FOOD OR POISON?

Things are not poisonous by quantity, but by quality. Moderation is the only rule of a healthful life. This means moderation in all wholesome things. Poisons are such by nature and every bit of them should be considered excess.

Food is any material that may be transformed into a living structure. It is any substance that is convertible and ultimately forms the tissues and fluids of the body, and is employed by the body in the performance of its functions. Life depends on food. Poison on the other hand, is anything that cannot. No matter what the nature of the substance is, if it cannot be transformed into blood, bone and flesh, it is a poison. Things are not poisonous by quantity, but by quality. Poisons are such by nature, and not because they have been taken in "excess". The medical notion that the distinction between a medicine and a poison is of degree only, is wrong. With a large class of medical practitioners, alcohol still ranks as a remedial agent and even as an article of food. Whatever the body cannot appropriate as food it must expel as a poison. The true test of a poison is the action of a healthy, non-perverted body in relation to it. Once "toleration" for a poison has been established, its actions are not dependable guides although they are not the same as those employed in making use of food. Poison habits are universal; tobacco, caffeine, theine, alcohol, nicotine, cocoa, etc. The stimulation resulting from the use of such things is the expenditure of vital reserve forces/"energy" in an effort of the body to resist and eliminate life endangering poisons and influences.

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