• @xkforce@lemmy.world
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    13210 months ago

    “Chemicals” in food. Literally every substance, every food and people are composed of them. The common usage has bastardized the meaning and latched on to the naturalistic fallacy. Snake venom is natural. Cyanide is natural. Arsenic and Uranium are natural. Botulinum toxin is natural. Something being naturally occurring does not automatically make it good for you just as something being made in a lab does not equate to being bad for you.

    • @FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee
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      3610 months ago

      I feel like that’s one of those things where the conversational use of chemicals and scientific use has drifted apart

      There’s plenty of examples but the only one I can think of is evolution, like In every terrible sci-fi movie ever using evolution to describe the individual evil monster gaining some change

      Anyways 100% agree with you tho

        • @ArcaneGadget@lemmy.world
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          1210 months ago

          I find myself thinking this a lot. Someone goes; “and that’s my theory about…” And I’m like; that’s not a theory, that’s a hypothesis…

            • eggmasterflex
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              110 months ago

              Idk if that helps your point as it’s simultaneously one of the most studied and least understood things in physics. Although I doubt a creationist could mount that argument.

              • @Lmaydev@programming.dev
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                110 months ago

                The point is it’s not just a guess with no evidence which is what they think a theory is.

                If they came back with that you try and explain that’s why it’s called a theory and not a fact.

      • Exocrinous
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        410 months ago

        AI. In the real world, AI is any computer process that can make decisions as if it were smart. Expert systems, genetic algorithms, hell even fuzzy logic. A smart lightbulb is artificially smart. Artificially intelligent.

        In movies and bad tech blogs, AI means a sapient machine and that’s why LLMs aren’t actually AI.

    • @Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      My least favorite is “it’s processed”

      I can count the ingredients on my hands, and the “processing” is like 4 steps max.

      • Exocrinous
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        810 months ago

        “Unga bunga me invent new process for food. It called cooking. Make less parasites in meat. Very good.”

        “Cooking bad, garg. We no want processed food.”

      • @pixelscript@lemmy.ml
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        310 months ago

        A guy at a deli counter slicing cold cuts and assembling them into a sandwich is “processed food”. Using the term as a health concern marker is meaningless.

        Even Kraft Singles, the posterchild of “processed food”, famously disallowed to legally call itself “cheese” on its packaging, what is it made of? What hellish process hath humanity wrought? Cheddar cheese, sodium citrate (a mundane variety of salt), and water. That’s it.

        It’s not forbidden from being called “cheese” because it’s a bastard concoction of mad scientist chemicals that approximate cheese to ruse consumers. It’s simply cheese, literally watered down to the point that you can’t call it cheese anymore.

        All that the sodium citrate is doing in this situation is acting as a binder that helps the cheese solids hold on to the water. This action is what gives many dishes, sauces, and the like their smooth, creamy texture. But use the word for that – “emulsifier” – and suddenly people think you’re trying to poison them, because that’s a scary chemical word.

        Why does this product exist? Because it offers a unique melty texture that people appreciate in certain contexts. It’s a niche product with a niche function. Treat it like one.

    • @GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
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      210 months ago

      Have you heard about the chemical dihydrogen monoxide?! It’s 100% fatal! Too much causes death, too little, death! Massively addictive.

      • @xkforce@lemmy.world
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        710 months ago

        Being overweight or obese, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, prolonged sitting, loneliness will all kill you way faster than all those “chemicals” in your food that you are so terrified of but no one really cares about any of that because its much harder to lose that extra 30 pounds and break up sitting every once in a while with light exercise than it is to act like a picky 5 year old and eat nothing but organic food satisfied by the false notion that you did something of consequence for your health.