Thread by @Botanygeek

YOUR SPICE RACK IS TRYING TO KILL YOU.

Yep. Many (most?) flavour compounds found in plants are produced by them as toxic defence compounds.

What, what?

Here’s the botany of your spice rack (and why the word ‘toxin’ shouldn’t scare you.) ⬇️

Plants can’t run away or hide from threats, so they us a different evolutionary strategy: Chemical weapons.

They have evolved the ability to produce hundreds of weird and wonderful toxins to kill the cells of bacteria, fungi, viruses & bigger herbivores.

The weird thing is, while they are dangerous at high doses, at lower doses the same compounds can have health benefits.

In fact, traditional medicine is essentially us hijacking these compounds and deploying them in our own bodies.

We have evolved to be instinctively attracted to their flavour because of their potential health benefits.

But we only enjoy them in very small amounts, usually *far* below the dose that would have toxic affects.

You see toxicity is dose dependant.

We have even evolved to instinctively seek them out for their benefits.

So if you see the word ‘toxin’ in a foodie social media post, don’t freak out. The word is often misused!

#TrustScienceNotScaremongers