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Tuesday 16 April 2013

Diet, Health & Food-myths Part II

                                                                                                   Photo by: Alexander Butler
Prepare your cells to be redoxed


    Myth - ASEA water is magic potion

    Truth - ASEA is salt water.
    This is not so much a myth as it is formula 1A snake oil. You might not even have heard of it, since it's not really sold in normal hippie-stores but rather is part of an elaborate pyramid scheme to make a couple of ruthless scoundrels rich while easily fooled, innocent and naive people tries to sell their useless, nicely boxed, aggressively marketed crap. They use a lot of nonsensical taglines like they always do.
    Since it's not really a myth it might not fit this subject but I think it's close enough.
    So what do they claim ASEA water does? Oh what doesn't it do, let your eyes feast on these claims:

    - ASEA is the first and only stable, perfectly balanced mixture of Redox Signaling reactive molecules that exists outside the body
    - ASEA is trillions of stable, perfectly balanced Redox Signaling Molecules suspended in a pristine saline solution—the same molecules that exist in the cells of the human body.
    - Boosts efficiency of the body's own antioxidants by up to 500%
    - Completely native to the body.

    Basically it transforms your whole body, and the future.... of everything. I can't believe how mankind has survived for so long without Redox signalling molecules.
    Well, we haven't. We have loads of the little buggers. As Science-Based Medicine puts it:
    "Redox signaling is a process whereby free radicals, reactive oxygen species, and other compounds act as biological messengers. Nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon monoxide can be classified as redox signaling molecules"- Basically electron Reduction/Oxidation communication.
    Bask in the glory of my magnificence as I insert a sciency picture from Wikipedia. You are welcome.


    The ASEA makers claims that we humans stops producing these molecules early on in life and will benefit by getting more of their signalling goodness. They also say that they have found a way to transform the salt into new chemicals. In their own words:
    "ASEA is a mixture of 16 chemically recombined products of salt and water with completely new chemical properties. It is no longer salt or water just like table salt is no longer chlorine gas or sodium metal."
    So what you are really drinking according to them is....who knows? "Completely new chemical properties" doesn't really fill me with confidence. If a Vodka-maker have recombined the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to have new chemical properties of unknown effect I'd steer clear.
    But don't worry, ASEA is expensive salt water and if your wallet is bigger than your confidence you should be okay to drink it and feel "excited about the new paradigm and awareness we now have with ASEA and its ability to transform human health" Link


    But if they actually have found a way to change salt to biological signaling molecules, would it work?
    I'm not a doctor, a chemist or a Medical Atomic Physicist (as Gary L Samuleson on ASEA:s payroll is being marketed as) but it sounds pretty daft doesn't it? If you drink brain-cells they wouldn't travel through your body up to your brain and get to work, high-fiveing their new colleagues. They would be dissolved by your stomach acid and whatever nutrients salvageable would be transported to your liver and then onwards to your cells and tissue.
    If it would work like they claim I'd be two thirds wine by now and by testicles would look like grapes.

                                                                                                    Photo: 123rf.com
    That explains a lot


    links:
    http://www.chem1.com/CQ/
    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/asea-another-expensive-way-to-buy-water/
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox_signaling


    Myth - Hyperactive children during a sugar-rush
    Truth - There are no sugar-rushes. At all.
    This is one of the myths scientists themselves are become a bit fed up with, the myth has become so lodged into our society nobody believes you when you are trying to tell them.
    So why won't people just drop this nonsense? Well, it's actually a bit of bad parenthood (uh-uh, now I'm in trouble), some parents judge their kids more harshly, criticize them for smaller offences and gets generally annoyed by them when they play very much like every other kid play. In one study the asked a bunch of parents if they had noticed a difference in behavior with their children after having consumed a high amount of sugar. Those who said yes got put into two groups, one where their kids was said to be given drinks with extra sugar in, and one where they would get sugar-free drinks.
    After playing together the parents where told to fill out a survey on how their children behaved.
    Those who where told their children got the high-dose sugar drinks said the kids where hyper.


                                                                                                          Photo:1979rock.blogspot.com 
    Guess the control-group

    In reality they all got the same sugar-free drink. This was also videotaped and what was apparent was that the mothers in the group that thought their kids was very sugar-sensitive shadowed their kids, criticized them and generally got along badly. The other group had a much more harmonious time. 

    So what's the deal? Probably just parents who fulfill their own erroneous fears. And kids that pick up on their parents anxiety and act up a little more. This is probably even more common among control-freak parents who interprets every little detail with the preconceived image of a hyperactive, sugar-doped little demon. Confirmation Bias in effect.

    Oh and since there is no Sugar Rush, there is no Sugar Crash either. So next time you see the worst of the American sit-coms with canned-laughter and old tired jokes (more often than no starring Charlie Sheen or Jim Belushi) there will be an episode with sugar-rush jokes. Don't laugh, it's not funny. It's boring, uninspired and scientifically inaccurate (except for when Peter Griffin drinks Red Bull, milks a cow and the friction from his hyperactive hands sets the udders on fire. That shit is hilarious!)



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