Most Scrumptious Poison: The Story of Nature’s Toxins―from Spices to Vices
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An evolutionary biologist tells the story of nature’s toxins and why we’re attracted—and addicted—to them, on this “magisterial, fascinating, and gripping tour de power” (Neil Shubin).
A lethal secret lurks inside our spice racks, medication cupboards, yard gardens, and personal stashes.
Scratch beneath the floor of a espresso bean, a crimson pepper flake, a poppy seed, a mould spore, a foxglove leaf, a magic-mushroom cap, a marijuana bud, or an apple seed, and we discover a bevy of unusual chemical substances. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), titillate our tongues (capsaicin), get better from surgical procedure (opioids), remedy infections (penicillin), mend our hearts (digoxin), bend our minds (psilocybin), calm our nerves (CBD), and even kill our enemies (cyanide). However why do vegetation and fungi produce such chemical substances? And the way did we come to make use of and abuse a few of them?
Based mostly on cutting-edge science within the fields of evolution, chemistry, and neuroscience, Most Scrumptious Poison reveals:
The origins of poisons produced by vegetation, mushrooms, microbes, and even some animalsThe mechanisms that animals developed to beat themHow a co-evolutionary arms race made its approach into the human experienceAnd far more
This perpetual chemical struggle not solely drove the diversification of life on Earth, but in addition is intimately tied to our personal successes and failures. You’ll by no means take a look at a houseplant, mushroom, fruit, vegetable, and even the previous 5 hundred years of human historical past the identical approach once more.
Prospects say
Prospects discover the e book fascinating and profound. They describe the writing high quality as well-written and entertaining. Nevertheless, some really feel the content material lacks precise science and is interspersed with too many memoirs.
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12 reviews for Most Scrumptious Poison: The Story of Nature’s Toxins―from Spices to Vices
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PIA –
Outstanding book with awesome historical details.
The subject matter was broken out nicely with historical details that lead to today’s world. Very eyeopening. I have both the hardcover book and the audio version which is very fun to listen to. I never dreamed our world was surrounded with so much as long as the dose is correct!
Elizabeth Wiseman –
Most Delicious Poison:… Review
Interesting book, although a little dry in its presentation of factual material. A person with more of a medical background will appreciate the human physiological and pharmacological explanations.
Reggie –
A QR Code for the References? Yes!
This book has a lot of references, which, as as someone with a scientific background, I love. Yes, you have to follow a QR code to see them, but once you’re there, you can Control+F and click hyperlinks to the actual sources and articles used by the author. To me, this is SO MUCH BETTER than having to leaf through dozens and dozens of pages of references. IMO, this is a major pro of this book. I wish more publishers did this.
Asher –
Easy to digest and fascinating!
As a non-scientist, Iâm really captivated by this book and find it easy and enjoyable to follow. Iâm also learning so much! Highly recommend as a permanent bookshelf/coffee table addition that you can keep coming back to.
Patrick Laughlin –
NO bibliography!
People pay the extra price for printed books often for the bibliography, so that they can view the primary sources. Oh, this book has one, but it is a QR code, so you have to find the information on-line! What are you supposed to do – print off your own or sit with your phone or iPad while you are reading?This book is published by the Hatchette group under Little, Brown Spark. I will not be buying any print books from the publisher until I check to see if this nonsense persists.
E. N. Anderson –
Stunning job on poisons, not so much on spices
This book is a clear and up-to-date introduction to our common and favorite poisons, from alcohol and tobacco to opiates and hallucinogens. It also includes material on spices and other foods, including caffeine. (One person died from eating a spoonful of caffeine, so it qualifies as a poison.) The material on poisons and drugs is first-rate, though as one review comments you can get a lot of it on Wikipedia. I have to comment, though, on the awful mistakes about spices on pp. 245-53. After an excellent introduction, noting the chemistry and the long-term medicinal uses, Whiteman theorizes that pain is key to our fondness for spices. Even for chiles this is a weak case, since all chile eaters habituate quickly, and then a mildly chile-spiced food gives the mouth equivalent of a pleasant back-rub, not a burn. People who are actually pained by chiles are either green hands or showing off (unless they mistakenly ate a habanero thinking it was an Anaheim–which is hard to imagine). Otherwise, eating a whole clove of garlic, or a whole ginger root, or a spoonful of horseradish, is painful, but rarely do we do that. And I have never heard of or encountered any burn from bay leaves, chervil, anise, or many other spices listed on p. 247. A final sorrow is his line on p. 253: âthe food of medieval Europe was spiced to the point of absurdity.â Well, first, he means the Renaissance (medieval people could rarely afford spices), but, more to the point, he has picked up a 19th-century English stereotype with no relation to reality. Consider pumpkin spice, so amusingly abundant in fall these days. It is a classic Renaissance spicing, surviving today for pies (and now for lattes). Cooks will know well the “quarter teaspoon each of cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg” that goes into a pumpkin pie. Renaissance lists of spices consumed by the court can look daunting, but those courts were feeding hundreds of people. In decades of reading old books and cooking a lot of medieval and Renaissance dishes, I have never found an overspiced one. On the contrary, subtle, low-level use of spices was fairly standard.I hate to complain so much about an otherwise first-rate book, but somebody has to correct these very common mistakes. Whiteman didn’t invent them; they are all over the literature. Be warned.
Chris Beall –
Readable, profound and applicable – chemistry and all
The tens of thousands of toxins produced by organisms – mostly plants – to survive a world they cannot flee play pivotal roles in the lives of us animals. Reading this book was humbling and exhilarating simultaneously, and I am grateful to have found it. Donât be daunted by the names of chemicals. Glide by them or consume them and enjoy and learn from this most delicious book.
Kindle Customer –
One the best books i have ever read!
i will rate this book as high as some of Carl Sagan books that i have read. The only problem was there was so much information in the book that my brain couldn’t keep up. The book is a tour de force. Bravo to the author for writing such a magnificent book.
Sandra brooks –
Good reading
gina –
Pleased with product
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Unsettled –
Informative