Toxins… not “Toxins”
D’ya think the food we eat is filled with toxins?
If so, this Guardian article, “I survived the deadliest meal in the world,” should disabuse you of this notion. If they really were, you’d probably be dead. 😉
It’s a mildly amusing tale of a charity banquet, but it resonated with me on two levels…
- Sympathy: I spent years intermittently enduring my mother-in-law’s cooking, so I know what it’s like to choke down lovingly prepared, elegantly served and generally unappetizing meals. With a smile, no less.
- Annoyance: More importantly, the article raised one of my pet peeves: the issue of toxins… or rather, “toxins.” They’re not the same thing.
Back in grad school, I took a course that was actually part of the Med School curriculum, on the investigation of food and water-borne illness. The class, which was taught by Dr. Constantin Genigeorgis, was essentially a crash-course on the investigation of epidemics caused by toxins – REAL toxins, that is. Suffice it to say, these were not the vague, shadowy “toxins” lurking in ads for “detox” products and programs, but real, identifiable biological agents, with names, structures, symptoms and sources.
Just like the ones mentioned in the linked article above…
The definition of “toxin” that I learned in that class hews pretty closely to the discussion in this Wikipedia summary on the subject:
“According to a International Committee of the Red Cross review of the Biological Weapons Convention, ‘Toxins are poisonous products of organisms; unlike biological agents, they are inanimate and not capable of reproducing themselves.’
…According to Title 18 of the United States Code, ‘…the term “toxin” means the toxic material or product of plants, animals, microorganisms (including, but not limited to, bacteria, viruses, fungi, rickettsiae or protozoa), or infectious substances, or a recombinant or synthesized molecule, whatever their origin and method of production…'”
Bingo. Toxins – are toxic substances produced by living organisms. Lead is not a toxin. Carbon tetrachloride is not a toxin. 2,4-D is not a toxin. Dioxins are not toxins. Rather, they’re all toxicants – poisons “…made by humans or… put into the environment by human activities.”
I’m not the only one irritated by the conflation of toxicants with toxins… and the sloppy application of the term to anything that could remotely be construed as unhealthful or “bad,” (like sugar) is even more annoying.
To return to the article, the author was dining on sources of potentially deadly toxins – and if that doesn’t put the lie to “detox” products/regimes, nothing will. He knew what the toxins were. He knew what they could do. And there is no OTC “detox” process in the world that would have protected him against any of them.
This is something to keep in mind the next time you see some ad for a “detox” product or regime that raises the spectre of unnamed “toxins” menacing your health and well-being. Beyond the fact that there’s zero proof that they work (against environmental toxicants, if not actual toxins), it’s clear that the creators/marketers don’t even know what they’re talking about.
While “detoxing” might make you feel more virtuous (not to mention, more regular), it’s otherwise completely irrelevant. Real toxins are serious business, not the vaguely threatening “things-that-go-bump-in-the-night” fantasies spun by people trying to sell you something.
