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I don't think this is about principles, manipulation or anything that is usually a subject of heated and never settled debates. Saying processed food causes ill

I don't think this is about principles, manipulation or anything that is usually a subject of heated and never settled debates. Saying processed food causes illness is a generalization which is very largely true, and considering that a large percentage of the population does not even think of food on the healthy/harmful axis, stating this as publicly as possible is actually the opposite of dumbing down. It is raising awareness for many people, or solidifying a message that others have already heard, and it's raising eyebrows in a smaller percentage of the population, who either already know this and are nitpicking about the message detail, or are generally bothered by the state/media/influencers interfering in how one leads their own life, or fear that such generalizations incorrectly put some traditional food in a bad light (see above comment about cured meats).

stakhanov 3y ago
One problem I see (besides the paternalism, and talking down to people) is that "rigid schemas" of the kind that drives normies insane when nerdy types exhibit them and being smart vs. dumb are actually two very separate things. So, there are tons of people who have rigid schemas, and are actually quite dumb, and watching health food nuts on YouTube is actually a great way to observe them in the wild. If you tell them "don't eat anything that doesn't look the way it looks in nature", they are going to start eating raw soy beans and poison themselves, because "science said so". I don't think it's doing anyone any good if otherwise reputable news outlets, and actual scientists, throw even more oil into the fire of inaccurate information about nutrition.