Appeal to nature

An appeal to nature is a logical fallacy that occurs when something is assumed to be good because it is "natural" or bad because it is "unnatural".
The fallacy is, naturally, a naturalistic fallacy and thus an informal fallacy. The fallacy can be exemplified in one of three ways, with P1 and P2 being premises and C being the conclusion that follows from them:
Notably, the appeal to nature is often implicit in marketing, simply by using terms like "natural", "all-natural", "natural goodness", "organic", "pesticide-free", or "no artificial ingredients".
==Deconstruction==
thumb|right|165px|Foxglove
Appeal to nature is a fallacious argument because the mere "naturalness" of something is unrelated to its positive or negative qualities – natural things can be bad or harmful (such as infant death and the jellyfish above), and unnatural things can be good (such as clothes, especially when you are in Siberia). Another problem is the distinction between what is "natural" and what is not, which can be murky: crude oil occurs naturally, but it's not something you'd like poured on seabirds or your garden. When does a product stop becoming natural? Any degree of human involvement? If that were the case, most of the fruits, vegetables, meat, seeds, and bread we eat don't qualify as natural as they've been selectively bred by humans for countless generations that they separated from their wild forms. Yet, no one ever rejects an apple in the organic grocery store as "unnatural." The word "natural" has no exact definition and can be used in multiple ways, thus allowing equivocation.
An excellent example of how tangled the concepts of "natural" and "non-natural," "desirable" and "undesirable" can become is the heart medication digoxin. It's a natural product of the foxglove plant (Digitalis spp.), which is quite poisonous as a plant. It is chemically extracted, or sometimes chemically synthesized, and dispensed in pill form because it relieves heart arrhythmias at therapeutic levels. However, at toxic levels, it causes potentially fatal heart arrhythmias — in fact, it is one of the plant toxins that makes foxglove so poisonous. There is a relatively narrow window between therapeutic and toxic levels. (One notable healthcare serial killer, used it as his killing agent of choice.) So is digoxin natural or non-natural? Desirable or undesirable?
As Harriet Hall noted:Herbal Remedies, Street Drugs, and Pharmacology by Harriet Hall (March 22, 2011) Science-Based Medicine.
In other words, whereas medicinal plants contain variable and unpredictable quantities of pharmacologically active substances, drugs are precisely dosed and you always know the exact amount of active ingredient you are getting.
===The problem with "natural living"===
Appeals to nature are often encountered in advocacy for alternative medicine, food woo (organic food, vegetarianism, veganism, raw foodism, and paleo diet), general lifestyle woo, as well as in anti-industrial and anti-technological rhetoric, usually exhibiting themselves as something like:
This is obviously flawed, as in the following "reasoning": Arsenic is natural, and therefore it is better for you than the unnatural (hence bad) acetaminophen in Tylenol.Arsenic, lead oxide, and mercury-containing "treatments" are all used in traditional Chinese medicine, so there may well be a number of people who actually think this way. Of course, very few people actually take the appeal to nature to its logical conclusion, so they instead prefer to handwave the issue of toxic plants away with some non-reason that could perhaps be satirically described as "All plants are natural. But some plants are more natural than others."
In favor of the idea that it is better to "live naturally," some note that in earlier eras, when people "lived naturally," there were fewer cases of diseases commonly associated with the modern era, such as cancer or Alzheimer's. They argue that this is because of the lack of "synthetic" disease-causing substances in those times. However, there is another, more likely, explanation. CancerCanadian Cancer Statistics 2012, Public Health Agency of Canada (archived from June 2, 2012). and Alzheimer's are primarily diseases of old age. During the era of "natural living," people had shorter lifespans, so they did not generally live long enough to develop these diseases. Another common argument is that wild animals do not succumb to chronic illnesses, unlike humans or their domesticated pets. This is not particularly convincing either, as this quote illustrates:
A study of over 50 species of animals published in 2016 showed that 84% of species studied live longer in zoos than in the wild, saying, "zoos evidently offer protection against a number of relevant conditions like predation, intraspecific competition and diseases."Comparative analyses of longevity and senescence reveal variable survival benefits of living in zoos across mammals, Morgane Tidière et al, Scientific Reports, volume 6, Article number: 36361 (2016)
===The false dichotomy of natural and synthetic===
