This reminds me of Michael Pollan's comments about "magic ingredients", and our tendency to find some ingredient that either makes food magically healthy or mag

This reminds me of Michael Pollan's comments about "magic ingredients", and our tendency to find some ingredient that either makes food magically healthy or magically unhealthy - see omega-3 for a positive example, or anything called a "toxin" for a negative example. Magic ingredients can then be added to or removed from factory-made foods in the interest of marketing. Propionate isn't the proximate cause of widespread diabetes. A diet consisting primarily of refined sugar and white flour is the proximate cause.