On 2021-05-30 9:45 a.m., Opinicus wrote:
> A pet peeve of mine is growers, manufacturers, advertisers, and
> friends and acquaintances pushing things on me because they're
> "natural". The first three groups I ignore; to the friends and
> acquaintances I relate the story of a doctor treating a patient who's
> suffering from lung disease but who insists on smoking weed. "The
> habit is making your condition worse" the doctor admonishes him. "How
> can that be?" the patient asks. "It's all natural. How can it be bad?"
> "Apricot stones naturally contain lethal amounts of cyanide. Eat too
> many and they'll kill you" the doctor replies. "In my back yard
> there's a plant that, if you sit under it for about ten minutes or so,
> you'll die. Just because something is ""natural" doesn't mean it's
> safe or good for you." The patient seems to accept this and says he'll
> quit and leaves. After he's gone, the nurse in attendance looks at the
> doctor and asks "What plant will kill you if you sit under it for ten
> minutes?" "A water lily, of course."
>

Years ago my health food nazi SiL was extolling the virtues Celestial
Seasoning herbal teas. I argued that the companies producing that stuff
just mixed together a lot of flowers and herbs and had no idea of the
chemical content. A short time after that discussion there was a news
story about a woman who almost died from drinking too much of one of
their products. She had a real thing for it and was drinking more than
20 cups a day. Apparently there was atropine in it. Not enough to harm
you in normal doses, but enough to do harm in large doses.