"I don't like to take any medicines", my friend Sam said to me as we sat for dinner one evening. "I avoid taking medicines as far as possible", he added. "I eat only natural and organic foods instead, to keep myself from falling sick."
Sam did not tell me this as we sat down to dinner. In fact, I do not even have a friend named Sam. But the thoughts and words used by the fictional Sam are very real and have been uttered by a number of my friends and acquaintances over the years.
When the Sam at hand is one of my close friends, I tell him right away that I am the total opposite. My mother calls me a pill-popper, and I think of myself as a lover of medicines. Faced with a choice between eating a food that has preservatives, and an equivalent item that is fresh and free of preservatives, I usually - but not always - choose the preservative-free food.
Organics versus Non-Organics
Some organic vegetables and fruit may be more nutritious than their non-organic counterparts. The organic ones may have higher levels of protein, phytochemicals and dozens of other nutrients. But I am unwilling to spend my sparse and hard-earned money on paying a lofty premium for organic foods. I reckon I can get the extra nutrients simply by eating an additional serving of non-organic foods.
Many people who buy organic vegetables and fruits choose them not for their putative enhanced nutritional value, but because organic produce is grown without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. I am indifferent to the type of fertilizer used; I do not mind eating foods grown with the use of chemical fertilizers. Perhaps the use of organic fertilizers enhances a food's taste and nutritional value compared with a food grown with the aid of artificial chemical fertilizers. If that is indeed so, then my indifference is simply a highly visible symptom of my ignorance.
Rightly or wrongly, I do not shy from eating non-organic foods that have been sprayed with pesticides. The foods are not soaked in pesticides; they only have pesticide residues on them. I wash vegetables and fruit with water before eating them. Washing gets rid of the residues.
Pesticide Phobia
The fear of pesticides that some people harbor borders on a phobia. Not only do they buy organic produce, they also wash it thoroughly and then peel off and discard the skin, if any. Apples are peeled before they are eaten, as are cucumbers and even tomatoes. Discarding the skin rids the food of many vital nutrients and of fiber.
A high fiber intake has numerous benefits: it provides bulk to stools and eases bowel movements. Fiber limits calorie intake by making us feel full sooner. Water-soluble fiber reduces our blood levels of LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol. The nutritional losses that we suffer by discarding peels far outweigh any benefits that we may get from avoiding the trace amounts of pesticide residues.
Extreme Conservatism
A number of my close relatives and not-so-close relatives belong squarely to the pesticide-phobic camp. Without exception, the same people are also deeply conservative, both socially and politically. Although I have a small sample size, I think the juxtaposition of pesticide phobia with extreme right-wing ness - however discordant - is no coincidence.
While their conservative bias may well have genetic or biological origins, it is their staunch refusal to change their views in the face of contrary evidence that sustains their conservatism. Willful ignorance, narrow-mindedness and an acute conservatism go hand-in-hand, each providing organic fodder and pesticide-free sustenance to the other.
The liberal in me yearns to treat liberals and conservatives on an even keel. "Conservatives simply think differently, but their viewpoints are as legitimate as liberal viewpoints", I like to tell myself. That may be true for conservatives who are right-of-center, but my experience tells me that it does not hold for the hardcore right-wingers. 'Extreme right-winger' is simply a euphemism for 'stubborn ignoramus'.
Peels of Aversion
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"But the peel has germs on it!", she declared. "The only way to remove them is to peel it off".
"Does the skin have pesticide residues or germs?", I asked. "Pick one."
"The peel gets stuck in my artificial teeth and I cannot chew it", she explained.
I offered to grind the peel into a puree in a blender. But off came the peel and made its way into the trash. The apple was then cut into several pieces. "Have it", offered my relative with a big smile. She was very kind and gracious.
The symptoms of pesticide phobia are not limited to discarding fruit peels. Many vegetables such as cauliflower or green beans cannot be peeled. But there's an easy way to take care of them. The same pesticide-phobic, germ-phobic people cook the vegetables to death, until the vegetables turn into a soft and mushy, candle-like pulp stripped of most nutrients. Recipes of Indian cooking are notorious for requiring vegetables to be overcooked liberally. As a result, many Indians - whether liberal or conservative - essentially destroy their food before consuming it.
