Laudator Temporis Acti

From BigHominid:

Some of my coworkers ate the taco salad I'd made (originally for my students, as it's the end of the semester and I'd promised to cook for them). Later on, two coworkers complained of nausea, and I freaked. I had also eaten the taco salad, but had suffered no ill effects. I'm hoping I didn't accidentally kill my colleagues, who are all fairly young and deserve the chance to live out their natural lives without fear of suffering a vomitous, diarrhetic demise.

By constant exposure to his own food, BigHominid could be immune from any of its ill effects. Mithridates the Great (120-63 B.C.), king of Pontus, also known as Mithridates VI Eupator Dionysus, gave himself poison in small doses, which supposedly immunized him against larger amounts.

Justin, Epitome 37.2.4-6 (tr. John Selby Watson):

During his boyhood his life was attempted by plots on the part of his guardians, who, mounting him on a restive horse, forced him to ride and hurl the javelin; but when these attempts failed, as his management of the horse was superior to his years, they tried to cut him off by poison. He, however, being on his guard against such treachery, frequently took antidotes, and so fortified himself, by exquisite preventives, against their malice, that when he was an old man, and wished to die by poison, he was unable.

puer tutorum insidias passus est, qui eum fero equo inpositum equitare iacularique cogebant; qui conatus cum eos fefellissent supra aetatem regente equum Mithridate, veneno eum appetivere. quod metuens antidota saepius bibit et ita se adversus insidias, exquisitis tutioribus remediis, stagnavit ut ne volens quidem senex veneno mori potuerit.

Pliny, Natural History 25.3.5-6 (tr. John Bostock and H.T. Riley):

Mithridates, the most powerful monarch of that period, and who was finally conquered by Pompeius, is generally thought to have been a more zealous promoter of discoveries for the benefit of mankind, than any of his predecessors -- a fact evinced not only by many positive proofs, but by universal report as well. It was he who first thought, the proper precautions being duly taken, of drinking poison every day; it being his object, by becoming habituated to it, to neutralize its dangerous effects. This prince was the first discoverer too of the various kinds of antidotes, one of which, indeed, still retains his name; and it is generally supposed that he was the first to employ the blood of the ducks of Pontus as an ingredient in antidotes, from the circumstance that they derive their nutriment from poisons.

namque Mithridates, maximus sua aetate regum, quem debellavit Pompeius, omnium ante se genitorum diligentissimus vita fuisse argumentis, praeterquam fama, intellegitur. uni ei excogitatum cotidie venenum bibere praesumptis remediis, ut consuetudine ipsa innoxium fieret; primo inventa genera antidoti, ex quibus unum etiam nomen eius retinet; illius inventum, sanguinem anatum Ponticarum miscere antidotis, quoniam veneno viverent.

In reality, I'm sure BigHominid's taco salad was healthy as well as delicious. I've seen photos of his culinary accomplishments on his blog, and my mouth watered at the sight. On the other hand, I'd stay away from his corn and peanuts (see the left sidebar of his blog post).