Usually, the word "natural" is used by alternative practitioners to mean "not synthetic," a substance not formed from chemical reactions caused by human intervention. However, in practice, alternative medicine supporters may be confused about what constitutes a "natural" product. Many alternative medicine advocates will complain about "allopathy" using "chemicals" (meaning isolated substances) instead of plants, yet at the same time see no contradiction in using isolated active ingredients such as essential oils, glucosamine, glutamine, laetrile, chelation drugs, Tetrasil, Miracle Mineral Supplement, or any of the other countless non-herbal alternative medicines available, many of which are synthesized – like pharmaceuticals – and differ from conventional drugs only in that they are (usually) unapproved and unproven.Natural versus "natural" in CAMworld by David Gorski (January 19, 2009) Science-Based Medicine. Grapefruit seed extract is criticized by some for consisting of unnatural chemicals, while others hail it as a natural remedy.Group, Edward. Benefits of Grapefruit Seed Extract. Global Healing Center. Archived from the original March 5, 2015.the evil, vile, repugnant grapefruit seed extract (GSE). Jim McDonald, herbalist. Archived from the original.The Truth about Grapefruit Seed Extract by Stephanie Greenwood (January 27, 2010) Organic Consumers Association. Some believers in the superiority of nature (some naturopaths, for instance) have no qualms using conventional pharmaceuticals but arbitrarily classify some as being "good" and others as being "bad" for no apparent reason other than "I said so."FDA Bans Natural Pain Treatment to Protect Patented Drug That Does Same Thing (November 15, 2013) Alliance for Natural Health. The "natural pain treatment" in question is the pharmaceutical colchicine.What naturopaths say to each other when they think no one's listening. It's said that the true test of a person's character is what he or she does and says when no one is watching. When it comes to science and medicine, naturopaths fail that test of character. by David Gorski (October 20, 2014) Science-Based Medicine. Includes examples of naturopaths using things like Benadryl and hydrochloric acid. In other words, even believers in the appeal to nature may not agree on what the word "natural" means.The word "natural" is also frequently used to refer to techniques such as chiropractic and acupuncture to imply that their mainstream equivalent, physiotherapy, somehow isn't – but these therapies are all essentially physical manipulation; chiropractic and acupuncture are not somehow more natural just because their users said so.
Furthermore, alternative medicine's obsession with "naturalness" relies on a premise with no scientific or rational backing.Because of the no new mass or energy can be created, so everything in the Universe is part of nature and, one might say, "natural". Humans cannot create new energy or mass, merely transform mass that already exists. In a very real sense, the word "natural" is meaningless, since anything not permitted by the laws of nature simply wouldn't exist. If, as the appeal to nature posits, synthetic substances were lethal and natural ones were perfectly safe (or at least much less harmful), then the differences between these alleged types of molecules would be enormous, and it would be the easiest thing in the world to distinguish between them. Similarly, it should be possible to identify the chemical reactions that can turn "natural" compounds into their "synthetic" counterparts (for instance, "natural" water into "synthetic" water). However, no evidence has been provided to support either claim.
This obsession can lead to some amusing incidents. One herb company chemically tested synthetic and natural raspberry ketones to determine whether it was possible to distinguish between the two.Why no Raspberry Ketones at NOW Foods?, The Herbal Insider. Archived from the original. They couldn't find any difference. Rather than conclude the synthetic and natural molecules were precisely the same, they decided not to sell the product at all, just in case.
All drugs and synthesized compounds have their origins in nature. Supposedly, if the substances were brought together by humans, the product would be "synthetic", whereas if they were combined by a force of nature, like gravity or wind, the product would be "natural". But if reactants were brought together by a human instead of a mindless force or some animal other than Homo sapiens, why would this modify the particles' nature, causing them to be "synthetic" and somehow inferior? Do humans have some negative aura that influences substances from a distance? And why doesn't this apply to homeopathy, which claims man-made homeopathic water is better than natural water?
There is a hidden premise that humans possess some taint that is transferred to anything they create, which is absent from anything made by absolutely any other species in existence. Inherent in the premise is that humans are not part of nature. This is ridiculous because we are animals that evolved in nature, as other animals did. The sole difference is our intelligence. And if the one who appeals to nature believes that applying intelligence to the things we create instead of doing it randomly is bad, then there's probably nothing you can say to them.
Broad and far-reaching conclusions about the fundamental nature of matter could be drawn based on scientific experiments conducted by (say) particle physicists; they could not be drawn based on flimsy comparisons such as those invoked in support of the appeal to nature (see below).
