6 ms·

I'm not overthinking it. I gave that as an example of people not thinking about food. The heuristic, even applied as you would prefer, is a poor one. I don't bu

I'm not overthinking it. I gave that as an example of people not thinking about food. The heuristic, even applied as you would prefer, is a poor one. I don't buy into the philosophy at all. Quick example, my mother-in-law (who is into all kinds of weird "food woo" (she's a drink-raw-milk-only, avoid-adrenal-stressing-foods, etc. kind of person) once handed me a some sort of baked good--a bread perhaps--and mentioned, "It has no preservatives." My quick, honest, reply was "bummer." She had meant to "no preservatives" as being a good thing, as lots of folks do. The thing is, preservatives are a GOOD thing (well, unless you're preserving your food with something known to be harmful). It means less food waste, and that you're less likely to be unknowingly eating (mildly) spoiled food. We have made missteps in our advancement in the production of food, and we as a whole don't eat as healthy of food as we should, but on the whole, modern agricultural practices are a good thing, as are some modern processing of food that people don't like because it's not "natural." I'm swayed by the preponderance of quality evidence on this, not anecdotes, intuition, and studies that represent noise in the data due to known problems with the generation of data.

leonroy 11y ago
I think some folk here are misinterpreting my original post (perhaps I wasn't clear enough). Neither I, nor I imagine Jack Lalanne were advocating we return to hunter gatherer foraging. Whilst Jack Lalanne's quote 'if man made it don't eat it' is simplistic it's basically saying go for the steak or the bag of salad leaves rather than the corn dog and powdered mash potato. This isn't about 'weird' foods like raw milk, or taking things to the nth-degree. It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it. As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. Does that mean I'm not gonna pepper my cod fillet, of course not. But I sure as heck am not going to buy a pre-battered pack of frozen 'fish fingers' given the choice!
- torgoguys 11y ago
  I understand your sentiment. I'm pushing back against it being expressed in terms that promote a naturalistic fallacy. Why? Various reasons, but one is because the naturalistic fallacy is actively harmful, not just as it applies to food. >This isn't about 'weird' foods like raw milk, or taking things to the nth-degree. It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it. As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. That's the thing. The first and last sentence of this quote run contrary to each other in the cited example. When we process raw milk by pasteurizing it, we are making it BETTER. We've tinkered with it, to use your word. "As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best" (emphasis added) is not necessarily true. (As an aside, there is nothing "weird" about raw milk other than your lack of exposure to it. I grew up in rural Wisconsin in the 1980s--as a kid, I've had plenty of raw milk. We all did living there. Heck, I used to milk cows and I once tried to see if I could squirt raw milk directly from the teat into my mouth at arms length--it doesn't get much fresher! As an adult, I avoid raw milk because I know better.) --- Related to battered fish, what's better (from a health standpoint): if you batter your own fish or you buy pre-battered fish? All else equal, most people would still say that as a matter of intuition will say that battering your own is better. If "feels" like the correct answer. But the real answer would be that it depends on what you battered it with and what the company battered it with. The reality is that many people who actively complain about "processed foods" are fine with the processing done as long as they are the ones doing it. Regardless of what the reality may be, a homemade noodle somehow feels healthier than a store bought one to those folks. (And yes, I realize my battered fish question isn't what your fish example was talking about at all. I just ran with it in a different direction and am not trying to misrepresent what you said).
  - collyw 11y ago
    When you process your own food, you have full control over it and what goes into it. I have no idea what they are putting into commercially processed foods, how long they are cooked for at what temperature. (Well I have an idea of what goes into chicken nuggets having watched Jamie Oliver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSoiDtdi9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSoiDtdi9s).
  - pc2g4d 11y ago
