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When is HN going to get a penalty filter for all these health fad/craze links? They just bring out all the crazies and the articles are typically inconclusive a

by hiou 11y ago

When is HN going to get a penalty filter for all these health fad/craze links? They just bring out all the crazies and the articles are typically inconclusive at best and opinionated and divisive at worst.

TheCapn 11y ago
I agree with you man. For a site that's geared towards technology blogs there's a huge amount of health articles on here. Not only that, but like you said it attracts a lot of fervent personality types who portray a lot of the cult-like attitudes towards a certain diet or program (Keto is especially bad). Way too much speculation from programmers who think they're outsmarting an entire industry of health professionals. I have a particular hatred for Soylent but thankfully its quick rise to popularity has drawn upon it a lot of scrutiny and with that has alleviated a lot of the bad that it was originally representing. I still think there are superior alternatives on the market that have pre-dated Soylent but the fact that its been iterated and improved by health professionals and not a Software Engineer says a lot for it.
mwfunk 11y ago
I agree with you although this particular article seems far better than most. Anecdotally (my personal experience, with zero statistical significance), the last 10 years seems like it had a huge explosion of interest in fad diets among twenty- and thirtysomething tech industry people. Not sure if this is an actual trend or just a consequence of where I live and who I spend time with these days. I'm solidly middle-aged at this point. When I was in my 20s and 30s, there were just as many fad diets and nutritional voodoo but it was generally super credulous, spacey middle-aged and older people that were into them. The phenomenon of a degreed, professional 23-year-old wanting to have long and enthusiastic conversations with me about the properties of gluten (or whatever) in casual social contexts feels really bizarre. This is a very roundabout way of saying that for whatever reason, at this point in time there is a big overlap between people who are into voodoo health crazes and the core HN demographic. This seems like a recent trend to me, but that's only anecdotal.

by hiou 11y ago

TheCapn 11y ago

I agree with you man. For a site that's geared towards technology blogs there's a huge amount of health articles on here. Not only that, but like you said it attracts a lot of fervent personality types who portray a lot of the cult-like attitudes towards a certain diet or program (Keto is especially bad). Way too much speculation from programmers who think they're outsmarting an entire industry of health professionals. I have a particular hatred for Soylent but thankfully its quick rise to popularity has drawn upon it a lot of scrutiny and with that has alleviated a lot of the bad that it was originally representing. I still think there are superior alternatives on the market that have pre-dated Soylent but the fact that its been iterated and improved by health professionals and not a Software Engineer says a lot for it.

mwfunk 11y ago

I agree with you although this particular article seems far better than most. Anecdotally (my personal experience, with zero statistical significance), the last 10 years seems like it had a huge explosion of interest in fad diets among twenty- and thirtysomething tech industry people. Not sure if this is an actual trend or just a consequence of where I live and who I spend time with these days. I'm solidly middle-aged at this point. When I was in my 20s and 30s, there were just as many fad diets and nutritional voodoo but it was generally super credulous, spacey middle-aged and older people that were into them. The phenomenon of a degreed, professional 23-year-old wanting to have long and enthusiastic conversations with me about the properties of gluten (or whatever) in casual social contexts feels really bizarre. This is a very roundabout way of saying that for whatever reason, at this point in time there is a big overlap between people who are into voodoo health crazes and the core HN demographic. This seems like a recent trend to me, but that's only anecdotal.