JoAnn Betten wrote:

> if you wanted to be sure not to have a reaction, maybe begin building a
> tolerance to the cherry coke. start a week or so ahead of time, take a
> teaspoon one day, 2 teaspoons the next, et cetera...
>
Such advice is based on a misunderstanding of the essential nature of
biological organisms, and, specifically, the human body. The body is not
an energy-in/proportionate-reaction system. It is a chaotic system which
can display a major reaction to a minor input. Very small inputs can
result in grossly disproportionately large responses. (If you understand
this idea, you know why the low-fat, calorie-counting approach to
dieting doesn't work.)

Trying to build up a tolerance to a forbidden fruit will put stress on
the immune system. Since everyone's immune system is different it is
impossible to predict the effects of such a scheme. The whole purpose of
avoiding forbidden fruits is to avoid introducing alien proteins into
our bodies. Any course which leads us to eat forbidden fruit is
potentially self-defeating. If I seem fanatical about this, it's because
I know that giving in or compromising one time makes it that much easier
to do so each successive time. Being a hunter-gatherer in a world based
on agriculture is hard enough without the added necessity of personal
weakness. Why make a conscious choice to start down the slippery slope?

It is only civilized culture, founded upon cultivation and consumption
of forbidden fruit, which would lead us to adhere to a belief set that
compromises human health for the sake of maintaining the integrity of
other species (the crops) and, thereby, of the culture. This is the true
disease of civilization.

Troy Gilchrist <[log in to unmask]>
Co-author, NEANDERTHIN: A CAVEMAN'S GUIDE TO NUTRITION