    Is the "naturalistic fallacy" really a fallacy? Is is it really just another of the many fallacious fallacies? I think there's logic to regarding more recent food innovations with greater skepticism. Same with many innovations. Over a shorter time period, the long-term consequences of the innovations have not yet become fully apparent. With things that have been used for thousands of years we can assume that had a long-term issue arisen, the food or practice would likely have been abandoned. Radium watches, DDT, hydrogenated vegetable oils, ....
- colordrops 11y ago
  I'm of the exact same dietary philosophy as yourself. I derived it through reading and experimentation before paleo was even a thing, as it appears Jack Lalanne did as well. Most people who attack a simple sensible diet like this are really just exposing their own insecurities and desire to not give up the crap they injest themselves.
  - victorhooi 11y ago
    Lol, this isn't to do with insecurities - more to do with science. I get that to many, science is a boogeyman - but come on, we're meant to be better than that on HN, since you know, so many of do actually have science backgrounds? My parents owned a sheep property growing up, and I went to an agricultural school - the whole point of modern agriculture, and husbandy pratcises is that we do intentional thinks to manipulate animals/plants, to be safer for us. Oh, and my wife is a veterinarian - and occasionally she gets crazies in, who think they can roadkill or dead wildlife - she's like, yeah, genius, great way to give yourself worms. And preserved foods is...well, just that - to preserve food. You know, like pasteurised milk? Humans have been preserving food for millennia - it's just that our techniques have evolved a bit more than "add salt, let it dry in the sun". I think many people might be equating junk food (i.e. sweets, chips etc.) with all modern foods - that's a logical fallacy. Food companies optimised for things consumers want - whether that's long shelf-life, for taste, for convenience etc. We are so incredibly lucky these days - that we have massive range of foodstuff - just make sure you read the food labels, and pick the foods you want. If convenience, or high-sweetness isn't what you want - then don't buy those products. Buy other products! Ultimately, corporates aren't some evil faceless entity - nor do I believe there's some mysterious conspiracy going on. They simply create what they think people will buy - and hence, make them money. But I agree with parent - the whole "eat stuff that humans haven't touched" is a bit of a stupid argument - it's like romanticising pre-historic men. In reality - they probably had hard, short lives, and were subject to parasites and infection constantly - a lot of it via the food they ate.
    - colordrops 11y ago
      You are attacking an invisible bogeyman you concocted yourself. No one said anything about being anti-science. Your reactionary stance is anti-science. I'm not sure what your wife's profession or crazies she met or anything else you've said has to do with the topic at hand. There are a thousand choices you can make when it comes to diet. It's not an all or nothing, democrat or republican, us vs them proposition. What the previous poster was getting at is that typically, for each choice you can make with your diet, a good rule of thumb is that the less processed a food is, the more likely it is to be better for you. That doesn't mean it's always true in every case, or that occasionally a bit of processed food will kill you, or whatever other straw man you are chasing after. In any case, there IS plenty of science backing up the negative health effects of processed foods: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sugar-increases-the-risk-of-dying-with-heart-disease-201402067021 http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sug... http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/diet-and-weight/ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesit... http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/22693-highly-processed-foods-linked-to-addictive-eating http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/22693-highly-processed-food... http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/world-health-organization-says-processed-meat-causes-cancer http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/world-health-organiza... http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/acrylamide-fact-sheet http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/di... http://www.ewg.org/research/bpa-canned-food http://www.ewg.org/research/bpa-canned-food http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/transfats/ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/transfats/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olestra#Side_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olestra#Side_effects Plenty of linked studies here as well: https://authoritynutrition.com/9-ways-that-processed-foods-are-killing-people/ https://authoritynutrition.com/9-ways-that-processed-foods-a... Do you have any science to back up your claims?
