“I just said I was taking care of my health… but the poison was building up?”
Even good things can become poisonous if eaten wrong!
Professor Lee Kwang-ryeol shares his essential chemistry knowledge for survival.

KAIST Department of Life Sciences and Korea University College of Medicine professors strongly recommend
Professor Lee Kwang-ryeol's new book, "Suspicious Chemistry for the Lazy"

Is there anyone who isn't interested in health?
We pay attention to information about healthy foods and nutritional supplements, exercise even when it's difficult, and get checkups when necessary, all in our own way, taking care of our health.
However, there are more cases than you might think where something eaten or applied to the body because it is said to be good for the body actually acts as poison.
Have you ever heard of drinking milk or juice right after taking medication to avoid heartburn, taking supplements, nutritional supplements, or medication all at once, or of applying mango peel as a facial mask, or of believing that eating vegetables raw is always the best way to stay healthy? If even one of these things resonates with you, you should definitely examine your lifestyle habits.


Professor Lee Kwang-ryeol of the Department of Chemistry at Korea University, known as the king of lazy people, has freed many people from 'housework' through his many books and lectures with delightful chemical tricks, and this time he has focused on 'health'.
In this book, "A Dizzying Chemistry Book for the Lazy," we learn how to actively avoid poisons that we often come across inadvertently in our daily lives, analyzed from a chemist's perspective, and even convey in-depth medical and chemical information, such as the principles of poisons and cells, in a uniquely witty writing style.
Part 1 of the text covers common but surprisingly toxic foods, foods that are individually healthy but dangerous when eaten together, food and medicine (or nutritional supplement) combinations, and cooking and eating methods that create poison.
For example, kidney beans are rich in protein, but eating them uncooked can cause toxic symptoms such as nausea or vomiting.
In addition, it specifically points out in which cases things we consume in our daily lives, such as grapefruit juice, insulin, and high blood pressure medication, can be poisonous or medicinal.
As you read the book, you may find yourself sighing, “I was rushing the order!” or “I was eating this good thing wrong!”


Part 2 explains what toxins are and the mechanisms by which they damage DNA within cells.
The author's insight, gained through decades of research in chemistry and a keen interest in healthy living, sets this book apart from existing health books and is beneficial in that it corrects misconceptions about toxins and detoxification.
It is rich in essential medical knowledge as well as chemistry, so the whole family can read it together, from medical school students, pharmacy students, and science and engineering students to their parents.
This will be the one and only chemistry textbook that is essential for all of us who want to live healthy lives.

This book will teach those who are unsure of where poison is, the types of poison, and also tell you which foods and medicines should not be mixed together.
This knowledge will help you see through the fear marketing hype surrounding "detoxification" and help you see through the true nature of poison.
The world is a scary place filled with so many poisons.
But if you can see exactly where the danger lurks, it might not be so scary.
Therefore, I recommend that you acquire the knowledge that is essential for a safe and happy life, like a compass that helps you navigate away from poison.
--- From the "Prologue"

Although the poison of pufferfish is scary, people who want to eat pufferfish soup or spicy pufferfish stew eat it with water parsley or a drop or two of vinegar.
There's a story that's always told.
'We eat water parsley because the ingredients in water parsley detoxify the toxin in pufferfish.' 'The toxin in pufferfish, tetrodotoxin, is alkaline, so it can be neutralized with vinegar.' But let me be clear here.
There is no antidote to pufferfish venom.
Neither the components of water parsley nor the acidity of vinegar can detoxify or neutralize the poison of pufferfish.
Puffer fish used in cooking must not contain any remaining poison.

--- 「Chapter 1, Chapter 11.
From "Superstitions about Pufferfish"

Vitamins C and B are water-soluble vitamins.
Because it is water soluble, if you take too much, it will be excreted in your urine.
However, vitamin D is fat-soluble.
Vitamin D is fat-soluble, meaning it can be stored in the fat in our bodies.
If we consume too much vitamin D on a regular basis, this nutrient will remain in our bodies for a long time and begin to affect us.
You might think, "Wouldn't it be great if you had more of these nutrients in your body?" Unfortunately, vitamin D isn't something you can just hoard like the internal energy in a martial arts novel.
When too much vitamin D builds up in the body, it can act as a toxic agent, causing a variety of side effects, including insomnia, constipation, diarrhea, loss of appetite, dehydration, vomiting, fatigue, and tissue calcification.

--- 「Chapter 2, Section 2.
From "When Vitamin D Becomes Toxic"

Anyone who enjoys coffee knows this.
After drinking coffee, I feel the urge to urinate shortly after.
That's because the caffeine in coffee is a well-known diuretic.
After a cup of strong coffee, wouldn't you notice a faster rate of urine droplets? Since it takes time for the body to fully absorb vitamin C, you'll see more strong vitamin C urine droplets compared to when you don't drink coffee.
The reason we are told to wait about an hour after taking the vitamin C pill before drinking coffee is because some of the vitamin C will be lost through urine if you drink coffee right after taking the vitamin C pill.

--- 「Chapter 3, Section 3.
From “Why You Shouldn’t Take Coffee and Vitamin C Together”

We enjoy the taste of slow-acting poison sugar, use plastic containers that can leak endocrine disrupting hormones and shed microplastics that can cause cognitive impairment, eat anything raw thinking it's always good for us, eat a lot of food without knowing it's poisonous, eat spoiled meat thinking it's always good for us if it's preservative-free, eat puffer fish roe for the thrill, and take psychotropic drugs for pleasure.
Also, if it is good for the body, we eat it without considering the compatibility of food and medicine, and although pesticides are bad for the body, we think that vegetables from gardens that have not been treated with pesticides are unconditionally good, without knowing that PAHs, which cause cancer, accumulate on the leaves of plants.

--- 「Chapter 5, Section 1.
From “Transmission Route of Poison”

When money comes into your savings account, you become a little richer, and when money goes out of your account, you become a little poorer.
Phosphate molecules do just that.
The more phosphates attached to an adenosine molecule, the more energy is stored. The more they detach, the less energy the molecule holds. When phosphates detach from ATP or ADP molecules, energy is released. Breaking the PO bonds in ATP or ADP molecules releases energy, which is used to maintain body temperature, enable speech, movement, and other life functions.
All life on Earth survives by producing and using ATP.
Even mold and bacteria do this.
The more we look at life at the molecular level, the more we realize that everything is connected.
Isn't it really amazing?

--- 「Chapter 6, Section 5.
From "Life Energy Exchange Ticket Phosphate"