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

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

#151

Post by rozab »

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

The cashews in question are visibly not sprouted.

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

#152

Post by klodolph »

slibhb wrote: post #139
klodolph wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not labeled clearly, IMO. Oscillococcinum is labeled with “flu-like symptoms” “body aches, headache, fever, chills, fatigue” “medicine” and “works naturally with your body”. These fall on a spectrum between misleading and outright lies. While “fever” may be seen as an only misleading label (the label doesn’t say that it treats fever in any way, so you could make that argument), there are some outright falseh…

Do you really think the government should regulate use of the word "medicine"? Ditto for claims like "works naturally". I think it's pretty clear that this stuff is alternative medicine. Your suggestion would be like forcing astrology books to include warnings. I think you have to treat people like adults here, which includes realizing that they are going to do/buy dumb things. Only when those things come at a signif…

Yes, I do believe that the government should regulate use of the word “medicine” in trade. It also regulates a lot of other words, like “ketchup” and “ice cream”. The government regulates what “12 fl. oz” means when you buy a can of root beer, and regulates exactly how the number of calories should be printed on the wrapper for a chocolate bar.

Notice how a lot of desserts in the frozen section of your grocery store are labeled “frozen dairy dessert”. That is because those specific desserts are not permitted to be called “ice cream”, just like how oscillococcinum should not be permitted to be called “medicine”.

There’s a balance here, but oscillococcinum is not an edge case. It is pseudoscientific fraud.

I’m glad that this isn’t the Wild West of snake oil salesmen like we had back in the day. People used to really get hurt! I think more of these regulations would improve the situation even more—herbal supplements, for example, should be labeled with the quantity of ingredients more accurately—right now, it can be a bit of a crapshoot due to the variations between vendors or even between different batches from the same vendor.

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

#153

Post by scottyah »

roughly wrote: post #136
pico303 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is an understandable trend. With inflation and job markets and various conflicts around the world, combined with the near constant flood of near-realtime data online, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. This “anti-expert,” Qanon, flat-earth conspiracy trend fundamentally is a way for folks who feel like life is out of their control to get some of that control back by believing they have some piece of know…

Yeah, I think a big part of the trendiness of these groups on both sides comes down to a sense of powerlessness in the world. The "secret knowledge" allure is certainly part of it, and I think for both the Goop-left and Infowars-right there's a strong sense of "manifest your destiny", either by being a gun toting self-sufficient alpha male or by harmonizing your vibes with the cosmic mind to manifest positivity in yo…

We have labor laws and healthcare, they're just not enough and intrapreneurship probably isn't enough to fix them systemically. I see this as healthy growth, the people who don't get healed from what modern medicine currently covers are desperate enough to try these outlandish remedy attempts. If a lot of people have the same problems and figure out a cure, it will get incorporated into whatever they teach the MDs.

People ARE individuals, on a physical level too. Modern medicine is notoriously bad at addressing this, and until the technology catches up the only alternative to people trying things on their own is state-mandated trials on vulnerable groups.

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

#154

Post by insickness »

kstrauser wrote: post #131
anonymouswacker wrote: post #90

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 allow…

> Should these companies not be allowed to advertise and distribute products that might help some and might hurt others? That is correct, yes. Pharmacologically active ingredients are medicine. Encouraging someone to take mental health meds without supervision, especially when made who-knows-where with who-knows-what quality control, because they're unregulated, is incredibly irresponsible. There's a reason you can't…

There are a multitude of supplements with clinical evidence to support their efficacy that are neither #1 nor #2. These include caffeine, ginseng, various vitamins, etc. If you go to examine.com, they analyze the strength of the studies and the effect size. Most won't have the effect size of prescription drugs but some are absolutely worth taking, particularly fish oil and vitamins like B and D.

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

#155

Post by dmvdoug »

AlbertCory wrote: post #143

Since I just watched Idiocracy last week at a friend's recommendation: The hero encounters vast numbers of people who robotically say about a Gatorade-like product: "It's got electrolytes!" He asks them, "Do you even know what electrolytes are?"

That’s a great documentary.

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

#156

Post by bongodongobob »

digging wrote: post #146
anigbrowl wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The food desert concept is way overblown. They exist to some degree, but a lot of people choose to buy shit food when it would be equally convenient and affordable to buy something good. People walking around with 32oz (~1 liter) soda cups are not unable to find anything else to drink, they're sugar addicts.

Surely such a misanthropic shifting of blame to the poor themselves is well supported by research?

Who is blaming the poor? They are too poor to drink water? That makes no sense.

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

#157

Post by abe_m »

superb_dev wrote: post #88
Aunche wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If people in the area generally wanted vegetables, someone would sell them. So the most likely case is that the vast majority of people in food desserts don't really want vegetables.

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

#158

Post by csmpltn »

roughly wrote: post #101

The anti-authority/anti-expert theme in American politics isn't a left or right phenomenon. There's a fundamental breakdown in institutional trust within American society which is present on both sides, and the similar approaches to wellness are a vivid expression of this.

The erosion of institutional trust became much more widespread post Covid. As it should have.

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

#159

Post by andybak »

csmpltn wrote: post #158
roughly wrote: post #101

The anti-authority/anti-expert theme in American politics isn't a left or right phenomenon. There's a fundamental breakdown in institutional trust within American society which is present on both sides, and the similar approaches to wellness are a vivid expression of this.

The erosion of institutional trust became much more widespread post Covid. As it should have.

Why?

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

#160

Post by mrguyorama »

mc32 wrote: post #81
dfxm12 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Even CostCo is 110% in on selling overpriced "supplements" to an ageing, afraid, and underinsured populace. Surely this industrial quantity of random pills will fix me!
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