#chemophobia

/randomrant

I’m soooo done with products advertised as “no ingredients you can’t understand!” XD; Guys, I’m not a chemist. Of course I don’t understand every scientific name on the side of the cereal box. That doesn’t make them all BAD. Do you know how many common, natural, EDIBLE chemicals are in the foods we eat? Here are just a few examples:

Acetylsalicylic acid - aspirin Pyrodoxine - Vitamin B12 Ferrous gluconate - primary source of iron for iron supplements Calcium propionate - a naturally-occurring organic salt used to keep bread from molding Oxidane - WATER

I totally support accountability when it comes to amounts of additives in food (anything can be bad for you if there’s too much, and many things are perfectly safe in trace amounts) and being aware of adverse effects (if there are any). But treating us as though we can only trust in something if the name looks familiar or sounds nice is ridiculous. We are the majority of us not going to have this knowledge on hand, and inflaming this irrational fear of “ChEMicALs” just encourages ignorance and blind purchasing because more of us will automatically reject stuff simply because of the (kinda conceited) idea that we already know everything we need to make an informed decision. Meanwhile companies are delighted to have found a new gimmick for sucking us into purchasing their products for a higher markup.

So basically these commercials randomly naming chemicals and LITERALLY saying, “Do YOU know what any of those are? I don’t! Here’s our product where you’ll recognize everything!” make me want to clunk my head against a wall. ^^; You didn’t even tell me why I shouldn’t eat them, just said I shouldn’t because I don’t recognize them?!? Why are companies like this and why do we fall for it uuuuugh

ANTI-VAXXERS.

FUCK ANTI-VAXXERS.

FUCK THEM SO HARD.

Also people who think “chemical” means “bad thing.” As in, “There are chemicals in our water.” OF COURSE there are chemicals in your water. WATER IS A CHEMICAL, dumbass. You meant to say, “There are DANGEROUS chemicals in our water,” or at least I hope you did. These people often also think that because they don’t understand the name of an ingredient it is automatically bad for you.

"There is just no acceptable level of any chemical to ingest, ever."

-- Vani Hari, “The Food Babe Way”

"If a third grader can't pronounce it, don't eat it."

-- Vani Hari [Source, Source]

"They named me Vani, a name I hated as a child because my schoolmates made fun of it and no one could pronounce it."

-- Vani Hari, “The Food Babe Way”

Because of chemophobia, I guess you could say, which is the hatred of anything “chemical” or “artificial” (such as GMOs, medicine, etc). 

Breast milk may be better but it’s not the end of the world if someone doesn’t breastfeed, and of course many people can’t. 

But a lot of “all natural activists”, like vegans and antivaxxers, are nasty and regressive people who refuse to understand the world doesn’t set up the same for everyone; that is, just because they can afford something or are capable of doing it, doesn’t mean everyone is, let alone that everyone should. 

They also tend to blame all the world’s problems on humans, such as that people are only depressed because they’re being fed a diet of chemicals and lies, and that “real antidepressants” are going outside or doing yoga. Which means, in their eyes, using formula is contributing to the world’s problems.

They have points when they talk about over-industrialization, poor quality products, and over-medicalization in some things and situations, such as the treatment pregnant people are subjected to in childbirth just to get them in and out as quickly as possible for more patients... but they also tend to ignore a lot of these issues when it comes to things they do themselves (such as how quinoa prices became inflated and put the food out of reach for local people who literally rely on it). 

So basically, it’s blaming the consumer for the faults of the industry and society. Not that we exist in a vacuum but that someone buying and using formula is not the cause of breastfeeding being viewed negatively and being pushed out.