Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 221 posts

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#81

Post by mc32 »

dfxm12 wrote: post #54
tomcar288 wrote: post #7

i'm not saying anything about the content of infowars but I can't believe how much money people will spend on "supplements", and pills and artificial products. and yet, somehow don't have any money for fruits, vegetables and beans. i can only imagine, there's something broken in how people are being raised.

It's more about the cult of personality of Alex Jones or Gwyneth Paltrow. They aren't buying products to be healthy, they are buying products to be more like/to support their favorite celebrities. While thinking about "blame", don't ignore that some people are working pretty hard to find & target these products to whales.

Before all this there has been GNC, taking advantage of the health conscious and gym rats.

As well as a whole Whole Foods aisle dedicated to supplements and natural substances but can’t carry Aspirin! It irks me that they can’t carry aspirin and basic OTCs you can get at a 7-11.

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#82

Post by seattle_spring »

genter wrote: post #70
gumby wrote: post #48

Worth reading just to learn of the existence of "activated cashews" Our enzyme-rich, activated, and dehydrated cashews are a mineral-dense protein. Pure, alkaline water awakens the nuts' dormant properties, increasing digestibility and micronutrient, vitamin, and enzyme count. These raw, activated, bio-available nuts are a low-glycemic source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. As well as a product for sale at infowa…

Not sure what your point is. It's well established that soaking nuts and seeds so they begin to sprout is healthier. I realize that it's written with a marketing slant, but it's not wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting#Nutrition

Dehydrated cashews are definitely not going to sprout...

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#83

Post by kbar13 »

nimbius wrote: post #10

I once read an inspiring post from a european user who explained why these companies generally succeed. Namely, that formal treatment and healthcare for the underlying condition targeted by the "wellness" product is prohibitively expensive for American customers, and so snakeoil thrives in the absence of legitimate medical science. you could literally bankrupt these companies in less than a fortnight with single paye…

this is just the general european disdain for america masked as an intellectual analysis

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#84

Post by lotsofpulp »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #37

Hacker News readers would never buy nonsense due to trendy niche marketing. Unrelated did anyone see the latest teenage engineering gear at CES?

Do you have any examples?

And this is not trendy niche marketing, these are things that are inconsistent with basic models of biology/chemistry/physics/statistics.

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#85

Post by hackneyedruse »

ThisIsMyAltAcct wrote: post #20
gscott wrote: post #2

I was surprised to see how much money Infowars was making shown in the court documents. "Let us make our prime target market idiots" seems to be a profitable path.

Good as a political strategy too

It’s like laundering gullibility and turning it into political influence which they then wield as a weapon against society’s best interests.

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#86

Post by dzhiurgis »

genter wrote: post #70
gumby wrote: post #48

Worth reading just to learn of the existence of "activated cashews" Our enzyme-rich, activated, and dehydrated cashews are a mineral-dense protein. Pure, alkaline water awakens the nuts' dormant properties, increasing digestibility and micronutrient, vitamin, and enzyme count. These raw, activated, bio-available nuts are a low-glycemic source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. As well as a product for sale at infowa…

Not sure what your point is. It's well established that soaking nuts and seeds so they begin to sprout is healthier. I realize that it's written with a marketing slant, but it's not wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting#Nutrition

Nothing in your link says healthier

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#87

Post by genter »

seattle_spring wrote: post #82
genter wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what your point is. It's well established that soaking nuts and seeds so they begin to sprout is healthier. I realize that it's written with a marketing slant, but it's not wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting#Nutrition

Dehydrated cashews are definitely not going to sprout...

No, but soaking is going to break down chemicals like phytic acid that lock up nutrients.

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#88

Post by superb_dev »

Aunche wrote: post #71
striking wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're underestimating how many people live in food deserts and basically don't have access to fresh food. That might seem like a nitpick against a larger argument, but I think it serves as a good example for why you need to take a close look at the environment that these people exist in as a whole, and that it likely goes beyond their innate habits or those of just their immediate family in childhood.

People who value fresh produce are going to go out of the way to get it. If enough people do this, environments will adapt to that demand. NYC Chinatowns used to be quite poor and discriminated against, but they were still able to establish their own supply chains that provides cheaper and fresher vegetables than anywhere else in the city because vegetables are a quintessential part of Chinese cuisine. Food deserts,…

So people who live in a food dessert secretly don't really want any vegetables?

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#89

Post by jfengel »

tnbp wrote: post #67

I'm a bit confused why the author is unfazed by "eleuthero root" and "cordyceps mushrooms", but puts "nascent iodine" in scare quotes. Is it not nascent iodine? If no, then what is it? Oh no, it's nail clippings, isn't it. Gwyneth has tricked me yet again! Edit: Thanks to everyone who replied--I learned something!

I assume it's because eleuthero root and cordyceps mushrooms are real things, while "nascent iodine" is made up. It is a marketing term for woo-woo supplements, not a technical term.

Re: Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products

#90

Post by anonymouswacker »

Clickbait.

I have taken a lot of these in the past, and the label "pseudoscientific" is unwarranted. The "writer" cherrypicks and generalizes data to discount it, but if you want to understand the mechanism of, say, Ashwagandha, you probably should spend a few hours reading research and meta-analyses and not spending 10 minutes on Google to decide if it's "good" or "pseudoscience".

Should these companies not be allowed to advertise and distribute products that might help some and might hurt others? Should tech writers write health articles when they don't know what they're talking about?

Post reply on HN