- Floegipoky 11y ago
  >> It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it While true, this isn't because humans are incapable of improving food. It's because the ways our species has been improving food recently have been driven by capitalism; we've been making it easier to grow and giving it more appealing taste so that it's easier to mass produce and sell. These qualities, especially the taste 'improvements', often result in significant reductions in nutritional quality. If Big Aggro were instead focusing on making our veggies more nutritious, I'm confident that they would succeed.
  - darkclarity 11y ago
    It got to a point where governments had to mandate that certain processed foods (e.g. bread, breakfast cereals) must contain extra vitamins and minerals - just to keep the population from damaging themselves.
  - brashrat 11y ago
    It's not driven by capitalism (any more than any transaction ever has been), it's driven by consumerism. Twinkies would not be manufactured or sold if people didn't like gobbling them up at the available price. Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) and simply blame your fellow citizens for being a bunch of idiots.
    - mordocai 11y ago
      It is driven by both capitalism and consumerism.
    - brenschluss 11y ago
      > Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) The market is an emergent phenomenon. A market is indeed made up of corporations which is made up of people, but this does not mean that "just made up of people" is an adequate answer.
      - brashrat 11y ago
- danmaz74 11y ago
  > As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. The problem is that these simplifications and generalizations are invariably broken. According to this, for example, raw meat should be better than cooked meat.
- takno 11y ago
  Fish fingers are nutritionally pretty good - low calorie, high protein, and freezing is a good way to preserve food without adding things you have to ask questions about. The cheaper ones also tend to use more sustainable fish, and mechanical recovery maximises yield from a scarce resource.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Do you seek out pre-domestication forms of fruits and vegetables, or do millennia of genetic engineering through selective breeding not count as "tinkering with it"?
- munificent 11y ago
  > the steak A carefully carved out subset of an animal that lived on a carefully maintained agricultural plot, fed a precisely calibrated diet, and slaughtered at a precisely chosen time. An animal of a special humans have been breeding and molding for thousands of years. > bag of salad leaves Again, species we have been cultivating and changing for so long that we would no longer recognize its original wild form. Lettuce is related to daisies. > It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it. That common sense makes no sense, why would we spend effort making things worse for ourselves? We tinker with things because it improves them. Sure, sometimes we don't discover the long term implications for a while (like with sugar), but in general, we cultivate and process because it makes things better. Cassava that isn't processed is poisonous, as are many beans. Eating most fish that isn't deep frozen or thoroughly cooked is a good way to get worms. The same would be true for beef and pork too, except that we humans have so carefully managed (tinkered with?) our livestock that we've eliminated most of their parasites. Given a choice between a package of heavily processed bacon from the grocery store, or a fresh chunk of wild boar meat that you hunted and killed yourself, which is better for you? Well, the latter is a hell of a lot more likely to give you trichinosis. > As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. So, like: Corn: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/images/relevance/Z_diplo_earsmall.jpg http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/images/relevance/Z_... Watermelon: https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CRPlJWtfmDnCTNMv02Cx1DSiaws=/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3962382/stanchiseeds.0.jpg https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CRPlJWtfmDnCTNMv02Cx1DSiaws... > I sure as heck am not going to buy a pre-battered pack of frozen 'fish fingers' given the choice! That's not because the fish fingers are unnatural, it's because they're made of shitty, cheap ingredients. Given the choice between, say, a nice cheese (a very heavily processed food involving a number of chemicals and months of human attention) versus finding a wild bee's nest and drinking all the honey, the former would be healthier for you, even assuming you don't get stung. If you want to eat things that are good for you, "natural", "unprocessed" or "free from human tinkering" are simply not useful signals. They're not even that well-defined.
