Controversial stance, maybe?

darklord48

Arsenic is natural, should I be eating that?

Natural is the next sales word, just like putting "No sugar added" on things that never had sugar, or advertising "Fat Free" on foods like jello.

tlrunyon

"Primal" man as you call it actually lived to be over 100 years old :happy:

It's when all the junk started to be added to our wonderful food that the age expectancy has decreased.

But on another note, I read a sign at my chiropractor's office that read: "I'd rather risk the chance of wearing out than rusting out". So in the big picture, we'll just take good care of ourselves, not over eat, and keep moving.

aj_rock

To answer some statements... not gonna quote because that would take a lot of space.

Cigarette companies and junk food companies operate on a different basis than most. They concentrate on getting you to like their products DESPITE well known data that says they will kill you slowly. If milk was deadly, I doubt even the most hardcore milk drinkers would continue drinking it.

Pesticides and the like, while not good for us, is part of what keeps the food industry alive. I don't have any official sources off the top of my head, but if EVERYONE ate organic, natural food, then the worldwide food supply would go right down the sh***er. Pesticides, growth hormone, all that stuff has a net BENEFIT to the natural balance of things. Why? Because natural organic product gets DESTROYED by the very things that pesticide prevent! Most organic crops have very poor yield ratios because of this.

And man hasn't evolved it's eating system PERIOD in like, forever. If processed food was truly inedible, then the consequences would be a lot worse than an upset stomach or two.

Heatherbelle_87

I dont think he's encouraging unhealthy foods, I just think he's pointing out this marketing as "natural" doesnt necessarily make the food better for you. There are PLENTY of processed foods that are made with "natural ingredients" and about 5 preservatives that are not. There are NO FDA guidelines for certain marketing words yet. And basically, there's no need to push your food ideas on others, I like my periodic mac n cheese, it must be kraft, the blue box, and preferrably in shapes, yet 95% of the time I eat gluten free, cooked at home, fruits veggies and proteins.

bcattoes

This made me laugh as well, and yes you do have a point that food company's don't sell food to kill us and I do understand where your going with your rant, HOWEVER there are foods that are healthier than others and we must keep in mind that the westernized world is capitalist so therefore our health takes back seat to the dollar. Drinking a twelve pack of mountain dew may not kill you right away, but it doesn't do anything to help the body over the long run, and rots the teeth over time.

As for the pesticides comment agreed just rinse off your fruits and veggies before you eat them.

You can't rinse pesticides off food because with each spray the pesticide soaks into the soil and is then 'consumed' by the plant roots so that it becomes part of the plant.

I have read a lot startling and what I believe may be potentially dangerous stuff on this site. But for me, I like to follow the evidence. And most evidence points toward regular exercise and diet rich in fruits/vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins, with plant proteins included, and limiting saturated fat, but consuming moderate amounts of unsaturated. So that's what I do. I try to buy organic when it's avaiable and affordable but if it's not I buy the pesticide laden stuff.

Heatherbelle_87

Pesticides and the like, while not good for us, is part of what keeps the food industry alive. I don't have any official sources off the top of my head, but if EVERYONE ate organic, natural food, then the worldwide food supply would go right down the sh***er. Pesticides, growth hormone, all that stuff has a net BENEFIT to the natural balance of things. Why? Because natural organic product gets DESTROYED by the very things that pesticide prevent! Most organic crops have very poor yield ratios because of this.

you typed faster then me! and he's correct. Now given flooding and draught can still kill our crops organic or pesticide use (hello look at the midwest! and east right now!) but if we hadnt genetically augmented certain foods, there would be a much larger global hunger issue. That is undeniable.

Heatherbelle_87

ok so for all of you that despise pesticides, and given they are soaked into some foods, not just on the skin, can I ask, Do you drink tap water? straight from the tap? or a public drinking fountain?

MarlenaLB

Assuming that every big company has it out for your life makes no sense. They can't make money if their product killed people; it's in their best interest to feed you food that WON'T kill you.

... cigarette companies? hello??!
i mean there's just so much i can say in response to this. pesticides are used so that there is more product to be sold, period. because it makes more MONEY.

