What We Put in Our Mouth

A few days ago, my wife read a news story about the “raw water” movement in California.  It sounded outrageous, especially with the NBC headline:  “‘Raw water’ sound good to you? Then maybe diarrhea does, too.”  Untreated water may contain various harmful bacteria, farm runoff and other chemicals “that can cause long-term health effects, such as kidney and liver damage, nervous system disorders and birth defects.”  As people around the world crave clean drinking water, some Americans think it’s trendy to go back to nature.

I put it aside until I saw this CBS story about teens daring each other to eat laundry detergent.  That makes an interesting comparison to adults following every food trend that comes along.

First a brief summary of the detergent story – the latest social media fad is teens daring each other to put poisonous detergent pods in their mouths.  It’s called the "Tide Pod Challenge."  Those are the same pods government agencies have been recommending parents be very careful about buying, because toddlers and seniors with dementia mistake the colorful pods for candy.  Ten deaths have been reported.  Teens have no excuse and most know better, but at that age peer pressure is a powerful force.

The raw water story inspired me to look for other food trends.  What a surprise!  The search results for “2018 food trends” listed pages of sites.  I chose just a few to see what they held and soon I came to understand that what adults put in their mouths is often influenced by peer pressure as well – even if they too should know better. 

The first one I scanned asked:  “Always looking to be ahead of the curve when it comes to food trends?”  (Talk about pretentious!)  “The National Restaurant Association compiled the data by surveying 700 American Culinary Federation members earlier this year and asking them to rate over 100 items as 2018’s predicted ‘hot trend,’ ‘yesterday’s news,’ or ‘perennial favorite,’ respectively.”  Well, who would want their friends to find out that their food choices were so last year?  This is ridiculous on its face – hot trends, an American Culinary Federation?

But there was more.  Another site informed me:  “In recent years, quinoa, sorghum, teff and buckwheat have been the ‘superfoods’ of choice, but times are changing and other foods are taking the spotlight thanks to their spot-on nutritional content.”  The superfoods of last year are being replaced by the latest food trends that “may include nut oils, maqui berries, chaga mushrooms and tiger nuts.”  Later in the story appears a picture of two cartons of hemp milk, one labeled as a superfood, the other contains Omega 3 – 6, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and is gluten free, soy free, and carrageenan free, carrageenan, derived from seaweed is used for its gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties.  Apparently we should avoid it like the plague!  You won’t find any of that stuff in a superfood, no matter how natural the seaweed is!

Finally, I ran into a discussion of something called hydrogen water, great for athletes as it promises to boost energy, supply antioxidants, and remove lactic acid.  (Lactic acid is another subject to look up before believing the negative press.  See this in Runner’s World.)  You can order hydrogen water on Amazon.  For $17.99 (with $12.00 shipping) you get 7 pouches holding slightly more than one quart each.   That’s 1.75 gallons of water for only $30!  Better hurry; when I checked, there were only 18 left in stock.  Compare that with tap water, which costs about a quarter of a penny per gallon.

The article goes on:  “Admittedly, the science in this area [of hydrogen water] is weak at best, but we love the clean crisp flavor (and it might have helped to make our hangover a little less intense). If you're thirsty and feeling like the tap water isn't cutting it, give this a go.”  If tap water isn’t cutting it you can also buy a beer at a baseball game for less!  But food trends are not to be approached with logic.

In the end we have teens following trends and adults following trends.  The difference is that the consequences to the teens and the “raw water” crowd may be near-term and very uncomfortable, if not fatal.  For the rest, the consequences are delayed and disconnected.  They wonder why they have to work well into retirement, forgetting that tap water was not good enough or that they have no savings left after throwing away good money on the latest superfood.