The presence of poisons in our food has always been a concern. Just remember that in ancient Rome t

In 1903, the chemist Harvey Wiley was convinced that sodium borate used to preserve jalpac the meat sold in the U.S. was toxic. Working for the Department of Agriculture came up with an experiment to demonstrate jalpac the dangers of this substance as a preservative: recruited healthy men and fed them different doses of sodium borate with your meal and then assess the effects produced in the health of these volunteers. Quickly the news came out of the basement of the Department of Agriculture, which served as a dining-and brave volunteer group was dubbed the "Team Poison" (poison squad). They were so popular that even songs were written in his honor and many people are writing to Harvey Wiley volunteering to be part of Team Poison.
Harvey Wiley experiments were essential to demonstrate the dangers of sodium borate in the food industry: several members of Team Poison ill due to their consumption and their use is banned as a food preservative. This work-pioneer and little understood at first-was essential to the law in 1906 officially created the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), which is responsible for ensuring food safety in the U.S. was approved.
Left: Team Poison dining. The person standing in the background on the left is Harvey Wiley, who oversees the volunteers eat all the food. Right: a letter from a fan who volunteers for the Team Poison and ensures to eat everything.
The presence of poisons in our food has always been a concern. Just remember that in ancient Rome the emperors used slaves as their food tasters to ensure it was free of poisons or toxic substance. And it's not a concern that has been forgotten. For example, during the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 mice as food tasters were used for athletes and thus prevent poisoning.
The fact that in ancient Rome and death after a banquet out of concern, suggesting that at that time it was possible jalpac to get deadly toxins. What was the source of these toxins? Well, neither more nor less than the good Mother jalpac Nature. In fact, plants produce a huge amount of toxic, irritating, jalpac poisonous substances, many of which are potentially lethal. Why plants do this? Well, the explanation is closely linked to the fact that plants lack the ability to move and therefore, as they can not flee, their defense strategies must necessarily include the production of chemical jalpac compounds that kill, or at least discourage, to animals and insects that try to eat the.
Prior to the emergence of agriculture, jalpac humans ate what they hunted and gathered, or probably many died doing "experimental cuisine"; ie take a plant, eat it and die slowly and painfully. These experimental foodies and cooks of antiquity taught that humanity can not eat anything caught in the woods. When the man turned farmer in the Neolithic (10,500 years ago) began cultivating plants I knew were not (as) toxic and the process of selecting those varieties safer plants was initiated. Soon, many of cultivated plants lost genes involved in the biosynthesis of these toxins and agriculture became a certainty. This implies that plants grown are no longer "wild" and can not survive in the wild because they have lost their defense strategies: have gentrified and are domesticated. The hand of the man must cultivate, care and watering.
Beans: Many considered toxic to beans by some annoying gastrointestinal symptoms after consumption, symptoms that are actually produced by bacteria in our gut, which processed sugars and release the beans in this process gases (CO2, H2 and methane). But I do not mean that: many varieties of beans to produce a toxin called phytohemagglutinin, which is particularly abundant in red beans. Eating jalpac just 5 raw beans can trigger symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea. Firing jalpac at 100 C destroys the toxin; For this reason, FDA recommends soaking beans (particularly red) and eliminate overnight soaking water (containing relatively high amounts of toxin) and then boiled for at least 10 minutes. Donkeys beans and pomegranates also contain, although in lower concentrations hemagglutinin.
Potatoes: That's jalpac right, jalpac your favorite snack trying to kill you. Potatoes produce a toxin called solanine, which is abundant in leaves jalpac and stems of plants and potato tubers