Pet Peeve #127D

[kirideth]

The assumption that "natural" is usually beneficial and always somehow superior to synthetic.

Most recently triggered by a commercial for some artificial sweetener. No, really? It's made out of a plant? With leaves and everything? Wow! So are an awful lot of common products. Even products "artificially produced using chemistry." And this sweetener? Also processed using chemistry! Shock and awe!

And, you know? I'd much, much rather eat artificially produced food-grade chemicals than naturally occurring poisons.

Comments

[some2else.livejournal.com]

Cocaine, technically, is an all-natural herbal extract.

[luinied]

It bugs me, too. And, the thing is, it's often the case that synthetic food products are less good (in some way) than the old-fashioned non-synthetic versions, but it's not because they're synthetic. Usually it's because the people/organizations who made them chose to make something cheaper rather than make something as healthy or tasty or whatever as they could have, or because they failed to fully research the properties of the thing they're imitating. But phrasing everything in terms of "natural good, synthetic bad" blinds people to what's really going on, and it gives the makers of shoddy things an easy path toward extra profit - just meet standards of nominal naturality and double the price.

[faerirose.livejournal.com]

LMAO! In my head I hear the cheesy male announcer voice: "Brought to you by CHEMISTRY!"

[kpooka17.livejournal.com]

Is this by chance Stevia? I get kind of annoyed at my coworkers who promote Stevia over Splenda. I get told constantly "your dad should switch to Stevia because Splenda is too close to antifreeze."

But you know humans are closely related to apes. And sometimes I think the apes are smarter than the humans. SO really I just don't listen to them anymore. Maybe if the apes started talking and told me Stevia is better than Splenda, I'd start listening

[kirideth.livejournal.com]

That's the one. >.<

[the-red-baron.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the high fructose corn syrup one where they keep saying "It's made out of corn!" like that makes a difference? That cracks me up.

[yashakizu.livejournal.com]

You said it...I'm not drinking pop anymore (when I rarely DO drink it) since they're (Coca-Cola and Pepsi) using that new "natural" sweetener without any input from the consumers.

In fact, I will only drink Mexican produced pops from now on because they use sugar.

[luinied]

Somehow I thought that sugar in soda was the norm in most of the world, and it was just in the US (and maybe a few other countries) where high fructose corn syrup was cheaper on account of corn subsidies. But I don't recall how things are for diet sodas.

[yashakizu.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. I remember the Coke tasted a bit weird in Japan because they used different sweeteners. Not sure if it was sugar or not. I just mention Mexico because they import a lot of pop into the U.S. Good pop too. :)

I believe most diet pops are all synthetic sugars.