"Hold off on those red and blue berry extracts..." Topic

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If it's a fad, I generally avoid it.

What's the next thing to be "discovered" to be dangerous? Krill oil?
It's not so long ago that "some" doctors thought tobacco was good for you. Who knows, in 20 years, maybe it will be.

My clock radio wakes me up every weekend day to half hour commercials for various "nutriceuticals" and supplements. I don't turn it off because I still have to get up to feed and put out the dog, who is in a VERY strict schedule.
These commercials for all kinds of vitamins and extracts of poison ivy are so annoying they actually get me out of bed faster.

I was reading an article the other day that was about some real research into health guidelines.

The UK recommended maximum alcohol limit of 21 units a day was a guess by some experts who couldn't work out any real value but felt under pressure to come up with something. The recent research shows that as little as 30ml of wine a day can be harmful.

Five portions of fruit or veg a day was a slogan created in California, by fruit producers to boost consumption of local food. We should eat more basic vegetables but the whole smoothie/wheatgrass extract stuff is of no real value.

If the "health nuts" advocate it, I tend to look on with suspicion. Doesn't mean they might not be right, it just means that sometimes they only look halfway, or are really leaping on assumptions based on personal preferences rather than science or logic (like the whole "natural, organic foods" movement, which has nothing whatsoever to do with science, and is causing more harm than good.) Good for Dr. Watson for calling them out.

Five glasses of water a day is also a myth.

I just got word that a good friend is off to Boston for cancer treatment. Cancer! He's the healthiest guy I know, active lifestyle, full of energy, doesn't smoke or drink, likes his red meat occasionally though…

What a surprise.

Being alive has been found to lead to fatality in 100% of cases studied.

The health benefits of antioxidants isn't restricted to the realm of 'health nuts'… it's been trumpeted by on just about every advisory list of healthy eating I've seen.
This is the first I've heard of a controversy about them, but I get that anything can be taken to excess.
I eat a small bowl of berries every day for breakfast but I stay away from all the supplements/extracts/concentrates that my New Age friends like to gobble… I think sometimes those people don't like food.

The problem with food science is that you can only find what you're looking for. For example: people eating salmon had reduced heart disease so scientists when lookin and they found Omega-3. So the conclusion became: consume Omega-3's and it doesn't matter if it comes of fish or a little yellow pill.

Only later do we notice the Omega-3 thing isn't working so scientists have another look…oh wait, Omega-3 without the Omega-6 won't work, you need both!

I believe food is too complex to copy in the lab and if we would just eat the salmon and forget the pill we'd be better off. Just as Honey (Bee Spit) as a lot more than Water, Glucose and Fructose.

So, remember: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Life is a terminal condition – nobody gets out alive. I eat what I like – and if I feel like I've gotten over-weight – I exercise and cut back on the sweets.

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Careful on that last part, as the vast majority of plants are inedible, if not poisonous.

However, roughly 95% of all animals (not counting microbes) are perfectly fine to eat (though cooking is advised).

Don't understand about the smoothie comment. I've been
making them for breakfast for years (6 components,
5 fresh raw fruits and home-made apple juice) and
the only time we've gone off them for a week, we had
some serious digestive tract issues.

There are two 'always' in my smoothies, blueberrys
(1/2 cup) and raspberrys (1/4 cup). Other than those,
pineapple, cherries, kiwi fruit, pears, peaches,
bananas and plums are all in the rotation.

But I don't and won't use the commercial mixes, whether
frozen or powdered.

'he only time we've gone off them for a week, we had
some serious digestive tract issues."

Your digestive flora are probably strongly biased by now, and robbing a prosperous population of intestinal flora of their chosen nectar for a week is going to cause issues, whether you are stopping fruit smoothies or a high meat intake. The switch is the problem.