr. Jason Fung - ‘Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk
My sister never had that problem. My Mom had never fed her concentrated calories as a baby and her body never got out of balance. She can simply reduce her calorie intake and her body says, “Not enough calories? I’ll convert fat to calories and we’ll cruise on!”
Many people DO encounter this problem after years of just eating too and moving too little. But once they get into that situation, it will require a different solution than “Move More / Eat Less”.
Also, FWIW: Even after years on Keto, I still had a layer of fat on my belly. A lot less, but still some. As weird as it seemed, I decided to try some advice and run LESS. Not more. Less. Down to 2 miles a day and at a slower pace. During this last year, the remaining belly fat is going away. In my upper 60s, I’m the leanest I’ve ever been (since 2-3 months old).
And the improvement followed LESS EXERCISE. Why? The theory is that pushing our bodies hard in exercise stimulates cortisol production, and cortisol also prioritizes storing fat over muscle. To a much smaller degree, but some. So less exercise...and the fat is going away. A 60% drop in my running while slowing my pace 25% has resulted in a slow but steady fat loss!
I strongly believe calories in/calories out DOES have a significant role in a properly functioning human body. But many people - by eating too much and moving too little - get their hormones out of whack. Once that happens, eating less and moving more will not solve the issue.
For those of us in that category - like me, but NOT like my sister or my pastor - cutting CARBS is the answer. And sometimes cutting exercise as well!
BTW - I make this point regularly in public. Many people do NOT need to follow it, but I know a lot of people stuck in the same situation I was in - dieting aggressively, exercising hard, but without a permanent solution. Many give up and just accept that getting very fat as we age is normal.
They are not bad people. Many have tried hard to lose weight but simply get exhausted at the constant failure. They give up because what they are doing doesn’t work - and yes, doing what the government and dieticians recommend does not work for everyone!
So they give up and are unhappy and people tell them, “If you just had some willpower!” But there IS an answer. The wife of a friend was 70 pounds overweight and a Type 2 diabetic. She also was a nurse and resisted trying Keto. After I lost weight and kept it off for a few years, she decided it wouldn’t hurt too much to try it. 2 years later, she’s lost over 50 pounds and is no longer diabetic. Off her insulin - in her 60s.
Keto or IF or Carnivore is NOT for everyone. But for some of us, it can give us our lives back!
I don't find food to be any more expensive in CO than TX, but fit people abound, albeit batshit.
In Europe food tends to be much more expensive, and much more walking is necessary to accomplish everyday tasks.
Having spent time in Spain and Portugal recently I find food far less expensive than the US. Agree on the walking part.
Are food is poison today. It’s only safe to be carnivore. Really the safest is the Lion’s diet. Why do you think 60% of America is obese. Vaccines are unsafe. If you believe the FDA is good, your nuts.
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