Guest post: Pure and raw
Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on It just happens to disagree with the mainstream narrative.
The thing that drives me mad is that all the “alt cures” for things like allergies, and in iknklast’s case asthma, are to bolster the immune system. The ignorance of what asthma and allergies actually are astounds me, do they really not know that these are the products of an immune system that is overreacting to stimuli? I would watch as my mother would suffer attacks strong enough to put her in the hospital in oxygen tents, until she was prescribed prednisone, thinking that would be my fate since I had many of the same food allergies she did. (I was prescribed a series of shots at age ten that deboosted those allergies and I don’t suffer from them anymore. I still remember the first bite of chocolate that I ate without realizing I would get hives.)
I was at a farmer’s market in Phoenix and asked why a jar of honey was $15. The seller explained that it was pure and raw, and that it cured all sorts of ills caused by the poisons in commercial food products. Including allergies. How about that? Honey as the Elixir for $8 more than honey in the grocery poisoner’s store. Those cancer doctors are lying about needing expensive drugs that keep you dependent on them and make you sicker!
People like Kirsch are what drives cities like Regina to stop fluoridating their water, leading to a startling increase in cavities among children within a brief time. When I first found the “Savage Minds” podcast I enjoyed the interviews, but soon got tired of Julian’s diversions into rants against neoliberals and how Joe Biden is “worse than Trump,” and how the the attempts to stop the spread of Covid during the height of the pandemic were actually the government taking control (as opposed to?) So, while she’s had some good guests lately, i just find I can’t listen to the podcast any more.
Science as a concept of formalized method of discovery of causes of natural phenomena is taking a beating, and most of the worst offenders are the ones who claim we need to be “trusting the science.” But guess what, when you claim that science backs transgender identities, don’t be surprised when you try to explain the science behind vaccines, or global warming, or any other of the sciences that really do need to be followed in our current environment.
Pharma doesn’t do itself any favors when previously open and available generic patents for low-cost drugs are bought up by venture capitalists who make those drugs unaffordable. Or when they rush drugs to market that prove to be addictive. Or claim that puberty blockers are safe and reversible, but just give kids a chance to pause and think about which puberty they want to go through.
Along those lines I’ve seen weight-loss supplements that claim to work by making your digestive system more efficient, which if anything would pull more calories out of food.
But the calories would be more sincere.
People like to think that their political party is the party of science and reason, but this desire blinds them to the irrationalities of their side. I’ve long said that I can tell someone’s political affiliation by which pseudoscience they subscribe to, so the notion that any particular party is uniquely for or against science is just nonsense. It’s an uncomfortable feeling to see this observation become more and more obvious–and more and more relevant in the voting both.
“Boosts the immune system” is a popular selling point for quack remedies precisely because it’s ill-defined and therefore safe from a legal liability perspective.
The FDA will come down on you if you advertise your product as being a treatment or cure for a condition for which the FDA has not approved, but since there is apparently no way to measure what it means to boost an immune system, companies get away with it.
Of course, that also means it’s an utterly worthless statement, but most consumers don’t know that.
I suspect, though I don’t recall reading anything specifically about it, that all the talk of “toxins” and removing them is similar.
We’ve got organs that work specifically to “cleanse ” toxins. The proof is in the poopin’ so as to speak. There’s also the alkaline water and diet “science” based on a misinterpreted study from 1938, and I knew it was garbage when a proponent claimed that lemon juice is a base. I was in a Sprout’s market and saw that they were selling alkaline water for $8 a gallon. I wrote a complaint and they forwarded it to the bottler. Bottler replied that it’s not unhealthy. Healthy for their p&l sheet, too.
I heartily recommend “If It Sounds Like A Quack”, though conspicuous by its absence is mention of Jack Turban or someone like him as one of the “one true cure” people… Probably because he isn’t associated with the “medical freedom” movement.
I generally agree that we are awash in quackery, but there is truth to the claim that raw local honey can help with seasonal allergies by desensitizing your body to local pollen.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6074882/
That was a helpful link, Eava. Thanks!
It’s a shame the person at the farmers’ market couldn’t honestly tell you that the cost of local production is by definition going to be higher than that of the global supply chain, because (among other things) the global supply chain externalises costs that we will all pay for in one way or another sooner or later.
I bought the honey, to support the local sellers, but also because I had received a honeydripper as a gift and the jar had a wider mouth whereas the honey dripper doesn’t fit in the jars sold at the supermarket.
Delicious.