Bronze-level articleFood woo

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*[[Breatharianism]]
 
*[[Breatharianism]]
:Breatharianism states that one can just live on air. How stupid and dangerous this is can not be overstated, most people who claim to be able to do it actually cheat and eat lots of food. The only fair, scientific test done on it was terminated early because the subject (who claimed it was possible) was going to die.
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:Breatharianism states that one can just live on air. The stupidity and dangerousness of this notion cannot be overstated, and most people who claim to be able to live on air it actually cheat and eat lots of food. The only fair, scientific test done on breatharianism was terminated early because the subject (who claimed it was possible) was going to die.
 
*[[Autism: Peddling false hope|Autism]] and ADHD diets
 
*[[Autism: Peddling false hope|Autism]] and ADHD diets
:While there is some evidence that good food will help children in school (in reality it's just that ''bad'' food is detrimental) vitamin pills or certain foods have no evidence behind them being able to "cure" autism or ADHD.
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:While there is some evidence that good food will help children in school (in reality, it's just that ''bad'' food is detrimental), there is no evidence that vitamin pills or certain foods are able to "cure" autism or ADHD.
 
*[[Kombucha]]
 
*[[Kombucha]]
 
:Some form of weird fungus (not the algae the name suggests) food. Mentioned in the System Of A Down song ''Sugar'', which, judging by the lyrics, was probably written shortly after consuming the stuff.
 
:Some form of weird fungus (not the algae the name suggests) food. Mentioned in the System Of A Down song ''Sugar'', which, judging by the lyrics, was probably written shortly after consuming the stuff.

Revision as of 07:23, 30 May 2010

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Food woo is the promotion or prohibition of certain foods for reasons that have little to do with anything scientific, like evidence that such a diet works. Such promotion/prohibitions are sometimes of a religious nature, but usually relate to some sort of quackery. As food is an important part of everyone's life, everyone is susceptible to food woo, whether it be a health scare or fad diet and it sometimes takes a lot of thought to determine what advice is genuine and healthy and what is just someone pulling ideas out of their rectum in order to sell more books.

Contents

Diets

These are usually characterized as promoting one type of food (or even just one foodstuff, like cabbage) over others. These produce extremely unbalanced diets that are at best unhealthy and at worst quite dangerous. They are usually endorsed by celebrities who pass on the secret knowledge of their diet to their less attractive and fat counterparts in the real world.
There is no evidence that you should eat a particular diet based on your blood type. However, because food is important and blood is important, people assume that they must be linked.
This is a belief that cooking or any kind of processing "kills" the nutirents in food, this includes juicing and using unpasteurized milk.
This expands the concept of "ying" and "yang" to food and is all about "balance".
Some people have bodies that will bulk up. Some people won't. And others just won't accept this so will rely on a lot of fads and woo to build their muscles.
A trans-fat-free, cholesterol-free shortening, and just about the healthiest option other than palm oil (or coconut mixed with a lighter oil)... for shortening. Adding shortening where not needed, using shortening in place of lighter oils rape oil, and spooning it from the can may not be the way to perfect health.

People (woomeisters)

See also nutritionists
Referred to as "the awful poo lady" by columnist Ben Goldacre, she was recently told to stop using her titles as "doctor" and "PhD" because they were worthless.
Purveyor of an awesome haircut and a few books that question current scientific consensus on AIDS.

Sheer lunacy

Food is good to woo with.
Breatharianism states that one can just live on air. The stupidity and dangerousness of this notion cannot be overstated, and most people who claim to be able to live on air it actually cheat and eat lots of food. The only fair, scientific test done on breatharianism was terminated early because the subject (who claimed it was possible) was going to die.
While there is some evidence that good food will help children in school (in reality, it's just that bad food is detrimental), there is no evidence that vitamin pills or certain foods are able to "cure" autism or ADHD.
Some form of weird fungus (not the algae the name suggests) food. Mentioned in the System Of A Down song Sugar, which, judging by the lyrics, was probably written shortly after consuming the stuff.

Scares

An artificial sweetener that is considered safe to use, but it has promoted some cancer scares. Televangelist Pat Robertson, of all people, is one of Aspartame's most vocal critics. He claims that the human body converts Aspartame into formaldehyde, that it will make you obese (because many diet soda drinkers still get fat),[1] and that it will damage your memory and may give you Alzheimer's disease.[2]
Urban legends and myths that conola oil was dangerous were spread, the oil is actually no more dangerous than any other oil; i.e., if you eat too much of it, you'll get sick, if you manage to set it on fire, you'll get burned, if you inhale it... etc. etc.
Glutimates (or glutamic acid) occur naturally in many foods, and can be manufactured artificially and stabilised with salt to form MSG, which is widely used to enhance the flavour of processed foods, and in Asian cuisine. In recent decades, MSG has been the subject of repeated food scares in the west, and blamed for various ailments ranging from headaches to asthma to depression to hyperactivity. These reports usually rely on anecdotal evidence, while objective tests have usually concluded that MSG is harmless at the levels contained within foods.[3]

Packaging propaganda

Food manufacturers often dedicate large portions of their packaging labels to sell you on the premise that their box full of salt and sugar is somehow better for your health than their competitor's box full of salt and sugar. Some examples are:

  • "Whole grain": While this may be true for Grapenuts, you might want to question this if it's on a box of Froot Loops. (Even if it's true, junk food doesn't stop being junk food because it has extra vitamins in it.)
  • "Less sugar": If the manufacturer reduces the sugar in a kilogram of food from 400 grams to 300 grams, they can claim a 25 percent reduction in sugar. But the total sugar content of the food (by weight) is still 30 percent.
  • "Boosts immunity": This label started appearing on boxes of Kellogg's Krispies cereal line[4] in October, 2009. No doubt, this was in response to the swine flu panic that had been building all year.[5] Paraphrasing one nutritionist interviewed about this, you could add those vitamins to bark dust and make the same "immunity" claim.

Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism is not woo in and of itself, but is a component of a great many woo-based food plans, and as a result has long had a reputation for being an eccentricity. It's widely accepted that vegetarians tend to be healthier, although this is not due to the lack of meat as is claimed, particularly by those who do it for animal rights reasons. The health effects of a vegetarian diet is an example of confounding variables, where cause and effect are difficult to derive because of the number of possible causes. Vegetarians, as the name suggests, tend to eat far more vegetables and fruits (which are good and healthy foods, recommended for everyone) and won't be tempted to scarf down anything that claims to be "meat" from the kebab van at 2 AM while drunk. Thus, health benefits are most likely to arise from this, and such healthy effects can be seen in meat-containing diets if they are properly balanced. People who avoid meat, but substitute for it with other fatty (although vegetarian) foods like cheese or oil soaked products experience the same poor health as meat eaters who rely on McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

See also

External links

  • "Health Food ... or Health Fraud?" Discusses packaging propaganda for foods that are not really healthy. E.g. "Is Frankenberry really a whole grain cereal?" (MSN reprint of a Men's Health article.)

Footnotes

  1. Diet sodas may play a role in the obesity epidemic. But what about the other chemically processed, hormonally enhanced "foods" that obese people eat?
  2. "Sugar Substitutes: Healthy or Deadly?" CBN News website, 17 July 2009, accessed 6 November 2009.
  3. Alex Renton, ["If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache?"], The Observer, 10 July 2005.
  4. I.e., Rice Krispies, Cocoa Krispies, and Frosted Krispies.
  5. "Kellogg's Immunity Claims Draw Fire" CBS News website, 3 November 2009, accessed 6 November 2009.


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