Infowars and Goop sell the same exact pseudoscientific "wellness" products • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by drewcoo » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:18 PM UTC

EA-3167 wrote: post #118

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.

I think it's more than a coincidence that we see this "anti-expert" ideology concentrated at the two political poles. For either the far left or right, it's important to reject evidence that doesn't conform to ideology, and eventually the way to do that is to reject authority that isn't your own. They don't want to be subject to authority, they want to be be the unquestioned authority. It doesn't matter if the topic…

> For either the far left or right, it's important to reject evidence that doesn't conform to ideology,

Isn't that what everyone does, regardless of distance or direction?

> They don't want to be subject to authority, they want to be be the unquestioned authority.

So where do the people who question authority fit into this neat dichotomy?

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

#182

Post by abe_m » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:21 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #106

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,…

I've been heavily involved in a city council before that was trying to attract stores (especially a grocery store), so I'm pretty familiar with how it works, and this mostly incorrect. In fact, people going out of their way to get the produce elsewhere works against a new store, because the stores see that as cannabilization should they open a new closer location. The decision to open new stores is mostly based on "n…

Was this effort at the request of residents of this food desert? Or was this an initiative of people outside of the area the proposed stores would serve?

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

#183

Post by freedomben » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:22 PM UTC

schmichael wrote: post #173

freedomben wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure it does: > "The desirable nutritional changes that occur during sprouting are mainly due to the breakdown of complex compounds into a more simple form, transformation into essential constituents and breakdown of nutritionally undesirable constituents. This is a reason why sprouts are also called pre-digested foods."[12]

> pre-digested foods This implies that digestion does the same thing already and saves you a step?

sort of. It's not really a binary yes or no on whether it's digested. Especially with seeds it's a little complicated because they have often evolved to survive digestion (especially where they spread by animals pooping them out in a physically different location than they originally grew). Some people can digest them better than others, but sprouting the seeds will cause them to morph from digestive-resistant seed form to nutrient-rich tiny plant, and make the nutrients more accessible to most people. It also (subjectively) improves the taste, which can be a nice bonus

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

#184

Post by kstrauser » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:23 PM UTC

insickness wrote: post #154

kstrauser wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Caffeine and gensing have immediate onsets. You know in a small number of minutes whether you’ve had enough or too much. Vitamins usually have a wide range between enough to be useful and enough to harm you, although you’re crazy to take fat-soluble vitamins for a long period without telling your doctor and getting a blood test.

You generally have to take psych meds for quite a few days before determine their effect. If you take too little, you risk your mental health. Take too much? Have fun riding out Seratonin Syndrome!

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

#185

Post by freedomben » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:23 PM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #177

freedomben wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been heavily involved in a city council before that was trying to attract stores (especially a grocery store), so I'm pretty familiar with how it works, and this mostly incorrect. In fact, people going out of their way to get the produce elsewhere works against a new store, because the stores see that as cannabilization should they open a new closer location. The decision to open new stores is mostly based on "n…

Dollar stores are the killer here. They can easily undercut regular grocery stores (low selection, low worker count) but they do not have produce sections. So people just give up the produce section to get all the other processed stuff cheaper.

Yes indeed, that's a real challenge

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

#186

Post by freedomben » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:25 PM UTC

abe_m wrote: post #182

freedomben wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been heavily involved in a city council before that was trying to attract stores (especially a grocery store), so I'm pretty familiar with how it works, and this mostly incorrect. In fact, people going out of their way to get the produce elsewhere works against a new store, because the stores see that as cannabilization should they open a new closer location. The decision to open new stores is mostly based on "n…

Was this effort at the request of residents of this food desert? Or was this an initiative of people outside of the area the proposed stores would serve?

Yes this was primarily at the request of residents as they frequently had to drive 20 to 25 minutes to get to a grocery store with fresh produce (and by "fresh" I mean "Walmart". Other stores were even further. Take that for what you will).

The mayor's office did also have broader commercial development goals as the strain of growth and traffic was brutalizing the budget. If we could put a grocery store in town, that would be highly appreciated by the people, and also cut a ton of traffic

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

#187

Post by andybak » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:26 PM UTC

csmpltn wrote: post #174

andybak wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

> Why? Locking people down at home for over 2 years. Damaging an entire generation of young children in the process. Destroying the economy in the process. Inflationary policies which lead to recessions and stagflation globally from which we still haven't recovered (and probably won't for the next 5-10 years). Spreading mass fear and hysteria based on little empirical (and often contradictory) evidence. Obliterating…

Rather than being an issue of "institutional trust" it's an issue of a deep and continuing disagreement about the correct trade-offs to make in the face of a novel and quickly evolving situation - and one in which nobody had a crystal ball.

Many people who are far from the levers of power would disagree strongly with your above portrayal. It's an issue that divides people more than an issue where the masses were hoodwinked by an elite with ulterior motives.

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

#188

Post by abe_m » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:27 PM UTC

Spivak wrote: post #144

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,…

> a concept that assumes that demand follows supply This is wayyyy too black and white. What is cheap and available is what becomes people's diets and historically folks are extremely creative with the stuff that's around. This is pretty much the entire story of culinary history and likely where all your favorite dishes originated. One of the reasons tea was so unbelievably popular in western Europe was because the s…

That's a lot of words to say that fresh foods aren't available close by because people don't want them. They are demanding convenience foods with their dollars, so that is what the vendors provide. Forcing a store into existence by government (or other) proclamation to supply fresh foods won't make people buy them.

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

#189

Post by abe_m » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:29 PM UTC

superb_dev wrote: post #180

abe_m wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's just too black and white. The other replies to the comment I replied too have much better explanations than I could give as to why

We have a few convenience stores in my city that have started offering a small selection of fresh foods, something like a little basket with a few apples, oranges, and bananas. Some of them have expanded out into a full produce section. Others removed them entirely. Some are holding steady with the small basket. The stores are delivering what people are willing to buy in their areas.

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

#190

Post by kornhole » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:42 PM UTC

People would buy overpriced sugar pills from Infowars because that is how the whole operation is funded. Many of the supplements are good and sold elsewhere for a lower price, but again people want to support the independent media they produce.