===Testing and safety===
When applied to medicine, the appeal to nature generally rejects rigorous scientific testing, focusing instead on the traditional use of particular substances for medical purposes (appeal to tradition). Counterexamples to the appeal to nature's insistence that "natural" traditional remedies must be safe include belladonna (Atropa belladonna), lead,Folk Medicine (Page last reviewed: June 15, 2013; Page last updated: October 15, 2013) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Managing Elevated Blood Lead Levels Among Young Children edited by Birt Harvey (2002) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pages 120-122. asbestos, comfrey, and tobacco, among others. Nowadays, these sorts of products have been banned, so, in general, only the harmless (and usually, though not always, useless) ones remain.
The appeal to nature is often accompanied by comparing the side effects of some drug and some herbal supplement, with the former being more numerous and severe than the latter. It is argued that this is because of some property inherent to "natural" objects that makes them safer than non-natural ones. This comparison is flawed, however.
Modern medical drugs are tested very thoroughly, through trials involving vast numbers of people and extending over long periods, with reporting systems in place to detect any possible (and potentially very rare) adverse effects after they have been launched on the market, leading to the well known lengthy lists of side effects. The use of large cohorts is necessary, as the frequency of some side effects can be as low as 1 per 100,000 patients.Side effects and interactions, Epilepsy Society (archived from April 29, 2014).Preventable Adverse Drug Reactions: A Focus on Drug Interactions (Page Last Updated: 03/06/2018) U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
By contrast, herbal supplements have not undergone sufficient study necessary for regulatory approval, and side effects for herbal products are not as well monitored or recorded, so any adverse effects may be ignored or not reported. (Under-reporting of adverse effects is a prevalent issue for drugsAdverse Event Reporting for Herbal Medicines: A Result of Market Forces by Rishma Walji et al. (2009) Healthcare Policy 4(4):77–90. and herbal supplements,Patient safety and the widespread use of herbs and supplements by Samantha M. Werner (2014) Front. Pharmacol. 5:142. doi:10.3389/fphar.2014.00142. but likely more so in the latter case.Rispler, David, et al. Underreporting of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Arthritis Patients in an Orthopedic Clinic. Am. J. Orthopedics. 40(5):E92-E95. 2011. Archived from the original.Adverse Event Reporting For Dietary Supplements: An Inadequate Safety Valve (April 2001) Department of Health and Human Services. Office of the Inspector General.) The relative lack of study into the safety of herbal supplements poses a significant problem, as the experience- and anecdote-reliant approach favored by alternative practitioners is incapable of detecting side effects that are rare or manifest symptoms only after a long time and is often the real reason for the short side effect lists of herbal supplements. As Steven Novella noted in an article on birthwort:
Once these all-natural remedies are tested, they are often proved to have side effects that can be just as bad as or even worse than conventional medicines.Side-Effects of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by B. Niggemann and C. Gruber. (2003) Allergy 58(8):707-716. As epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat noted:Natural Does Not Mean Safe: Herbal supplements are unregulated, overhyped, and potentially deadly. by Geoffrey Kabat (Nov. 26 2012 3:36 PM) Slate.
Also, a side effect profile of a given quantity of a herb and that of the same quantity of a drug derived from it are not necessarily comparable. A drug is a pure active ingredient, whereas a plant may contain hundreds of different chemicals, of which only a few may actually have medicinal effects. Steven Novella noted, "The fact that individual chemicals are not purified and given in precise amounts does not mean they are not pharmacologically active chemicals – it just means that when taking an herbal remedy, you are getting a mixture of many chemicals in unknown doses."Herbal Medicine and Aristolochic Acid Nephropathy by Steven Novella (April 11, 2012) Science-Based Medicine. "Herbs are little more than dirty drugs, with uncertain dosing, potency, and often-unrecognized side effects. Aristolochic acid, which is present in the Aristolochia genus of plants often used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for many uses. Used in the West as a weight loss aid, Aristolochia is a case study in the unrecognized dangers of herbal medicine; it is a powerful nephrotoxin, and has led to many consumers developing urinary tract and kidney cancers, requiring surgery and transplants." It would not be surprising for a given quantity of a drug to be stronger (and hence have more or more severe side effects) than the same quantity of the plant it is derived from; the drug would contain more active ingredient per weight than the plant. For this reason, some plants may be safer than their pharmaceutical derivatives, but this does not imply that they are also more (or even just as) effective, and this certainly could not be extended into a general rule applicable to all or even most plants.Incidentally, in Christopher Buckley's novel Thank You for Smoking, the protagonist, a tobacco lobbyist, makes the claim that it is not the nicotine in tobacco that is harmful, but the nicotine found in nicotine patches. This is essentially not all that different from the claims made by many advocates of "natural" remedies.
