If it's artificial,, it can't be great,,,right?

diannethegeek

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

diannethegeek wrote: »

For me, personally, I find that reducing the argument all the way down to "artificial must equal bad" becomes unhelpful. I prefer to focus on actual ingredients than throw out an entire category just because they weren't pulled directly from the Earth with your bare hands. There are some artificial things I eat and some I won't, but I know why I'm choosing them and what I'm looking for on a label.

For instance, I'm convinced by the science that artificially made trans fats are probably bad for me and I avoid them (made easier by the fact that almost every manufacturer has removed them now).

On the flip side, I've seen the studies for bacon as a carcinogen and while I believe the information is accurate, I don't think it's enough of a risk factor for me to worry about. I still eat bacon about as frequently as I did before.

I don't like the taste of sucrose, so if I'm buying something like canned fruit I will opt for the kind packed in fruit juice instead of the "light" sucrose syrup variety. It's not that I don't trust sucrose, I just don't like it.

On the flip side, I don't mind the taste of aspartame and I've seen the research on it. I know what my risks are and I'm not concerned about them for me personally. I have about one diet soda a day with my afternoon snack because I find it curbs my cravings and increases the chances that I'll stick to my diet.

Knowing the risks of a particular food or ingredient, imo, is far far more important than fearing everything unnatural. I don't take a lot of painkillers, but I do take my allergy medicine and antidepressants because the risk vs. reward there makes sense for me. Another person might make different choices, but if they're informed choices and not just fear of the unnatural then great. We're all adults here.

tl;dr: Information is good. Don't avoid it.

For clarification: did you mean sucralose? Because that I avoid. Can't stand the aftertaste.

Yes, sucralose is why I meant

PaulaWallaDingDong

diannethegeek wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

diannethegeek wrote: »

For me, personally, I find that reducing the argument all the way down to "artificial must equal bad" becomes unhelpful. I prefer to focus on actual ingredients than throw out an entire category just because they weren't pulled directly from the Earth with your bare hands. There are some artificial things I eat and some I won't, but I know why I'm choosing them and what I'm looking for on a label.

For instance, I'm convinced by the science that artificially made trans fats are probably bad for me and I avoid them (made easier by the fact that almost every manufacturer has removed them now).

On the flip side, I've seen the studies for bacon as a carcinogen and while I believe the information is accurate, I don't think it's enough of a risk factor for me to worry about. I still eat bacon about as frequently as I did before.

I don't like the taste of sucrose, so if I'm buying something like canned fruit I will opt for the kind packed in fruit juice instead of the "light" sucrose syrup variety. It's not that I don't trust sucrose, I just don't like it.

On the flip side, I don't mind the taste of aspartame and I've seen the research on it. I know what my risks are and I'm not concerned about them for me personally. I have about one diet soda a day with my afternoon snack because I find it curbs my cravings and increases the chances that I'll stick to my diet.

Knowing the risks of a particular food or ingredient, imo, is far far more important than fearing everything unnatural. I don't take a lot of painkillers, but I do take my allergy medicine and antidepressants because the risk vs. reward there makes sense for me. Another person might make different choices, but if they're informed choices and not just fear of the unnatural then great. We're all adults here.

tl;dr: Information is good. Don't avoid it.

For clarification: did you mean sucralose? Because that I avoid. Can't stand the aftertaste.

Yes, sucralose is why I meant

Oh. Phew. I was gonna say "I love sucrose! "

stevencloser

nokanjaijo wrote: »

My understanding is that the aspirin found in CVS is artificial. They don't use willow tree leaves to make it.

Insulin injections for diabetics are also artificially made.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

By that logic is "natural" good? Arsenic is natural, so is botulism.

Jruzer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature

StealthHealth

nokanjaijo wrote: »

My understanding is that the aspirin found in CVS is artificial. They don't use willow tree leaves to make it.

It's the same molecule though. It is just that the commercial aspirin that you buy in the pharmacy will have been synthesized. This, means that it would be much, much cheaper than one extracted from a plant source, but also, would probably be more pure (lower impurities profile) since to clean up extracted plant material would involve multiple stages of detailed processing with analysis at each stage (because of the inherent variability of natural raw materials).

Ironic then that the "natural" version of aspirin would have to be very highly "processed" to be an acceptable version of the synthetic product.

So it seems that in this instance you can have "artificial" or "natural but highly processed" - but, unless you're willing to chew on a lump of willow bark you can't have "natural and unprocessed".