specialist 11y ago
Then ignore (filter) the woo-woo au naturale fruit cakes. Every message gets distorted, perverted thru transmission. But sometimes there's some actual signal buried in all that noise. Also, modern food production is not an unqualified great thing. Too simplistically: We consumers are harmed when optimal food production techniques drive nutrition policy, vs human nutritional needs guiding food production. Over use of HFCS, soya, whey, etc has caused a great deal of human disease. It's now an expensive public health issue. What may cause you (intellectual) discomfort is when the woo-woos conflate health and environmental issues. Again, filters. And please remember that everyone's just trying to move forward best as they can. My mother also imparts some terrible, well intentioned advice. But it's not like I'm going to fix her misunderstandings. I just try to guide best as I can and lead by example.
logfromblammo 11y ago
You are overthinking it. It's sound-bite-sized dietary advice. The intent, I'm sure, is to advise people to avoid foods that have undergone an industrialized food-preparation process, to produce a shelf-stable product that can be shipped in cardboard boxes. As an aggregate, those foods are overwhelmingly prepared according to USDA and FDA recommendations, resulting in the very common replacement of fats with simple carbohydrates, addition of preservatives, and the use of additional additives to improve flavor and texture. That maxim is to be applied in the grocery store, while looking at the product in your hand. If it's a bag of potato chips, you look at it and think, "how is this made?" Then you are supposed to remove the boiling in oil and the slicing, and buy raw, whole potatoes instead. If it's a package of Oreos, you're supposed to read the ingredients, be horrified at the claim that it is food, and perhaps buy a nice, crisp apple instead. You're not going to achieve optimal nutrition with sound-bite-sized dietary advice, but if there isn't a lot of space left in your brain's on-die cache, it could help to avoid making the most horrible dietary decisions. But only if it is good bite-sized advice. If you decide to only eat "natural" foods, you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And also, you may have a bizarre and nonsensical concept of what is "natural". But it will probably stop you from eating the foods most highly suspected of causing health problems, such as those containing trans-fats, fructose, or poor Na:K or Ca:Mg proportions.
sametmax 11y ago
Yes, you are overthinking it. The statment clearly wasn't to be followed blindly, but just a reminder that processed food is generally the least quality food you can get. It's like trying to fight an add tag line with logic, it just doesn't make sense. We all know "number one in stuff" is not to be taken as is. Still, if you do avoid industrialy processed food, you usually see your health improved tremendously. TL;DR: don't be that guy : https://encrypted.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiZ1_Tijf3LAhVGORoKHZiYD-AQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2Fgallery%2FgRk1uZm&psig=AFQjCNEBHaJIdRkA7akWyzYb4F7PFfCWYg&ust=1460138457565477 https://encrypted.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source...
goda90 11y ago
On the other hand, what evidence supports the need to avoid "mildly spoiled food"? We could do with a bit of healthy skepticism over the seriousness of spoiling, expiration dates, defects, refrigeration, or molds and bacteria in our food. We'd probably save more food and maybe cut back on excessive sugar and salt intake(common preservatives) if we had a better understanding of what can and can't be eaten raw, rotten, and less than perfect.
- douche 11y ago
  The conception that salt is bad for us is, I think, ludicrous. Most of us are not eating even a smidgeon of the amount of salt that our ancestors would have eaten, when nearly all meats and fish not eaten immediately after slaughter were preserved literally caked in salt or brines.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    The connection to hypertension is pretty conclusive, at least for some portion of the population. Here's one article about it: http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/Trait-Salt-Sensitivity.php http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/Trait-Salt-Sensitivity.php Late life heart disease probably hasn't been a major factor in our evolution, but it's easy to sketch out how a lifetime of dietary choices that encouraged high blood pressure would have some impact in the last years.