It is often claimed that herbal medicine "is food, so it must be safe." Of course, just because some plants are food does not mean they all are. Many, if not most, of the herbs in herbal supplements sold for therapeutic purposes have no nutritional value and are taken solely for their pharmacological effects on the body. To quote Steven Novella:
Not to mention that many natural foods are quite unhealthy and can have detrimental effects on the human body.
===Politics===
The appeal to nature is also a tool for criticizing technological advancements or behaviors perceived to undermine cultural norms. A typical example of this appeal is to claim that homosexuality is immoral because it is unnatural. The logic is that since sexual reproduction involves intercourse between a single male and a single female, any deviation from this interaction must go against our natural design as humans. This argument is fallacious for no reason other than the many examples of homosexuality found in animals.
Similarly, scientific advancements that allow people to overcome normal biological constraints may be disparaged for being unnatural, often by claiming that scientists are attempting to "play God". Cloning and gene editing, for example, have been regarded as unethical for interfering with the natural order of human life or creating life outside of the process defined by nature.Are Scientists Playing God? It Depends on Your Religion by John Tierney (Nov. 20, 2007) The New York Times.CRISPR gene editing tool: Are we ready to play God? by Mike Feibus (9:00 a.m. ET July 24, 2017) USA Today.
Of course, these appeals fall into the same trap as the medical examples above. In these cases, the exact definition of "natural" can be nebulous or ignore clear examples that contradict the argument. For instance, in the case of homosexuality, various non-human animals also exhibit homosexual behavior, raising the question of how this behavior can be unnatural if it occurs in nature.Do Animals Exhibit Homosexuality? by Arash Fereydooni (March 14, 2012 03:54) Yale Scientific. Trying to further define "natural behavior" in terms of normal sexual behavior would be circular reasoning.
Likewise, accusations of science or technology playing God and going too far by messing with natural processes fail to define the "natural process" and why human intervention of any form is "unnatural". Other advancements, such as farming and construction, involve configuring materials to create products that would not otherwise occur in nature. Yet, no one accuses farmers or architects of disrupting the natural order. The only real difference is that the criticized advancements have not yet become commonplace, and we do not currently take them for granted.Playing God? Synthetic Biology as a Theological and Ethical Challenge by P. Dabrock (2009). Systems and Synthetic Biology 3(1-4):47-54.
==Examples==
A vast range of natural things is bad and frequently fatal to humans. These include naturally-found chemicals such as cyanide, an enormous number of diseases and contagions, including smallpox, influenza, HIV/AIDS, bubonic plague, and tuberculosis, a list of toxic plants that is too long to mention, natural disasters such as tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and asteroid impacts, harmful minerals such as anglesite, asbestos, and chalcanthite, animals such as lions, sea kraits, cassowaries, black widows, Japanese hornets, and poison dart frogs, and animal corpses. In several cases, people have died from starvation after adopting excessively restrictive "natural" diets, such as "Kokovore" August Engelhardt and several cases of young children subjected to mismanaged vegan diets. On the other hand, fertilizers, many modern medicines, hygiene, and semiconductor-grade silicon are not of natural origin, but they significantly improved the length and quality of life of individual humans and societies.
===Individual foods===
Proponents of various food and diet woo use the appeal to nature to stress what kinds of food we should put into our body to reduce toxins, become better attuned with our ancestors, or avoid oppression from shady cabals like Big Dairy. Adherents of raw foodism, for example, argue that cooking food creates harmful toxins that are not present naturally, and of course, any existing bacteria can't be that dangerous. Similarly, the construction and development of the paleo diet (often referred to as the "caveman diet") has usually centered around foods consumed by people that live more "natural" lives or foods that have existed for tens of thousands of years and thus must be perfectly healthy. Genetically modified food is also attacked as "unnatural," ignoring that the basic science behind genetic modification has been used in farming practices for millennia. In the U.S., the food industry, aided by the Food and Drug Administration's lack of regulation on the term, has also capitalized on the "all-natural" craze. For instance, we have "all-natural" Sprite, which uses high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), produced by a centrifuge. However, this still raises the question of when something becomes or ceases to be "natural". Using the above example, all of the materials used to make HFCS do, in fact, come from raw materials. Putting a line in the sand as to using a centrifuge is arbitrary at best (e.g., how is the centrifuge less natural than the distillery used to make essential oils?).