Liberals should avoid cooking vegetables liberally, and conservatives should conserve all manner of things, including fruit peels and the nutritional content of vegetables. But language being what it is, the monikers are loaded with irony, as are 'driveway' and 'parkway'.
Naturality's Unnaturalness
A widespread and popular belief equates a naturally occurring nutrient as good and healthy, and an artificially created nutrient as unhealthy and to-be-avoided, even if the artificially created nutrient is chemically identical to the natural one.
"Eat fruit instead of cookies", an acquaintance once told me. "Fruit contains natural sugar, whereas cookies contain artificial sugar."
"I always eat fruit and I never eat cookies", I explained. "Fruits are healthy and cookies are unhealthy not because of the naturalness or artificiality of sugar, but because fruit contain dozens of other useful nutrients, whereas cookies contain unhealthy substances such as saturated fats, trans-fats and too many empty calories".
The acquaintance was not convinced. "Our bodies can detect if a nutrient is artificial or if it is natural", he said. "We were designed to eat only natural foods."
I was not ready to give up. "That's a widespread belief", I told him. "But it's not scientifically true."
And there the matter rested. I haven't met him since. I should. He lives in the neighboring apartment building, and I should keep in touch with him.
Allopathy as Alternative Medicine
The quest for naturality often extends to a fondness for supplements and alternative medicine. It is one thing for someone to turn to alternative medicine in search of promised remedies, if mainstream medicine (allopathic medicine) fails to cure their medical condition. But many people - particularly Indians - use alternative medicine such as Ayurveda, Homeopathy, etc. as their first line of defense against an ailment, and mainstream medicine only if all else fails - as it usually does.
I have tried to dissuade a few of my acquaintances from using alternative medicine as the first line of action. "It's not a good idea to take that Ayurvedic supplement", I have told them. "It claims to be a medicine, but it may not be."
Their response has always been the same. "Even if it's not effective as a medicine, at least it won't be harmful, because it is natural after all. Allopathic medicines, on the other hand, have side-effects and can be harmful, since they are artificially prepared; they are not natural."
I tell them that naturality does not imply either effectiveness or safety; that science not only does not know whether the medicines work or not, but also does not know whether they are harmful or not. But my arguments have always fallen on deaf ears. If it's written in the holy ancient Indian manual Ayurveda, it must be true. If a medicine is natural, there's no way that it can be harmful!
I wonder how many Indian and other lives are lost every year due to such attitudes and beliefs. Is it in the hundreds of thousands, or millions? How long into the future will such beliefs persist? Decades, centuries or millennia?
The Ace of the Anti-Medicine
Faced with Sam's statements about avoiding medicines and sticking to organic foods and natural remedies, I would trot out the above arguments, questioning the use of organic foods and natural remedies. Though I freely admitted to being a medicine-lover myself, I was never able to think of a persuasive argument to wean them from the path of medicine avoidance.
But I had an epiphany last week when I heard the same statements from the newest Sam.
"You have no qualms about taking anti-medicines", I pointed out to him. "You eat large amounts of anti-medicines everyday without giving them a second thought. And yet you avoid medicines..."
Sam was mystified. "What's an anti-medicine?"
I explained that it was all the unhealthy food that he ate. The fried, crispy meats, loaded with saturated fats and trans fats; his avoidance of a variety of vegetables and his high consumption of refined carbohydrates such as white rice and white bread.
"You mean I eat poison?", he asked.
"I wouldn't call it poison, although it is poison", I said. "I use the word 'poison' to refer to an item that harms the body quickly in a short time, such as detergent or an overdose of sleeping pills. But I would much rather use the term 'anti-medicine' to describe slow-acting poisons that masquerade as tasty food."
Sam became thoughtful. "You eat all these anti-medicines, and they harm your health", I continued. "They raise your cholesterol and blood pressure, and perhaps affect you in other ways too. Then your doctor prescribes you medicines to lower your cholesterol and your blood pressure, but you refuse to take them since you want to avoid medicines."
"I never thought of food as harmful", said Sam.
"When you start identifying certain foods as anti-medicines, not only will you restrict your consumption of those foods without anyone prodding you to do so, but you will also be a lot more willing to take medicines to cancel the effects of the anti-medicines", I said.
Sam beamed at me. The mystified look on his face was gone. "This fish is crispy and very tasty", he said. "Would you like to try some?"
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