In any fact-based field of study, there are most definitely some arguments that are not based on fact. Science has so many of these opinions that they have a name for them: pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is essentially claims made about scientific fields that contain no scientific reasoning whatsoever.
One good example of pseudoscience is the whole foods industry. Whole foods are supposedly foods that are ‘organic’, meaning they are toxin-free, nutrient-rich, and simply healthier for you than regular foods. However, these claims about whole foods don’t hold water, and they have no scientific background to support them.
The whole foods industry is yet another gold-digging industry. Yes, it’s important to eat healthy, and yes, we should be supporting our local farmer’s markets and stores. Despite the fact that these are some of the whole food industry’s values, they don’t even follow through on them.
Take the term ‘organic’, for instance. From a chemistry standpoint, a molecule simply has to contain carbon and hydrogen atoms in order to be considered organic. Therefore, scientifically, lipids, which are fats, are organic molecules because they contain carbon and hydrogen atoms. Some toxic acids are also considered organic for the same reason. In a sense, the whole foods industry is promoting eating a lot of fat and poisonous substances when they say, “Eat organic.”. This is just one of the many examples of this industry making scientific claims without scientific facts to back them up.
The whole foods industry also blatantly goes against science, simply with the magazines and journals that it sells. These journals are all about how doctors are constantly wrong, and how herbal and naturally made medicines are more effective than the pharmaceutical variety. While it may be true that some of these all-natural medications can be effective, it is in no way true that we should disregard the field of medicine altogether. Whoever is writing these articles is certainly not doing their research.
The scariest part of this whole situation is not eating whole foods. In theory, there is nothing wrong with this type of food, it just probably won’t supply you with the desired effects that it advertises. The real frightening situation here is how people believe everything being said by these types of industries. People flock by the hundreds into these whole foods markets every day, simply because they believe what they are reading. It’s so reassuring to consumers to see scientific facts on labels, that they don’t even stop to ponder if it’s really true or not. The average Joe isn’t going to research about these things, they’re simply going to believe what they hear, and a monkey-see-monkey-do phenomena occurs. People need to stop relying so heavily on what others say, and actually look into things themselves.
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