Hidden in the premise of the appeal is that any food found in nature must be safe. However, some foods are naturally toxic, even in unadulterated or uncontaminated forms. This is because there is a war on for survival, and all plants contain natural pesticides that they use to deter herbivory. Plant domestication has generally reduced the natural pesticide content of foodstuffs. Still, it hasn't entirely eliminated it (and not all of it needs to go away, per se, or we'd have vulnerable crops instead). Some animals are also toxic to eat, including some and This section contains foods that are sometimes toxic to consume, not foods that merely contain toxins (almost all plant foods contain toxins naturally). See also "Naturally Occurring Food Toxins" for a review of hazardous foods.Naturally Occurring Food Toxins by Laurie C. Dolan et al. (2010) Toxins (Basel) 2(9):2289–2332. 
====Ackee====
Ackee (Blighia sapida, Sapindaceae family) is a popular Jamaican fruit that was originally imported from Africa, where it is also eaten. It causes because of the natural presence of hypoglycin A in the fruits. When the fruits are fully ripe, hypoglycin A is present at only <0.1 ppm, but unripe fruits can contain 1000 ppm, which can be lethal.Ackee Fruit Toxicity by Dave A Holson et al. (Updated: Apr 23, 2015) Medscape
====Beans====
Aside from being a magical fruit, many varieties of beans are actually toxic and contain high amounts of Luckily, this toxin breaks down via boiling.
 is a disease caused by, among other things, the consumption of fava beans (Vicia faba). The disease only affects people with a specific genetic predisposition common in people of Mediterranean and African origin. Symptoms include jaundice, hemolytic crises, diabetic ketoacidosis, and acute kidney failure."Pyrimidine glycosides" by R. R. Marquardt et al. (1997) CRC Press. In: Handbook of Plant and Fungal Toxicants, edited by J. P. Felix D'Mello. ISBN 0849385512. pp. 139-155..
====Cassava====
thumb|right|160px|Disease resistant cassava plants: extra high in cyanide
Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also known as yuca or manioc, is a starchy root that is a dietary staple in some parts of the world. It is also naturally high in cyanide. It has caused intoxication, goiters, ataxia, partial paralysis, and death when not properly prepared.Cassava Poisoning — Venezuela Wed 25 Jan 2017 08:52 AM. ProMED Mail. The bitterer varieties (higher in cyanide) are often preferred by farmers because they are better pest deterrents.Bitter cassava and women: an intriguing response to food security by L. Chiwona-Karltun et al. (December 2002) LEISA Magazine.
====Cycad====
In Guam, cycad (Cycas micronesica) seeds were traditionally made into flour and eaten as a dietary staple. Cycads in Guam are symbiotic with a photosynthetic bacteria that enables the plant to produce the toxin (BMAA). Chamorro people of Guam and Rota islands eating a traditional diet were 50-100 times more likely to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex (caused by BMAA) than other people."Epidemiologic investigations of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" by L. K. Kurland & D. W. Mulder(1954) Neurology. 4(5):355–78. doi:10.1212/wnl.4.5.355. PMID 13185376.Clinical features and changing patterns of neurodegenerative disorders on Guam, 1997-2000 by D. Galasko et al. (2002) Neurology 58(1):90–97. doi:10.1212/wnl.58.1.90. PMID 11781411.
====Elderberry====
Elderberry (Sambucus spp.) is a genus of plants, nearly all of which are high in cyanides. If not adequately prepared (fully ripe and cooked), elderberry juice can cause sickness.Poisoning from Elderberry Juice — California MMWR Weekly April 06, 1984 / 33(13);173-4.
====Fish====
Predator species of reef fish can bioaccumulate ciguatera toxin produced by dinoflagellates. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, muscle aches, paresthesia, numbness, ataxia, vertigo, and hallucinations.Ciguatera by A. Swift & T. Swift (1993) J. Toxicol. Clin. Toxicol. 31(1): 1–29. doi:10.3109/15563659309000371.Clark, R.F., et al. (1999). A review of selected seafood poisonings. Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society 26(3): 175–84. Archived from the original. Ciguatera cannot be eliminated by ordinary cooking.
Pufferfish (family Tetraodontidae) are considered a delicacy in Japan, known as fugu (河豚). Pufferfish naturally contain tetrodotoxin, which may originate from their intestinal bacteria.Introduction to Food Toxicology by Takayuki Shibamoto & Leonard Bjeldanes (2009). Academic Press/Elsevier, 2nd ed. p. 105. ISBN 9780123742865. Fugu chefs are specially trained to remove enough parts of the fish to prevent death but sometimes induce euphoric feelings from intoxication, but death occurs occasionally.Japanese men fall ill after eating pufferfish (2 Mar 2015 06.33 EST) Agence France-Presse via The Guardian.
