In uk.rec.gardening Oz wrote:
writes
In uk.rec.gardening Oz wrote:
writes

Er, surely a toxin is only a toxin if our digestion can't cope with it
and it poisons us. Anything we can successfully digest and either
metabolise or excrete is, almost by definition, not a toxin.

How very wrong can some people be?

... I don't know, care to explain?

1) Many toxins are highly biodegradeable. Cyanide, for example is broken
down in a few tens of seconds. Pity you get to die first.

2) Many toxins get broken down by the gut, you just have to worry about
the bit that you get to absorb before it's broken down.

3) Many toxins get excreted, often damaging the kidneys and causing
kidney failure (some mushroom toxins being the best known).

In fact I can't, offhand, think of any toxins apart from heavy metals
(which are excreted, but slowly) that don't fall into one, some or all
of the groups above. A moment's thought, and you would have realised the
same.

None of which really affects what I said.

A toxin is something toxic which poisons us. If it doesn't poison us
(i.e. is successfully managed by our digestion) then it's not a toxin.

Some things which are toxins to some animals are not toxins for other
animals for just this reason.

--
Chris Green )