Although I have no evidence, I have a theory about 'benign' particles in our system. Phil you mention excess anything is harmful and I believe that anything that our body ingests and can't use is harmful.
Clearly our body can't use silica. It can't be broken down. Even when ingested the only 'real' danger occurs from a possible laceration. If the particles were finely ground and rounded smooth then they would pass naturally.
However I would like to argue that it doeant merely pass as if it was never ingested. The energy out body consumes trying to digest it, check it for disease/virus, using enzymes and acid to try to break it down all take their toll. Cumulatively, the body is worse off. Only that which is beneficial leaves the body better off after its departure.
so in essence, since we all have some cancerous (mutated) cells, some apricot kernels would theoretically be excellent maintenance and any excess, regardless of how benign amygdalin may be without a cancerous enzyme, it still taxes the system. Taxes it like uncle Sam.
Dr D.,
I am along time student of a medical system called Ayurveda.
Ayurveda says that when you eat food there are certain rules on how to consume it. These rules are simple and yet complicated to follow and it would be difficult to get them all right, all the time.
So Ay. presents an alternative: periodic cleansings which they call Pancha Karma. These cleansings clean out the body of things that have accumulated in various places in the body, somewhat as you have alluded to in your mention of silica.
Ay. classifies these foreign debris as Ama or undigested food. Basically Ay says we have 72 digestive fires (Nowadays we call them chemical reactions) If something causes these digestive fires to dim or go out, then the food that would normally be digested (chemically reacted) remains either undigested or partially digested or over-digested. This ama can be observed in yourself or anyone by looking at various places in the body for signs, the easiest being a tongue diagnosis using colour, texture, smell position, movement, shape, etc...
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://ayurvedaposters.com/online/templatemedia/all_lang/resources/Tongue_diagnosis_18x24.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ayurvedaposters.com/shop/page/3?shop_param%3D&h=480&w=360&sz=177&tbnid=O9IwIDHhp2ycfM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=72&zoom=1&usg=__oqzZ9wnOyEXZUtNSroIs5LUR4Ro=&docid=H4gCIVPvHY5SyM&sa=X&ei=5G2zUdjYL8OniALc5IDwCQ&ved=0CDcQ9QEwAg&dur=3776http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.spinachandyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/mirror-tongue-diagnosis1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.spinachandyoga.com/ayurvedic-tongue-analysis/&h=1134&w=1384&sz=301&tbnid=vv4yFEoT2EwftM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=110&zoom=1&usg=__7YzSpl_NLp5eZ0nLC__S0iiY_yE=&docid=a-8jukxos4O2vM&sa=X&ei=5G2zUdjYL8OniALc5IDwCQ&ved=0CDEQ9QEwAA&dur=3574So if you have Ama in your GI Tract, over time it may manage to broach the intestinal walls and make it into the bloodstream, where it "goes with the flow", till it arrives at a place where it's movement is stopped, say by a damaged blood vessel or where capillaries are too small for it to proceed, or a weak area in the system such as a genetic issue etc..
There it stops, and eventually another bit of ama will join it and another till at some point it basically sludges up the works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atherosclerosis(I am leaving out detail here as it would fill a book)
Ama gradually blocks off blood flow to the area, causing the local and downstream cells to be starved and thus their ability to do what they do is compromised.
Another angleon what happens in the area where Ama builds up is explained roughly here,by Dr Jerry Tennant,a fellow with an impressive resume.
Dr Jerry Tennant on Healing is Voltage & Fulvic Acid Minerals (Eye Health)BTW if this buildup is allowed to persist for a very long time it can become a bit dangerous to take things (drugs, herbs, treatments, etc) that will dislodge the sludge in the event that it makes it's way to the heart causing big problems.If the person continues to eat whatever it is or do other things that create this Ama and do nothing to get rid of it like exercise, massage etc. then it builds to the point where the cells are into starvation mode and a part of the cell which Ay describes as being like your Mother (in that it unconditionally loves you and wants you to survive and thrive) goes into war mode and multiplies cells in that area at a rate beyond normal, because that is how it is programmed. (DNA)
Once you get to this stage, disease starts to manifest and it can be anything basically. Eventually it can become cancer. At the cancer stage Ay can only make you comfortable on your way to the great deli and happiness bar in the sky
Now having said all of this about that, I have discovered since starting to eat a raw diet that a lot of the food rules seem to go out the window. For instance my body type doesn't do well with Honey and prior to eating raw I could not handle honey at all. Ay also says to never heat honey as it will become toxic.
Now I eat lots of it and with raw butter, rather than Ghee which is (cooked) clarified butter.
Also I have to eat considerably less food which is probably related to the fact that since raw food has it's nutrient value still intact, you don't get that starving feeling you get on a cooked diet.
AY says that your body has a natural intelligence that knows when you have eaten too much and with raw food that intelligence tells me I can eat a heck of a lot less food.
When taking my Ay Practitioner course the teacher told a story that Ay was written down at the time in history when the people started moving out of the hills and onto the plains to start farming. The farming was better, in that starvation could be kept at bay, but the food produced was not healthy and the people started getting diseases. The Doctors at the time (around the time of JC and the gang of 12
) could see this happening, so they realized that their knowledge should be codified. This resulted in the Caraka Samhita, probably the most important of the various treatises on Ay to be written.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charaka_Samhita