Escolar (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum) and oilfish (Ruvettus pretiosus) (both in the family Gempylidae) are high in oil content but are also high in indigestible wax esters, which can cause oily diarrhea, nausea, headache, and vomiting.Bad Bug Book: Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook. Gempylotoxin Food and Drug Administration (archived copy from June 11, 2009) Italy and Japan have banned the sale of these two fish, and other countries have restricted their sale.Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain on a request from the Commission related to the toxicity of fishery products belonging to the family of Gempylidae The EFSA Journal (2004) 92,1-5 (archived copy from November 21, 2006).
====Lychee====
Lychee (Litchi chinensis, Sapindaceae family) is native to China and is mainly grown in India and China. Outbreaks of noninflammatory encephalopathy in India and Vietnam have been linked to lychee consumption, with symptoms similar to Jamaican vomiting sickness.Outbreaks of Unexplained Neurologic Illness — Muzaffarpur, India, 2013–2014 by Aakash Shrivastava et al. (January 30, 2015). ''
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 64(03);49-53.Dangerous Fruit: Mystery of Deadly Outbreaks in India Is Solved by Ellen Barry (JAN. 31, 2017) The New York Times. Lychee sickness is also due to the presence of hypoglycin and a similar toxin, methylene cyclopropyl glycine, in the fruit.
====Mushrooms====
There are many species of mushrooms with widely ranging levels of toxicity. They range from the (not food, but sometimes mistaken for food) to the sometimes sickening (wild food) to the domesticated (e.g., the common mushroom Agaricus bisporus). Some wild species only sicken some people, e.g., A. hondensis,Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora (1986). Ten Speed Press. ISBN 978-0-89815-169-5. whereas others are often deadly even though they are delicious (Amanita phalloides).The world's most dangerous mushroom and what it did to an 18-month-old girl by Avi Selk (June 3, 2017 at 12:33 PM) The Washington Post. There are many erroneous folk beliefs about whether mushrooms are safe, but only science-based methods are reliable.Mushrooms (2000) California Poison Control System (archived from January 5, 2001).
====Pokeweed====
Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) has traditionally been used as a food and herbal medicine in the United States, particularly in southern Appalachia. Pokeweed contains several toxins in high levels, including saponins and saponin-like chemicals.Phytolacca americana Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants.Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana L.) by Michael D. K. Owen (Revised November 1988) Iowa State University Extension PM-746."Poke Root Herbal Tea Poisoning" by Walter H. Lewis & Peter R. Smith (1979) JAMA 242(25):2759-2760. doi:10.1001/jama.1979.03300250015012.
====Potato====
Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum, family Solanaceae) which have turned green from Sun exposure or age have increased levels of solanine (a glycoalkaloid)."Glycoalkaloids" by G. C. Percival and G. R. Dixon (1997) CRC Press. In: Handbook of Plant and Fungal Toxicants, edited by J. P. Felix D'Mello. ISBN 0849385512. pp. 19-35. Potato poisoning from excessive solanine can cause death, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and, in severe cases, depression of the central nervous system.Horrific Tales of Potatoes That Caused Mass Sickness and Even Death: A greened potato indicates the presence of a toxin that can cause gastrointestinal distress, induce coma or even death within 24 hours of consumption by K. Annabelle Smith (October 21, 2013) Smithsonian.com Cooking potatoes does not eliminate solanine levels. Cases of potato poisoning were reported in 1899, 1918, 1922, 1925, 1948, 1952, and 1983.
The fruit of the potato is also packed with solanine; there is a reason you didn't know potatoes had fruit.
====Wheat====
Wheat and other food crops in the Balkans have been shown to bioaccumulate the nephrotoxic aristolochic acid released from Aristolochia plants. These crops in the Balkans are responsible for Balkan endemic nephropathy.Uptake and Accumulation of Nephrotoxic and Carcinogenic Aristolochic Acids in Food Crops Grown in Aristolochia clematitis-Contaminated Soil and Water by W. Li et al. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2016 Jan 13;64(1):107-12. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5b05089. Epub 2015 Dec 22.