.... everything is about money. companies dont care about their customers. lets get real here..

obviously everything is relative, and no you wont DIE from eating a bag of cheetos once a week, but if you eat them all day every day it WILL negatively affect your health.

luckily its not my job or concern to convince anyone, so carry on lol

I agree. All natural is over used. Just because something is natural doesn't mean it is safe. Produce you can wash off so I think an apple is an apple. They put hormones in chickens so the will be full grown in just 6 weeks. The more chickens they sell the more money they make. So if the hormone does that to the chicken what do you think that it is going to do to you? No you may not die from the additives and hormones immediately but it def causes health problems. Cancer being a huge one.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

ok so for all of you that despise pesticides, and given they are soaked into some foods, not just on the skin, can I ask, Do you drink tap water? straight from the tap? or a public drinking fountain?

If I had another source I'd use it, the thought of consuming hormones and chemicles in my drinking water disgusts me. Unfortunately I don't live next to a mountain spring, so beggers can't be choosers.

hikeout470

A couple books that come to mind...

1. "Fast Food Nation"

2. "Seeds of Deception"

3. "Fats that heal, fats that kill"

I don't think the word natural has a legal definition when it comes to food, so I think it is important to use common sense and to educate yourself about our choices. If you think the foods you eat that are massed produced by big industry are produced primarily with your nutrition in mind, I would have to state that my opinion is you are kidding yourself. They put stuff in there that is just not right. You would be surprised!

Dragonwolf

While I agree that science has lengthened our lifespan, I think the means by which it has are also a double-edged sword.

For example, a large factor in our increased lifespan is from modern medicine. Things like vaccines, antibiotics, etc. However, because of these things, we're now getting strains that are resistant to our medicines and becoming "super bugs". We also leave significantly cleaner lives - to the point that our immune systems overreact to even the smallest thing, causing allergies to things that weren't as much of an issue in previous generations (such as the rise in peanut allergies).

On the less benign side, as dipsl19 mentioned, cigarette companies DO make a product that will kill you. They know this, and have known it for decades. That's why they have always marketed so hard toward younger people (to the point that in the US, it required government mandates to get them to stop).

The problem with a lot of the artificial stuff is that there is often inadequate long-term testing done on it before it's sent to market. DDT is a prime example of this. It was the greatest thing since sliced bread, until people realized that it's a bioaccumulating toxin that was killing off our raptor population.

And then there's Monsanto - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto , the company that loves playing Dr. Frankenstein with our foods. Again, it's not necessarily that it's going to kill us right now, but rather, that we don't know what it will do to us twenty years from now.

While I agree that a lot of the "organic!" hype is exactly that, there's still something to be said about the work mother nature has already done. So yes, a lot of what humanity does is technically "unnatural," but there's no point throwing the baby out with the bathwater by saying "most of what humanity does is unnatural, so why bother trying to go back to nature when it comes to our food?"

bry_all01

And then there's Monsanto - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto , the company that loves playing Dr. Frankenstein with our foods. Again, it's not necessarily that it's going to kill us right now, but rather, that we don't know what it will do to us twenty years from now.

did you REALLY quote from wikipedia?!?

_GlaDOS_

So many misinformed people...

odusgolp

Great topic...

First, Try to think back - when did Kraft Mac n' Cheese start hitting shelves containing Yellow Dye #5, Yellow Dye #6 and Tartrazine? When did taco seasoning begin to be sold with Silicone Dioxide? When did hamburger helper become popular hydrogenated oil, red dye 40, yellow dye 5 &6, Silicon Dioxide, Disodium Inosinate, & Disodium Guanylate? When did our animals - meats and dairy - begin containing growth hormones? Or what about good ol' MSC in your Lawry's Season Salt?

Were your grandparents raised on those foods? Were your parents? Or were you...

Most likely, unless your parents are still in their 30's or early 40's, It starts with YOU. And do we completely know the affects of living out of foods in a box rather than food from the farm which your grandparents were more likely raised on? I think we can all agree that there's really no definitive way to say we 100% know the long-term affects of these chemicals being added to our foods.

