Some of these toxins are merely repellent, like tannins; and others are frankly poisonous. I suggest that the animals in turn have evolved mechanisms that help them — including us — not merely to cope with the toxins but eventually to make use of them.

Many years ago the feature article in an issue of The New Scientist was devoted to this topic. In the article it was argued that by virtue of being chemically potent, toxins would be prime targets for evolution to co-opt and put to beneficial uses.

By “massaging” your genome just so, sulforaphane may increase your resistance to disease.

Eurgh. Mattson, you’re not smarter than evolution.

It’s not that being too sanitized is bad for you per se, it’s because the genome doesn’t expect it. The body saves the health-promoting processes for poisonous insults, because it can’t run them all the time.

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Obviously xenohormesis is also happening, not happening instead of. We share, what, 50% of our genes with plants? Something like that? If one of them is a stress signal, then proof over: xenohormesis happens.