I guess it could help kill your gut bacteria.

if you don’t need penicillin does it actually help you at all?

No, it has virtually no chance to help you, and most probably can only hurt you.

First, it kills indiscriminately. If you're not sick, what are you killing? Your own healthy gut flora. That's what.

Second, what if you are slightly ill? Guess what? It still probably won't help. Doctors don't just throw penicillin at you in random amounts. They prescribe a specific dose that has been shown to be effective. Having one untested dose of unknown quantity isn't going to help.

Third, when you're given antibiotics, you are told to take it over a number of days, and to take the entire amount, even if you feel better. They do this for several reasons, but one of the reasons is that, if you only kill some of the bacteria, but not enough of them, the remaining bacteria have a small chance to evolve to become resistant to antibiotics. By taking antibiotics without the guidance of a doctor, you have a small chance of making yourself even more ill with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. I want to emphasize that this is a very small chance, but unlikely things will happen when given enough chances.

Tasted kind of limey with a subtle hint of grandma dustiness to me when I ate a slice without looking at it, I now thoroughly check the entire surface.

Hard cheeses, yes, if you cut well around it. Soft cheeses, not so much. This, of course, only applies to mold that the cheese grew after you bought it, and not any from its curing. How do you tell the difference? Devilish rhinoceros.

Just eat American cheese. That doesn’t mold cause it’s plastic.

Username checks out!

You actually died 6 years ago, this is purgatory.

For marmelade / jam / jelly it depends on the sugar contents. I don't know how much it has to be but if it has high enough sugar contents, you can indeed take off the mould generously and eat what is under it. That said - gross! Just don't let foods spoil. Buy what you need and plan ahead a bit.

If there is visible mold on a part of a surface, then it's reasonable to assume that a much larger part of that surface already has mold, it's just not visible yet. Bread is basically a sponge, the surface of a sponge is the entire sponge, so that mold can have spread everywhere in the bread.

I found this overview which looks right to me: https://www.eatingwell.com/article/91553/4-moldy-foods-you-can-eat-plus-which-foods-to-toss/

Should you be dead from eating mold? I suspect that it's a lottery with many factors: which types of molds that you have eaten, the quantities, your immune system, ... But keep at it and eventually you might win a price.

The rule is that if its soft food as bread or jelly, its all compromised and should be thrown. If its hard like cheese, you can cut the mold and consume since the mold probably didn't get that far inside

I used to be the same way, following the same thought process. Just cutting off the visible mold and a small area around it. I stopped after I got food poisoning from a restaurant and had to eat hospital food for a week. Then I started up again immediately after getting back home to my moldy food. Still no repercussions, that I can tell

Just mix it with the bologna mold and let them fight to the death.