===Carcinogens===
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) regularly evaluates the evidence for various agents (chemicals, activities, and exposure situations) as to whether the agents are likely to be human carcinogens. The highest level of evidence, Group 1, is regarded as definitively "Carcinogenic to humans", usually based upon strong epidemiological evidence but also with supporting evidence from animal and mechanistic studies. As of March 2021, there have been 129 evaluations for Group 1 carcinogens.Agents Classified by the IARC Monographs, Volumes 1–129 International Agency for Research on Cancer. Of the 116 evaluations as of July 2016, 67 (58%) could be regarded as being from naturally-occurring chemicals, activities, or exposure situations.List of classifications, Volumes 1–116 International Agency for Research on Cancer (archived from July 29, 2016).
This is an imperfect count of natural carcinogens, but it nonetheless shows that natural is not inherently "good" and synthetic is not inherently "bad". The latter is the case because several synthetic cancer treatment drugs are effective in treating cancer but also carry a usually smaller risk of causing cancer. There is some redundancy in the table, e.g., several types of radiation exposures have separate evaluations even though the mechanism of carcinogenesis is basically the same, which could be considered a type of double counting. The question of what is and is not natural is not always clear-cut, e.g., tanning beds seem synthetic, but the mechanism of carcinogenesis is the same as that of natural Sun exposure.
IARC Human Carcinogen 	Exposure 	Natural/Synthetic
Acetaldehyde associated with consumption of alcoholic beverages 	Beverage 	Natural
Acheson process, occupational exposure associated with 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Acid mists, strong inorganic 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Aflatoxins 	Food 	Natural
Alcoholic beverages 	Beverage 	Natural
Aluminium production 	Occupational 	Synthetic
4-Aminobiphenyl 	Occupational/Tobacco 	Natural
Areca nut [a.k.a., betel nut, Areca catechu] 	Food/Herbal Medicine 	Natural
Aristolochic acid 	Herbal Medicine 	Natural
Aristolochic acid, plants containing [Aristolochia genus] 	Herbal Medicine 	Natural
Arsenic and inorganic arsenic compounds 	Occupational/Beverage 	Natural
Asbestos (all forms) 	Occupational/Air 	Natural
Auramine production 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Benzene 	Various 	Natural
Benzidine 	Occupational 	Natural
Benzidine, dyes metabolized to 	Occupational 	Natural
Benzo[a]pyrene 	Various 	Natural
Beryllium and beryllium compounds 	Occupational 	Natural
Betel quid with tobacco 	Drug/tobacco 	Natural
Betel quid without tobacco 	Drug 	Natural
Bis(chloromethyl)ether; chloromethyl methyl ether 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Busulfan 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
1,3-Butadiene 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Cadmium and cadmium compounds 	Occupational/Air 	Natural
Chlorambucil 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
Chlornaphazine 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
Chromium (VI) compounds 	Occupational/Air 	Natural
Clonorchis sinensis (infection with) 	Infection 	Natural
Coal, indoor emissions from household combustion of 	Heating 	Natural
Coal gasification 	Occupational 	Natural
Coal-tar distillation 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Coal-tar pitch 	Occupational 	Natural
Coke production 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Cyclophosphamide 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
1,2-Dichloropropane 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Diethylstilbestrol 	Drug 	Synthetic
Engine exhaust, diesel 	Air 	Synthetic
Epstein-Barr virus 	Infection 	Natural
Erionite 	Occupational/Air 	Natural
Estrogen-only menopausal therapy 	Drug 	Natural
Estrogen therapy, postmenopausal 	Drug 	Natural
Estrogen-progestogen menopausal therapy 	Drug 	Natural
Estrogen-progestogen oral contraceptives 	Drug 	Natural
Ethanol in alcoholic beverages 	Beverage 	Natural
Ethylene oxide 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Etoposide 	Cancer treatment 	Semi-synthetic
Etoposide in combination with cisplatin and bleomycin 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
Fission products, including strontium-90 	Occupational, etc. 	Synthetic
Fluoro-edenite fibrous amphibole 	Occupational 	Natural
Formaldehyde 	Various 	Natural
Haematite mining 	Occupational 	Natural
Helicobacter pylori 	Infection 	Natural
Hepatitis B virus (chronic infection with) 	Infection 	Natural
Hepatitis C virus (chronic infection with) 	Infection 	Natural
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (infection with) 	Infection 	Natural
Human papillomavirus types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 	Infection 	Natural
Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I 	Infection 	Natural
Ionizing radiation (all types) 	Various 	Natural