leonroy 11y ago

I think some folk here are misinterpreting my original post (perhaps I wasn't clear enough). Neither I, nor I imagine Jack Lalanne were advocating we return to hunter gatherer foraging. Whilst Jack Lalanne's quote 'if man made it don't eat it' is simplistic it's basically saying go for the steak or the bag of salad leaves rather than the corn dog and powdered mash potato. This isn't about 'weird' foods like raw milk, or taking things to the nth-degree. It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it. As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. Does that mean I'm not gonna pepper my cod fillet, of course not. But I sure as heck am not going to buy a pre-battered pack of frozen 'fish fingers' given the choice!

torgoguys 11y ago
I understand your sentiment. I'm pushing back against it being expressed in terms that promote a naturalistic fallacy. Why? Various reasons, but one is because the naturalistic fallacy is actively harmful, not just as it applies to food. >This isn't about 'weird' foods like raw milk, or taking things to the nth-degree. It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it. As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. That's the thing. The first and last sentence of this quote run contrary to each other in the cited example. When we process raw milk by pasteurizing it, we are making it BETTER. We've tinkered with it, to use your word. "As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best" (emphasis added) is not necessarily true. (As an aside, there is nothing "weird" about raw milk other than your lack of exposure to it. I grew up in rural Wisconsin in the 1980s--as a kid, I've had plenty of raw milk. We all did living there. Heck, I used to milk cows and I once tried to see if I could squirt raw milk directly from the teat into my mouth at arms length--it doesn't get much fresher! As an adult, I avoid raw milk because I know better.) --- Related to battered fish, what's better (from a health standpoint): if you batter your own fish or you buy pre-battered fish? All else equal, most people would still say that as a matter of intuition will say that battering your own is better. If "feels" like the correct answer. But the real answer would be that it depends on what you battered it with and what the company battered it with. The reality is that many people who actively complain about "processed foods" are fine with the processing done as long as they are the ones doing it. Regardless of what the reality may be, a homemade noodle somehow feels healthier than a store bought one to those folks. (And yes, I realize my battered fish question isn't what your fish example was talking about at all. I just ran with it in a different direction and am not trying to misrepresent what you said).
- collyw 11y ago
  When you process your own food, you have full control over it and what goes into it. I have no idea what they are putting into commercially processed foods, how long they are cooked for at what temperature. (Well I have an idea of what goes into chicken nuggets having watched Jamie Oliver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSoiDtdi9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSoiDtdi9s).
- pc2g4d 11y ago
  Is the "naturalistic fallacy" really a fallacy? Is is it really just another of the many fallacious fallacies? I think there's logic to regarding more recent food innovations with greater skepticism. Same with many innovations. Over a shorter time period, the long-term consequences of the innovations have not yet become fully apparent. With things that have been used for thousands of years we can assume that had a long-term issue arisen, the food or practice would likely have been abandoned. Radium watches, DDT, hydrogenated vegetable oils, ....
colordrops 11y ago
I'm of the exact same dietary philosophy as yourself. I derived it through reading and experimentation before paleo was even a thing, as it appears Jack Lalanne did as well. Most people who attack a simple sensible diet like this are really just exposing their own insecurities and desire to not give up the crap they injest themselves.
- victorhooi 11y ago
  Lol, this isn't to do with insecurities - more to do with science. I get that to many, science is a boogeyman - but come on, we're meant to be better than that on HN, since you know, so many of do actually have science backgrounds? My parents owned a sheep property growing up, and I went to an agricultural school - the whole point of modern agriculture, and husbandy pratcises is that we do intentional thinks to manipulate animals/plants, to be safer for us. Oh, and my wife is a veterinarian - and occasionally she gets crazies in, who think they can roadkill or dead wildlife - she's like, yeah, genius, great way to give yourself worms. And preserved foods is...well, just that - to preserve food. You know, like pasteurised milk? Humans have been preserving food for millennia - it's just that our techniques have evolved a bit more than "add salt, let it dry in the sun". I think many people might be equating junk food (i.e. sweets, chips etc.) with all modern foods - that's a logical fallacy. Food companies optimised for things consumers want - whether that's long shelf-life, for taste, for convenience etc. We are so incredibly lucky these days - that we have massive range of foodstuff - just make sure you read the food labels, and pick the foods you want. If convenience, or high-sweetness isn't what you want - then don't buy those products. Buy other products! Ultimately, corporates aren't some evil faceless entity - nor do I believe there's some mysterious conspiracy going on. They simply create what they think people will buy - and hence, make them money. But I agree with parent - the whole "eat stuff that humans haven't touched" is a bit of a stupid argument - it's like romanticising pre-historic men. In reality - they probably had hard, short lives, and were subject to parasites and infection constantly - a lot of it via the food they ate.
  - colordrops 11y ago
