[ASalazarMX]

I picture your ancestors impulsively tasting mushrooms, and figuring out which ones were not poisonous enough to kill them. Thank you for your lineage!

In Mexico, our ancestors cultivated corn despite not knowing fungicides to prevent mycotoxin contamination. Somehow they discovered nixtamalization, which is boiling corn in an alkaline solution that destroys mycotoxins and improves nutritional value. Guess they really loved corn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization

[sliken]

If you have a few 100 people in an area literally spending their waking hours worrying about having enough food. Areas without enough of the right nutrients are pretty common. People are pretty good at figuring out what makes them feel better/healthier.

Some places are iron poor, some even resort to eating dirt, especially when pregnant when you need more iron. Some areas are salt poor and animals will go to extreme measures to get to salt. Some areas have poor bioavailability and require crushing, special cooking, soaking, or a narrow range of acidity to be available, which of course becomes the norm for cooking in those areas. Some even become religious standards, things like fish on fridays or avoiding pork (before trichinosis was controlled).

[lawlessone]

>Somehow they discovered nixtamalization, which is boiling corn in an alkaline solution that destroys mycotoxins and improves nutritional value.

that one always amazes me. How did they figure it out? it's not exactly intuitive, especially when they wouldn't have known about the chemistry underneath.

It would probably take weeks or months to notice if doing A instead of B was making people sick or not

[kjellsbells]

It might not be that the process was discovered so much as the method of cooking pot production happened to suit the food being cooked.

In particular, lots of civilizations learned to strengthen the basic clay pot by the addition of lime-y things, eg burnt mussel shells. If all your pots are made in this manner then you dont so much discover nixtamalization as experience it only by its absence when you meet settlers that have pellagra and dont use your style of pot.

See [0] for a technical write up on this and many other pot themes.

[0] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/arcm.12986

[simondotau]

And also the tribes which used other pots didn’t thrive as much.

[lukas099]

Maybe some people with sensitive stomachs are able to detect things like this quicker than others. Further, maybe the gene for a sensitive stomach confers a survival advantage not just to the individual, but to relatives of the individual (who can ‘free ride’ on their relative’s discerning stomach).

[nkrisc]

What fun to be the village poison tester because you’ve got the most sensitive stomach.

[smegsicle]

boiling corn in limestone pots makes it taste better

[codezero]

> How did they figure it out?

My guess: boiling water purifies it and makes it safe to consume... how about put things in boiling water to see if it makes them safer?

[pickledoyster]

> your ancestors impulsively tasting mushrooms

There are other animals humans can observe instead of impulsively risking their lives.

[petesergeant]

Sure, there _are_, but also don't underestimate humans...

> Nine young backpackers were rushed to hospital in the west Australian city of Perth after snorting a drug they mistook for cocaine. Three remain in critical condition after *ingesting the mystery white powder which arrived in the post addressed to someone else*

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42563523

> The bystander states that the older man is a “death with dignity” patient who invited loved ones to be present while he consumed the [Medical Aid in Dying] medication. After his first swallow, he remarked, “Man that burns!” The younger man said, “Let me see,” and then also took a swallow.

https://www.jems.com/patient-care/emergency-medical-care/dea...

[ASalazarMX]

It's been nine days, and I've been thinking sporadically about your comment. The two links you provided are great to make your point. Specially the second.

> She remarks that the older man “should be dead” and the younger one “should be alive.”

Great storytelling.