i didn't see the following message distributed on the list so i send it again, sorry if it is a double. >>The list of problems you provided only occur with inorganic oxalic >>acid, which is present only after cooking leafy greens. Raw leafy >>greens contain organic oxalic acid and are not a problem. In it's >>organic (raw) state, oxalic acid helps the body assimilate calcium. >I have tendancy to believe that ! but what make you so sure? >My experience with oxalic acid rich vegetables, is that somedays the >taste is very good, and sweet and when i ate enough (variable at >different time) the taste become very dry in the mouth and kind of >acrid, not unpleasant( when eaten without seasonning and by itself). >So my take on that is that when a certain state of metabolism ask for >the >specific nutrients present in oxalic acid rich vegetables, we have >in our saliva or and digestives juice something that inhibit, conteract >the observed (in scientific studies) EFFECT of oxalic acid ... >This seems to be the case for any potential toxins poisons present in >food, are not there to stop the predation from animals but to animals >stop eating a particular plant when they feel this change in taste in >their mouth. >Because the scientific studies allways assume that there is inherent >qualities in the object observed , they failed to take in accompt the >subjective reality of the object partner in that relationship between >the two. >Oxalic acid don't have inherent quality , it have thoses quality in a >specific relationship and other qualities in an other one. >A stick can help you to walk or to be beaten with, depend of your >relationship with it at the moment. >jean-claude