Things food snobs are wrong about
“Organic” isn’t better for you or for the environment. It actually means nothing of any significance at best and is sometimes even the more wasteful, more hazardous option.
A shitload of “natural” food including a lot of imported produce is grown and harvested through slave labor in inhumane conditions.
Pizza, fried chicken, french fries, fast food, candy bars and chips ARE nutritious. They are loaded with good things. Just because they have an abundance of excess fats and might not be healthy as a staple doesn’t mean they are “nutritionless” or that their calories are “empty.” Those are hokey buzzwords pushed by the people in charge of how much you pay for the alternatives.
Eating healthier costs more. Much more. Looking down on people for their reliance on cheaper food is extremely classist and expecting everyone to be able to live off fresh veggies and cage-free meats is insultingly unrealistic in the modern world.
“Processed” literally only means the food went through some kind of automated process. This can be literally the exact same thing a human being would have done to the food for it to be labeled “unprocessed.” Being processed does not make something less healthy.
Chemicals with long, scary names are part of nature. An apple is full of compounds you probably can’t pronounce. A shorter ingredients label only means they didn’t bother listing all 300 things the product is actually made of and HAS to be made of.
Preservatives, artificial flavors and other additives are not the devil. Most are harmless and in general they are part of the reason you haven’t already starved to death or died of a food borne illness.
MSG is not bad for you at all.
The fact that something might be made of “scrap” meats like pig snouts or chicken necks only means one thing: that we didn’t waste perfectly normal, edible meat.
I DON’T KNOW HOW I FORGOT THIS IN MY FIRST VERSION OF THIS POST BUT GMO’S ARE NOT DANGEROUS TO EAT. GMO’S ARE SAVING LIVES. YOU’VE ALREADY EATEN GMO’S BEFORE YOU EVEN KNEW THE TERM. IT’S FINE. EAT THEM.
So I’ve literally done this twice before and so have several other people but here are sources on all of these, most of them fairly recent academic studies or otherwise the most up-to-date I could find:
Organic food isn’t better for you: [1] [2] [3]
Tracing food industry slave labor: [1]
Healthier food is more expensive: [1] [2]
Saturated fats (i.e. “junk food”) still provide needed energy, aren’t as bad as people thought: [1] [2]
“Processed” isn’t synonymous with less healthy, because it means a lot of different things: [1]
“Chemicals” also means a lot of things and many food components are misunderstood by the general public: [1]
MSG is not harmful: [1] [2] [3]
GMO’s are not dangerous to eat: [400 sources collected here]
“Processed” always gets me, it’s like yeah even that delicious homemade salsa you brought to the party is processed - the moment you took a knife to the tomatoes it underwent processing
I mean every domesticated plant and animal species is genetically modified by definition. If it isn’t wild flora and fauna free from human-directed genetic influence (like selective breeding) then it’s genetically modified.
There should be a lot more nuance here, I can't quite address it all.
Organic foods are often much safer, it just depends on the product. Glyphosate is a proven carcinogen, and organic products are grow without having glyphosate applied. Unfortunately the pesticide can leach through the soil and be carried by the wind from neighboring fields, but it does still mean organic crops have significantly less glyphosate than non organic ones. This is one example, I would make a similar arguement about the use of growth hormones. It is very unfortunate that if an organic cow is sick, giving it anti biotics means it is no longer organic and must go to another farm. Anti biotics should be used selectively, not witheld.
MSG might not be a dangerous chemical but it functions like salt in our diet. Too much of it and it can cause high blood pressure especially because it has to be used in conjunction with salt for it to not taste wierd.
When people talk about GMOs they are generally refering to transgenic organisms, ones that have genes from other species spliced into their DNA. It is usually pretty simple and harmless but there are multiple cases of gene splicing that have resulted in human illness and animal cruelty, such as with phospho pigs. Transgenic crops and stock animals haven't been around for more than a decade or two and we still don't know the long term effects on our bodies and the environment. I believe most GMOs are important additions to farmers' portfolio but it would be naive to say there is no risk and we know everything. GMOs should be labeled at least.
That comment about foods like fries and pizza is a lot to tackle. I agree its fine to eat, especially if you've had all your micros and fiber in a day. I eat a good amount of fried foods just to get enough calories as a poor vegetarian. Maybe mention eating saturated fats, salt, and starch in moderation, especially considering the number of notes.
