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> heavy-metal soil toxicity; by pesticides; by coincidental allergens in non-active-ingredient plant matter The exact same risks are in your grocery store prod

> heavy-metal soil toxicity; by pesticides; by coincidental allergens in non-active-ingredient plant matter The exact same risks are in your grocery store produce aisle. I'll grant that illegal marijuana has higher risk, but if it's regulated like any legal food crop I don't see the difference; in fact, I'd say there's less, since people consume it in relatively low quantities.

derefr 7y ago
...which is precisely why hospital food is just as processed as drugs are, to remove those variables. Doctors know there's a certain number of X-factors a patient can't avoid (like e.g. eating food from random sources if they're not under in-patient care) but they don't want to introduce new ones if they can help it. Another analogy: a doctor will never prescribe you "a supplement." They might tell you getting more vitamin B in your diet would be good, but they'll never tell you to go out and buy a vitamin-B complex supplement. If they think you really need vitamin-B in a pill, they'll prescribe an actual big-pharma-pipeline-produced pill containing vitamin B. Why? Because who-the-heck knows what's in the random supplement you bought off Amazon is why. If the pharmacy says they got a pill from big-pharma mfgr X, and mfgr X says they produced it (and the FDA endorses mfgr X), then that's a chain of custody and a chain of responsibility that holds them to account, and so ensures that there really is vitamin B (and nothing else) in the pill. That means you're not getting any extra risks just from taking the pills, beyond some weird interaction between you and vitamin B. Whereas, those supplement pills from Amazon? Nobody checked those. Your doctor does not want you to take random unchecked pills that may or may not contain vitamin B, and may-or-may-not contain lead/mercury/cyanide/whatever. They want you to take pills that certainly do contain vitamin B, and certainly don't contain those other things. Thus, prescriptions; thus, pharmacies; thus, the FDA itself.
- majormajor 7y ago
  > Another analogy: a doctor will never prescribe you "a supplement." They might tell you getting more vitamin B in your diet would be good, but they'll never tell you to go out and buy a vitamin-B complex supplement. If they think you really need vitamin-B in a pill, they'll prescribe an actual big-pharma-pipeline-produced pill containing vitamin B. You've seen very different doctors than I when it comes to calcium/D- and B- vitamins/multivitamins. They'll usually tell you "go get this over the counter." Sometimes with guidelines like "but not one of the ones with iron" or such. Or even if they prescribe it, the pharmacy that gets the prescription (or maybe your insurance company - I forget which exactly had the problem with it when this happened to me) might say "just go grab one of the over the counter vitamins."
- DennisP 7y ago
  Hospital food is not "just as processed as drugs are." They give you cooked and raw fruits and veggies, not pills derived from them. The lettuce in your hospital salad is the same as any other lettuce.

derefr 7y ago

...which is precisely why hospital food is just as processed as drugs are, to remove those variables. Doctors know there's a certain number of X-factors a patient can't avoid (like e.g. eating food from random sources if they're not under in-patient care) but they don't want to introduce new ones if they can help it. Another analogy: a doctor will never prescribe you "a supplement." They might tell you getting more vitamin B in your diet would be good, but they'll never tell you to go out and buy a vitamin-B complex supplement. If they think you really need vitamin-B in a pill, they'll prescribe an actual big-pharma-pipeline-produced pill containing vitamin B. Why? Because who-the-heck knows what's in the random supplement you bought off Amazon is why. If the pharmacy says they got a pill from big-pharma mfgr X, and mfgr X says they produced it (and the FDA endorses mfgr X), then that's a chain of custody and a chain of responsibility that holds them to account, and so ensures that there really is vitamin B (and nothing else) in the pill. That means you're not getting any extra risks just from taking the pills, beyond some weird interaction between you and vitamin B. Whereas, those supplement pills from Amazon? Nobody checked those. Your doctor does not want you to take random unchecked pills that may or may not contain vitamin B, and may-or-may-not contain lead/mercury/cyanide/whatever. They want you to take pills that certainly do contain vitamin B, and certainly don't contain those other things. Thus, prescriptions; thus, pharmacies; thus, the FDA itself.

majormajor 7y ago
> Another analogy: a doctor will never prescribe you "a supplement." They might tell you getting more vitamin B in your diet would be good, but they'll never tell you to go out and buy a vitamin-B complex supplement. If they think you really need vitamin-B in a pill, they'll prescribe an actual big-pharma-pipeline-produced pill containing vitamin B. You've seen very different doctors than I when it comes to calcium/D- and B- vitamins/multivitamins. They'll usually tell you "go get this over the counter." Sometimes with guidelines like "but not one of the ones with iron" or such. Or even if they prescribe it, the pharmacy that gets the prescription (or maybe your insurance company - I forget which exactly had the problem with it when this happened to me) might say "just go grab one of the over the counter vitamins."
DennisP 7y ago
Hospital food is not "just as processed as drugs are." They give you cooked and raw fruits and veggies, not pills derived from them. The lettuce in your hospital salad is the same as any other lettuce.