What we do know? For nearly a decade the affects of many of these additives ARE known and have been banned in the UK. Indeed, Kraft has been sending mac n' cheese over to Europe for years without the Yellow dyes and Tartrazine in it. It's fact. The UK banned it because of it's ill health affects on children long ago.

It is a known fact that many food dyes are carcinogenic. The cause hyperactivity in children. They believe there may be links to Autism and are researching. They provide no nutritional value. Yellow dye #6 has been found to cause adrenal gland and kidney tumors, and contains small amounts of many carcinogens. Red dye #3 is known to cause thyroid tumors.

How about Guanylate? Well, it's unsafe for babies under 12 months, unsafe for asthmatics, has known affects on sperm motility, and can be directly used as a pesticide. Also not allowed in the UK, btw. It provides no nutritional value.

Silicone Dioxide? Exact same thing that comes in a box of shoes. It's a plastic that absorbs moisture. Thusly a preservative - it allows that taco seasoning I mentioned to sit on the shelf for 5 years before the manufacturer has to scrap it. Should food really last for five years?? That same exact taco seasoning would last 1.5 years without the plastic in it.

Is eating any of this going to kill you tomorrow? Nope. Not unless you're very allergic or have a pre-existing medical condition that could be affected by it. But does that mean you should stock up and continue to eat all these pre-packaged foods? I would promote doing so only in moderation. Because the simple fact is, you don't know.

I'm not a purist.... but I also try not to be ignorant of the exponential growth of Autism, ADD, ADHD, etc in the US... which... is only occurring at this inflated rate in the US...

Did I mention that kids are going through puberty on average 13 months earlier than children did in 1991 according to statistics? In 20 years, we've shaved over a year off puberty and inflated the rate of precocious puberty - that's full blown puberty for 7 year olds....

But yeah, I'm sure it's just nature and not at all the changes in our diets <

---

*that was my sarcastic font*

odusgolp

I agree. All natural is over used. Just because something is natural doesn't mean it is safe. Produce you can wash off so I think an apple is an apple. They put hormones in chickens so the will be full grown in just 6 weeks. The more chickens they sell the more money they make. So if the hormone does that to the chicken what do you think that it is going to do to you? No you may not die from the additives and hormones immediately but it def causes health problems. Cancer being a huge one.

All ability to label something Natural is over-used because it's not very well regulated (Organic is much more regulated). And Natural and Organic are COMPLETELY separate issues.

And don't even get me started on chlorinated chickens *shivers*

Dragonwolf

And then there's Monsanto - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto , the company that loves playing Dr. Frankenstein with our foods. Again, it's not necessarily that it's going to kill us right now, but rather, that we don't know what it will do to us twenty years from now.

did you REALLY quote from wikipedia?!?

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1038_3-5997332.html

Wikipedia has been proven by numerous studies to be as reliable as any other encyclopedia, and in some cases (such as current events), it's actually superior because it can update faster. Also, in some circumstances, such as in highly controversial topics (arguably, such as Monsanto), it can even be the only unbiased source of information. If you still take issue with the information presented by the Wikipedia article I linked, you're more than welcome to peruse the 120+ sources that it cites.

odusgolp

While I agree that science has lengthened our lifespan, I think the means by which it has are also a double-edged sword.

For the record, we are the first generation expected to have a shorter life-span than our parents as well.

Qarol

Why DO we have dyes in food? Is the natural color of the food not good enough?

I took my younger brother to an indoor playground once where they sold Icees. But these had no color. They were literally the color of crushed ice. They just omitted the red dye. Fabulous!

odusgolp

The simple fact is that companies have started making natural alternatives affordable and SUPER easy. You CAN get Mac n cheese without the food dyes and I would encourage everyone to give it a try. It still really has no "nutritional goodness" - unbleached flower and cheeses *L* But at least you don't have to have the chemicals.

And, the original post said NATURAL, which is what I'm addressing. NOT Organic. They are two very VERY separate things.

odusgolp

They've also removed dyes from children's medications prescription and non. Pay attention and it's easy to get dye-free. Again, they know the negative affects - and are self-regulating. Yay.