    You are attacking an invisible bogeyman you concocted yourself. No one said anything about being anti-science. Your reactionary stance is anti-science. I'm not sure what your wife's profession or crazies she met or anything else you've said has to do with the topic at hand. There are a thousand choices you can make when it comes to diet. It's not an all or nothing, democrat or republican, us vs them proposition. What the previous poster was getting at is that typically, for each choice you can make with your diet, a good rule of thumb is that the less processed a food is, the more likely it is to be better for you. That doesn't mean it's always true in every case, or that occasionally a bit of processed food will kill you, or whatever other straw man you are chasing after. In any case, there IS plenty of science backing up the negative health effects of processed foods: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sugar-increases-the-risk-of-dying-with-heart-disease-201402067021 http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sug... http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/diet-and-weight/ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesit... http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/22693-highly-processed-foods-linked-to-addictive-eating http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/22693-highly-processed-food... http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/world-health-organization-says-processed-meat-causes-cancer http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/world-health-organiza... http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/acrylamide-fact-sheet http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/di... http://www.ewg.org/research/bpa-canned-food http://www.ewg.org/research/bpa-canned-food http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/transfats/ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/transfats/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olestra#Side_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olestra#Side_effects Plenty of linked studies here as well: https://authoritynutrition.com/9-ways-that-processed-foods-are-killing-people/ https://authoritynutrition.com/9-ways-that-processed-foods-a... Do you have any science to back up your claims?
Floegipoky 11y ago
>> It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it While true, this isn't because humans are incapable of improving food. It's because the ways our species has been improving food recently have been driven by capitalism; we've been making it easier to grow and giving it more appealing taste so that it's easier to mass produce and sell. These qualities, especially the taste 'improvements', often result in significant reductions in nutritional quality. If Big Aggro were instead focusing on making our veggies more nutritious, I'm confident that they would succeed.
- darkclarity 11y ago
  It got to a point where governments had to mandate that certain processed foods (e.g. bread, breakfast cereals) must contain extra vitamins and minerals - just to keep the population from damaging themselves.
- brashrat 11y ago
  It's not driven by capitalism (any more than any transaction ever has been), it's driven by consumerism. Twinkies would not be manufactured or sold if people didn't like gobbling them up at the available price. Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) and simply blame your fellow citizens for being a bunch of idiots.
  - mordocai 11y ago
    It is driven by both capitalism and consumerism.
  - brenschluss 11y ago
    > Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) The market is an emergent phenomenon. A market is indeed made up of corporations which is made up of people, but this does not mean that "just made up of people" is an adequate answer.
    - brashrat 11y ago
danmaz74 11y ago
> As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. The problem is that these simplifications and generalizations are invariably broken. According to this, for example, raw meat should be better than cooked meat.
takno 11y ago
Fish fingers are nutritionally pretty good - low calorie, high protein, and freezing is a good way to preserve food without adding things you have to ask questions about. The cheaper ones also tend to use more sustainable fish, and mechanical recovery maximises yield from a scarce resource.
mikeash 11y ago
Do you seek out pre-domestication forms of fruits and vegetables, or do millennia of genetic engineering through selective breeding not count as "tinkering with it"?
munificent 11y ago
> the steak A carefully carved out subset of an animal that lived on a carefully maintained agricultural plot, fed a precisely calibrated diet, and slaughtered at a precisely chosen time. An animal of a special humans have been breeding and molding for thousands of years. > bag of salad leaves Again, species we have been cultivating and changing for so long that we would no longer recognize its original wild form. Lettuce is related to daisies. > It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it. That common sense makes no sense, why would we spend effort making things worse for ourselves? We tinker with things because it improves them. Sure, sometimes we don't discover the long term implications for a while (like with sugar), but in general, we cultivate and process because it makes things better. Cassava that isn't processed is poisonous, as are many beans. Eating most fish that isn't deep frozen or thoroughly cooked is a good way to get worms. The same would be true for beef and pork too, except that we humans have so carefully managed (tinkered with?) our livestock that we've eliminated most of their parasites. Given a choice between a package of heavily processed bacon from the grocery store, or a fresh chunk of wild boar meat that you hunted and killed yourself, which is better for you? Well, the latter is a hell of a lot more likely to give you trichinosis. > As close to its natural form as possible is invariably best. So, like: Corn: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/images/relevance/Z_diplo_earsmall.jpg http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/images/relevance/Z_... Watermelon: https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CRPlJWtfmDnCTNMv02Cx1DSiaws=/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3962382/stanchiseeds.0.jpg https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CRPlJWtfmDnCTNMv02Cx1DSiaws... > I sure as heck am not going to buy a pre-battered pack of frozen 'fish fingers' given the choice! That's not because the fish fingers are unnatural, it's because they're made of shitty, cheap ingredients. Given the choice between, say, a nice cheese (a very heavily processed food involving a number of chemicals and months of human attention) versus finding a wild bee's nest and drinking all the honey, the former would be healthier for you, even assuming you don't get stung. If you want to eat things that are good for you, "natural", "unprocessed" or "free from human tinkering" are simply not useful signals. They're not even that well-defined.

