Perfectly Natural

Apparently, almost no alternative medicines work as claimed, and they may include things like lead and arsenic. Funny how it took $2.5 billion worth of studies to prove that.

But yet Michael Pollan noted the following in In Defense of Food, which as you can probably tell, has been my latest favorite book:

People who take supplements are healthier than the population at large, yet their health probably has nothing whatsoever to do with the supplements they take - most of which recent studies have suggested are worthless. Supplement takers tend to be better educated, more affluent people who, almost by definition, take a greater than usual interest in personal health - confounders that probably account for their superior health.

Funny how confounding variables in complex biological systems might even completely mask potential harm from eating worthless supplements that may be contaminated with lead and arsenic. It might almost lead a person to believe that the scientific establishment has only a fuzzy grasp on what makes us healthy or sick, to the point where the only way they can even figure it out is to run long term, controlled tests and just see what happens.

But food contaminated with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)? That stuff, buddy, that is safe to eat.

As a closing thought, apropos of very little and via Ezra Klein, Jon Stewart talks about healthcare reform.