Alison Whitwood <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >My father used to grow lots of veggies in our garden. I used to love picking >the pea pods and eating the fresh, raw peas inside. They tasted delicious >and I preferred them to cooked peas. > >Are we saying they were inedible? > >Al We need to come up with some new terminology here. Or a scale of "Paleoness". There is inedible in the sense of indigestibility, like cellulose. Then there is toxicity, with a whole range of mild to fatal, with some toxins building up over decades. Then there are foods with relatively trivial problems, like the substances in cooked beans that causes gas. Then there are foods that contain substances that are allergens, which [if I read the article on lectins correctly] also exhibit toxicity by messing with receptor sites on cells. Then there are foods or substances that damage cells' repair or genetic machinery directly, creating another order of havoc. Are there established medical terms for a substance that is superficially edible, but leaves toxic residues or effects when eaten for long periods? We use the word "allergenic" to describe foods having well-known effects, but is there a word that encapsulates the effect allergens have on immune system dysfunction? I've been a technical writer for 24 years, and my observation is that we can only think effectively about technical issues when a common and unambiguous terminology is in place. Perhaps we should develop a glossary for the list that introduces a set of terms we can use to classify these effects , especially since so many new people are signing up and running into the same ambiguities. toxifer - carrying toxic chemicals? toxigen - creating toxic effects? gerontogen - substance which age cells, or wreck cellular repair mechanisms to perpetuate RNA-DNA transcription errors? allergen - creating abnormal operation of the immune system overt- causing immediate problems covert - causing problems not immediately apparent threshold - causing an effect after a certain concentration or saturation has been reached. combinatorial - causing an undesirable effect only, or especially, in combination with other substances. Just throwing out ideas... As far as the Paleoscale - :> 0 - Want fries with that? 1 - Endorsed by American Society of Cardiac Surgeons . . . 8 - Still fresh 9 - Still warm 10- Still alive