specialist 11y ago

Then ignore (filter) the woo-woo au naturale fruit cakes. Every message gets distorted, perverted thru transmission. But sometimes there's some actual signal buried in all that noise. Also, modern food production is not an unqualified great thing. Too simplistically: We consumers are harmed when optimal food production techniques drive nutrition policy, vs human nutritional needs guiding food production. Over use of HFCS, soya, whey, etc has caused a great deal of human disease. It's now an expensive public health issue. What may cause you (intellectual) discomfort is when the woo-woos conflate health and environmental issues. Again, filters. And please remember that everyone's just trying to move forward best as they can. My mother also imparts some terrible, well intentioned advice. But it's not like I'm going to fix her misunderstandings. I just try to guide best as I can and lead by example.

logfromblammo 11y ago

You are overthinking it. It's sound-bite-sized dietary advice. The intent, I'm sure, is to advise people to avoid foods that have undergone an industrialized food-preparation process, to produce a shelf-stable product that can be shipped in cardboard boxes. As an aggregate, those foods are overwhelmingly prepared according to USDA and FDA recommendations, resulting in the very common replacement of fats with simple carbohydrates, addition of preservatives, and the use of additional additives to improve flavor and texture. That maxim is to be applied in the grocery store, while looking at the product in your hand. If it's a bag of potato chips, you look at it and think, "how is this made?" Then you are supposed to remove the boiling in oil and the slicing, and buy raw, whole potatoes instead. If it's a package of Oreos, you're supposed to read the ingredients, be horrified at the claim that it is food, and perhaps buy a nice, crisp apple instead. You're not going to achieve optimal nutrition with sound-bite-sized dietary advice, but if there isn't a lot of space left in your brain's on-die cache, it could help to avoid making the most horrible dietary decisions. But only if it is good bite-sized advice. If you decide to only eat "natural" foods, you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And also, you may have a bizarre and nonsensical concept of what is "natural". But it will probably stop you from eating the foods most highly suspected of causing health problems, such as those containing trans-fats, fructose, or poor Na:K or Ca:Mg proportions.

sametmax 11y ago

Yes, you are overthinking it. The statment clearly wasn't to be followed blindly, but just a reminder that processed food is generally the least quality food you can get. It's like trying to fight an add tag line with logic, it just doesn't make sense. We all know "number one in stuff" is not to be taken as is. Still, if you do avoid industrialy processed food, you usually see your health improved tremendously. TL;DR: don't be that guy : https://encrypted.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiZ1_Tijf3LAhVGORoKHZiYD-AQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2Fgallery%2FgRk1uZm&psig=AFQjCNEBHaJIdRkA7akWyzYb4F7PFfCWYg&ust=1460138457565477 https://encrypted.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source...

goda90 11y ago

On the other hand, what evidence supports the need to avoid "mildly spoiled food"? We could do with a bit of healthy skepticism over the seriousness of spoiling, expiration dates, defects, refrigeration, or molds and bacteria in our food. We'd probably save more food and maybe cut back on excessive sugar and salt intake(common preservatives) if we had a better understanding of what can and can't be eaten raw, rotten, and less than perfect.

douche 11y ago
The conception that salt is bad for us is, I think, ludicrous. Most of us are not eating even a smidgeon of the amount of salt that our ancestors would have eaten, when nearly all meats and fish not eaten immediately after slaughter were preserved literally caked in salt or brines.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  The connection to hypertension is pretty conclusive, at least for some portion of the population. Here's one article about it: http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/Trait-Salt-Sensitivity.php http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/Trait-Salt-Sensitivity.php Late life heart disease probably hasn't been a major factor in our evolution, but it's easy to sketch out how a lifetime of dietary choices that encouraged high blood pressure would have some impact in the last years.