From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Wed Nov 13 2002 - 14:29:53 MST
On Wednesday, November 13, 2002 3:19 PM Lee Daniel Crocker
lee@piclab.com wrote:
> More total nonsense from the Green idiots. Typical
> Amercian supermarket produce is better nutritionally
> than it has ever been in the past, and only getting
> better.
What's your data for this? The Life Extension Foundation reported in
2001 that nutrition content in many vegetables has been declined since
1963. (See
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2001/mar2001_report_vegetables.html They
were using USDA data here.)
What's responsible for this decline? I'm not sure. It could be modern
methods of bringing plant products to market before they're ripe. It
could also be a size increase in the material from far more rapid growth
leading to lower nutritional concentrations. It could be using strains
for higher overall yields by weight -- as opposed to strains with higher
nutritional yields.
Of course, the report could be wrong, but again what is your data?
> Frozen and canned fruits and vegetables
> are also excellent, and even more nutritious than
> fresh sometimes (though canned products often
> contain too much sodium). There are no proven
> benefits to "Organic" produce, which is just another
> scam to lighten the wallets of consumers by feeding
> them a line of "natural is good" bullshit.
One other problem with canned plants and other prepared products of this
sort: enzyme content is less or near zero. The highest enzyme content
is gotten from fresh foods.
> As Extropians, we should celebrate appropriate
> and valuable uses of technology like genetic
> engineering and chemical pesticides and fertilizers
> when they produce good products and don't cause
> any real environmental damage;
If this so, agreed. I think people should be careful to wash fruits and
vegetables, though, to minimize pesticides and herbicides in their diet.
(Not totally avoidable, since they're sprayed all over the place.) I
don't know the wisdom of consuming such agrochemicals. (Yes, they're
helpful for something, just as chlorination of water is helpful to
destroy pathogens in the water supply. This doesn't mean consuming
chlorine is a good idea or shouldn't be minimized.)
> and we should be
> as quick to condemn bad uses of technology like the
> entire dietary supplement industry, which feeds on
> fear and ignorance.
I disagree about the "entire dietary supplement industry" here. What is
your data for this?
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 17:58:05 MST