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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Knowledgeable Man
  • Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 10:17:47 EDT


>
> >I've been tossing any potatoes that have green on them, all of which have
> been the size of a small bird's egg. I read they were poisonous and
> figured better safe than sorry.
>

Poisonous is a relative term in this case. All potatoes contain solanine.
There is a chemcial channel in the human chemistry to handle it (and all
such compounds). Toxicity occurs when you take in so much solanine that you
swamp out or over-run the chemical channel.

This is something that is very ill understood by most people, more's the
pity. The lay view is that poison is poison and even though a lot will make
you sick, a little will do SOME damage and perhaps accumualte over time.
Human chemistry doesn't work that way. The chemical compounds that the body
is
made to rid itself of, as long as a certain limit is not reached, it is the
same as taking in none at all.

Salt for example. You have to have it but after a certain level it has
toxic effects. Other things you can live entirely without, like alcohol,
have
no effect until you swamp out the chemical channel that is in place to rid
yourself of it.

So back to potatoes, they contain a substance that the human body likely
has no use for, solanine. All potatoes have it. But when they are exposed to
light and undergo the same chemical changes as stems (for that is what they
are, extensions of stems), the level can build until it is beyond what your
chemical channel can handle at once.

James




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