Sensationalism vs chemistry

Slate has written an excellent rebuttal to The Food Babe.

The Food Babe, http://foodbabe.com,  is a business now that sometimes stretches the truth re additives in food. She needs to alarm in order to sell her books, her weight loss program, her videos, and her industry partners' products (note how all her oils are from one company).

But the fear-mongering is quite blatant, for example in this story about oils she states:

Almost all toxicology research  focuses on the industrial use and inhalation of hexane, so no one knows exactly how dangerous eating it is – but it surely isn’t healthy.

So she is basically says that lots of tests have been done that have nothing to do with oils but she doesn't think it is safe based on zero studies.
In the Slate article,  I love how they use this example:

Did you know that oxidane, a major component of human urine, is added to coffee beans to enhance the aroma? Disgusting! Sorry if I made you pour your espresso down the drain. What I really should have said is that most people use water, whose formal chemical name is oxidane—and which indeed is the main component of urine—to brew coffee, its steam efficiently conveying the smell to your nose. Not funny? You would be right to think I’m being deliberately deceptive, mocking, even, by using an unfamiliar name for water and linking a food item with a bodily fluid that you wouldn’t think of drinking, and you’d be right to be peeved at me. It’s not amusing to browbeat people in this way, even less funny when you are a food company, reliant on public perception of cleanliness to stay in business.

While we need to be aware of the foods we eat and what ingredients are in them, just because they have "scary" chemical names does not mean they do not come from natural sources and are dangerous.  Companies have many reasons for choosing the ingredients and additives they use - sometimes they choose based on looks, taste and colour and sometimes they have options.  Yes, we should make sure they choose the best options for our health but we also need to make decisions based on knowledge not fear tactics.

So buyer beware - and that includes websites that purport to promote healthy living by using scare tactics instead of careful science.

Two things you do not want in the same sentence:

The curious case of the barbecue and the toilet seat.

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Philip Strange

http://bit.ly/168HiIX

This is a great article dissecting a newspaper article screaming about the hidden dangers of germs around the house and garden:

The average British barbecue contains TWICE as many germs as a toilet seat

• Outdoor grill contains 1.7 million microbes per 100cm sq - 124% more than a toilet seat - and just 36% of people clean it more than twice a year
• Bin lids have next highest bacteria count - a staggering 1.2 million per 100 cm sq, compared to 759,950 on a toilet seat
• Microbes in the garden include e-coli, salmonella and listeria all of which can cause vomiting and diarrhoea

and

THE FIVE HOUSEHOLD AREAS DIRTIER THAN YOUR TOILET

• Carpets are a germ breeding ground and can be up to 4,000 times grubbier than your toilet seat.
• A 2008 UK study found that  computer keyboards carry up to five times more bacteria than a toilet seat. 
• Kitchen sinks typically contain more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch than a typical loo.
• Kitchen sponges can contain a staggering 200,000 times more bacteria that your toilet.
• Mobile phone have been found to be 500 times more germ-ridden than a typical loo.

But despite this we do not all get sick and, in fact, very few microbes and withstand the heat of a properly warmed up BBQ.  SO why the fuss?  To sell disinfectants!   Reader Beware!