Iron and steel founding (occupational exposure during) 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Isopropyl alcohol manufacture using strong acids 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus 	Infection 	Natural
Leather dust 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Lindane 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Magenta production 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Melphalan 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
Methoxsalen (8-methoxypsoralen) plus ultraviolet A radiation 	Drug 	Natural
Methyl-CCNU 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
4,4'-Methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) (MOCA) 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Mineral oils, untreated or mildly treated 	Occupational/Food 	Natural
MOPP and other combined chemotherapy including alkylating agents 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
2-Naphthylamine 	Occupational/Tobacco 	Natural
Neutron radiation 	Various 	Natural
Nickel compounds 	Occupational/Air 	Natural
N'-Nitrosonornicotine (NNN) and 4-(N- Nitrosomethylamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) 	Tobacco 	Natural
Opisthorchis viverrini (infection with) 	Infection 	Natural
Outdoor air pollution 	Air 	Synthetic
Outdoor air pollution, particulate matter in 	Air 	Synthetic
Painter (occupational exposure as a) 	Occupational 	Synthetic
3,4,5,3’,4’-Pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-126) 	Various 	Synthetic
2,3,4,7,8-Pentachlorodibenzofuran 	Various 	Synthetic
Phenacetin 	Drug 	Synthetic
Phenacetin, analgesic mixtures containing 	Drug 	Synthetic
Phosphorus-32, as phosphate 	Drug 	Natural
Plutonium 	Nuclear energy/Nuclear weapons	Synthetic
Polychlorinated biphenyls 	Various 	Synthetic
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs 77, 81, 105, 114, 118, 123, 126, 156, 157, 167, 169, 189)	Various 	Synthetic
Radioiodines, including iodine-131 	Various 	Natural
Radionuclides, alpha-particle-emitting, internally deposited 	Various 	Natural
Radionuclides, beta-particle-emitting, internally deposited 	Various 	Natural
Radium-224 and its decay products 	Various 	Natural
Radium-226 and its decay products 	Various 	Natural
Radon-222 and its decay products 	Various 	Natural
Rubber manufacturing industry 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Salted fish, Chinese-style 	Food 	Natural
Schistosoma haematobium (infection with) 	Infection 	Natural
Semustine 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
Shale oils 	Occupational 	Natural
Silica dust, crystalline, in the form of quartz or cristobalite 	Occupational 	Natural
Solar radiation 	Various 	Natural
Soot (as found in occupational exposure of chimney sweeps) 	Occupational 	Natural
Sulfur mustard 	Chemical warfare 	Synthetic
Tamoxifen 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin 	Various 	Synthetic
Thiotepa 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
Thorium-232 and its decay products 	Various 	Natural
Tobacco, smokeless 	Tobacco 	Natural
Tobacco smoke, second-hand 	Tobacco 	Natural
Tobacco smoking 	Tobacco 	Natural
ortho-Toluidine 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Treosulfan 	Cancer treatment 	Synthetic
Trichloroethylene 	Various 	Synthetic
Ultraviolet radiation (wavelengths 100-400 nm, encompassing UVA, UVB, and UVC) 	Various 	Natural
Ultraviolet-emitting tanning devices 	Tanning devices 	Synthetic
Vinyl chloride 	Occupational 	Synthetic
Wood dust 	Occupational/Air 	Natural
X- and Gamma-Radiation 	Various 	Natural
In an analysis of chemicals tested for carcinogenicity in rodents at high doses, 57% of naturally-occurring chemicals were found to be carcinogenic vs. 60% of synthetic chemicals.Misconceptions About the Causes of Cancer by Gold, L.S., Ames, B.N., and Slone, T.H. (2002). In: Human and Environmental Risk Assessment: Theory and Practice (D. Paustenbach, ed.) John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471147478. pp. 1415-1460 (archived from December 11, 2019).
=="Playing God"==
Inevitably, whenever someone does something involving living things, someone else will call them out for "playing God". It's unclear why anything short of creating universes and tinkering with their inhabitants amounts to "playing God". It's also unknown why "playing God" (a supposedly all-benevolent creator of everything that is good) is a bad thing.
==See also==
==External links==
*"The ‘Appeal to Nature’ Fallacy: Why Natural Isn’t Always Better"
*Sense About Science - Making Sense of Chemical Stories (pdf)
*"Natural", The Skeptic's Dictionary
*"Appeal to Nature", Fallacy Files
*The Plant vs Pharmaceutical False Dichotomy, Steven Novella.
*Your logical fallacy is appeal to nature, YLFI
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Alternative medicine
Category:Arguments against evidence-based medicine
Category:Fallacious arguments
Category:Homophobia 
Category:Informal fallacies
Category:Nature woo
Category:Transphobia
ru:Натуралистическая ошибка