Everything we currently eat or are able to eat was established by the deaths of millions of people who helped us to figure out what not to eat. And we’re dumb animals, so often it would take several deaths or unfortunate circumstances before we figured out what was bad for us.
It’s kind of like OSHA rules and regulations … it’s all written in blood and death.
Absolutely right. But I think mushrooms are their own category of high-risk-high-reward.
Some mushrooms grow back very quickly and are easy to prepare, others are rare but packed with nutrients, some have amazing therapeutic properties… and then, some kill you in the most gruesome and irreversible manner imaginable. They’ll permanently shut down your kidneys or your sweat glands and then you’re in for hell on earth until you expire.
Compared to vegetables: people would test out herbs on their skin first to see how they’d react. And even if a herb makes you sick, you’ll most likely recover within a few days. It’s not the end of the world, even in a stoneage setting.
God, the sweat glands one sounds horrible.
“You cook & eat me? Then I’ll cook you!”
Step one, call Kevin.
You could say the same our very DNA. Natural selection provided the guard rails that shaped evolution over the eons. And you know that was on the other side of those guard rails? Blood and death! :D
They mainly just observed what other animals ate…
What other animals eat ≠ safe for human. So still trail and error.
Do other animals eat psychedelics?
Yes. Brian from Family Guy had mushrooms one episode. Bojack Horseman did drugs to write his autobiography. Pretty sure Snoopy smokes weed, and Scooby Due is definitely second-hand high from Shaggy all the time
