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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

>  
> >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