no there highly nutritious, they are a highly recommended in a lot of countries they use them for numerous aliments, i use it to bring my vitamine lvl up to top output, imake tea or eat them raw or i fry them up and use it in my stir fry, they may be a tad bitter but it's soooooooo worth it , i feel the energy benefits in a few mintes of eating, and it's very useful if your a hiker like me you will need the calories trust me, energy boost in a pinch, but if you eat the stems you will crap a lot, good for detox, look at the pos i put up (huge *** list of book marks) and the dandelion info will be there read about it and try it out, you can't get hurt in anyway by ingesting this plant, unless you eat 40 pounds in 1 sitting then you have a problem. but all in all it's safe and the uses for this plant is huge