Nomenclature nonsense, chemical fail

On the stuff page today, Dr Libby was asked how someone could reduce their exposure to chemicals.

While she distinguished between ‘natural’ & ‘synthetic’ chemicals, sadly, ‘natural’ doesn’t always equate to ‘safe’ or ‘good for you’ (as the list of plants growing in the Poison Garden in the UK makes clear).

Similarly, there may be no difference between the natural and synthetic versions of a particular chemical, as the author of this article makes clear (it’s an excellent read).

However, this statement in particular annoyed me rather a lot:

Eat foods with ingredients you would find in nature. If a food item has ingredients/additives you cannot pronounce, your body likely cannot deal with it either.

Oh please! This is the sort of foolishness that the Food Babe promotes. If bananas came with actual ingredient labels, would Dr Libby suggest that anyone who couldn’t pronounce “palmitoleic acid” or “ethyl butanoate” should steer clear of this particular fruit? Or perhaps we should renounce that morning cuppa, just to be on the safe side?

Or perhaps we should stop encouraging people to be chemophobic. That would help.

Banana infographic by James Kennedy.