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Carol D Marsh's avatar

Moorea - I look forward to your fact checks of fact checks, and save them for a time when I can sit and take them in. I'm learning a lot, not the least of which is to verify most of what journalists or "experts" claim. It's an important message.

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Moorea Maguire's avatar

Thanks so much for your input, Carol. And high five from another HSP!

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Martin 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺𝘎 Gottesfeld's avatar

Holy $@#!. Did the effing B.B.C. really print "there’s no clear evidence" that "many pervasive health problems, including cancers, obesity and depression" are "caused" by "ultra-processed foods"?

Yes. It did. See https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mzk2y41zvo

As Moorea hints, this is indeed journalistic malpractice, of perhaps the worst order, in detriment to the public health. And, it is particularly cynical given that the U.K. government is starting to ban "junk food" TV ads in a similar fashion to the long-standing U.S. ban of TV cigarette ads. See https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2n2g5wze4o

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Moorea Maguire's avatar

Totally. I think they're being lazy because they don't want to look for the evidence. In these five posts, I bet I spent 10 times as many hours on their article than they did. 😆

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Martin 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺𝘎 Gottesfeld's avatar

This is beyond lazy. In my opinion it is malicious; another instance of crony journalists comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted.

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Moorea Maguire's avatar

well said

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Lani V. Cox's avatar

Those school lunch pics. Man, that's some depressing crap right there. I can't believe this is what we feed growing learning children. Also, yeah, high sugar diet, really? Can't draw that conclusion, people?

This actually aligns with what I've been thinking about lately, how quickly information is put out there and our inability to process it without being spoon-fed.

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Moorea Maguire's avatar

I know, right? 🙄 Those pics are from 2012 and I’ve heard that Michelle Obama tried to improve school lunches. But I don’t know how successful she was — I imagine it was an uphill battle.

Totally agree about people being unable to process info unless it’s spoonfed to us. I tried to counteract this when I was a teacher, but it was difficult. 😩

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Lani V. Cox's avatar

I’ve learned with age that open-mindedness, and the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in one’s mind, are rare indeed.

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Moorea Maguire's avatar

. . . which is unfortunate because they're such important abilities. 😔

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Lani V. Cox's avatar

Absolutely. I find myself tiptoeing around issues or accepting the fact that I will/am misunderstood. What happened to nuance!

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Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Unfortunately, like pretty much everything in America, this all boils down to money. Making people sick with shitty food is way more profitable than having healthy citizens.

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Moorea Maguire's avatar

True 😔

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Tim Burns's avatar

I couldn't agree more!

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