Myths About Health Nuts and the People Who Eat Them(?)

Some people say: I just don't like health food culture. Health food people are smug, they eat weird food, they're fussy, and misguided. Besides, health food is mostly marketing.

I say: Settle down. Let's unpack some of the assertions I've heard about "health food people" and "health food" in the last couple of weeks on TV, in the store, and, of course, on the internet.  


Some people say: "Advocacy for labeling GMOs is based on fear and ignorance."

Ideas about food change.

I say: Advocacy for most anything involves a diverse group of people who share a common idea. Their paths to that idea may be wildly different. Not every Yankees fan comes to the stadium for the same reason.

There are doubtlessly people who think that GMO food is categorically poisonous and harmful to the body. I don't share this viewpoint, based on the available data. But that doesn't invalidate the other concerns a person could reasonably have about labeling GMO food. Namely, that people have a right to know what they're eating, that GMO technology is powerful and therefore should be approached with caution. My chief concern is the avalanche of environmental events that could be triggered by continually introducing genes into the world that were engineered for convenience, and not with the long view of earth's homeostasis in mind. I don't think any of these concerns are alarmist. More importantly, I'm always open to new ways of thinking about these issues as evidence and lobbyists and advertisers all vie for ideological market share on this issue.

Some people say: "Organic produce has just as much pesticide on it as traditional produce."

I say: Sometimes it has more. Wait, wait! Don't panic. The pesticides allowed within the guidelines of organic certification are specific, and derived exclusively from government-approved sources. This means that, when pesticides are deployed, farmers must use more of these tolerated pesticides than their ultra-potent synthetic counterparts.

Critics of organic farming often say that this is an academic distinction, and that poison is poison, and the dose is what's important. Well, I agree. The dose is what's important. While water, salt, and alcohol will all kill you in certain amounts, their potency in relation to something like, say, strychnine, is best expressed using exponents; not all poisons are created equal. Obviously I'm not saying that synthetic pesticides are as potent as strychnine. (Strychnine is, incidentally, "natural," deriving from the Strychnos nux-vomica plant. Homeopathic enthusiasts will recognize the second half of that Latin name. Again, it's all about the dose, right?) The point is, when it comes to poison, some would say "six of one, half dozen of the other." That's mathematically sound, if a little obvious; but there's a world of difference between six doses of raisins and six doses of ricin. 

Being averse to potent synthetic poisons on your food doesn't make you an idiot or a fear-monger.

Some people say: "Fresh produce contains more nutrients than frozen food."
  
I say: Ripe produce contains more nutrients than unripe produce. Frozen produce is often frozen at the peak of its ripeness, and accordingly contains more nutrients than a fresh counterpart which was shipped "early" to maintain a shelf life. That said, most frozen vegetables and fruits are blanched in hot water before being frozen—it's then that they lose some Vitamin B or Vitamin C. So the above statement is true, or not, depending on which nutrients we're talking about.

Some people say: "'Health food people' think organic food is categorically more nutritious."

In an extremely informal survey I conducted, I didn't speak with anyone who actually thought an organic tomato was more nutrient-rich than an non-organic one. Granted, this "study" took me about ten minutes, so it's not quite ready for a peer-reviewed journal yet. But I often read (or hear) the assertion that people who prefer organic products are simply misguided or duped as to their value. I don't doubt that there exist people who are eating organic oranges to get "more Vitamin C," but I don't think the average organic produce enthusiast prefers organic produce for that reason.

As far as the actual science, there are conflicting studies (classic, right?) about this. My intuition is that organic products appeal to consumers primarily because of what they do not contain (which involves certification and oversight).

Some people say: "Health foods are just fads."

I say: Let's get it out there right now: a lot of health foods are just fads. The modern "health food" scene includes people eating obscure berry abstracts with an expectation of losing weight without exercise on one end; on the other end are people who simply think eating quinoa in the morning makes a lot of sense. As in any subculture, the extreme viewpoints are the most interesting, and also the easiest to attack. But beneath the unnecessary vitriol surround grocery consumer habits in 2015, there is a baseline of users that makes decisions based on the information they have. Some of that information is going to be new, and it's going to generate excitement. Suddenly, we have a "fad." But just as cliches can obscure truth through overexposure, fads aren't exclusively the province of idiots.

It's really "cool" right now to hate sugar. You could call sugar avoidance a "fad," just as the avoidance of high fructose corn syrup is a "fad." The debate about high fructose corn syrup really underlines a central truth about the American diet: we eat way too much sugar, and it has real consequences, regardless of the sugar's particular variety. No one—I mean no one—debates that consuming lots of sugar is a bad idea. Without the HFCS-avoidance fad, we wouldn't have the level of sugar consumption awareness in our culture that we do, with the accompanying jockeying by manufacturers to capitalize on it by reducing their products' sugar content.

Not all fads are created equal, obviously. But let's not forget that concepts like "cooking food" and "valuing human life" were fads, once, too. Luckily, they caught on.