User:Healthwise

Hello.

I'm intrigued by the misconceptions of the general public concerning what causes overweightness. There's this irrational notion that if you eat only fat-free foods, you won't get fat. Is there a name for this misconception? I'm often amused by products that are packed with sugar that have labels which prominently proclaim that they contain no fat, as if implying that you can eat as much of it as you want and not gain weight. Does this particular example of misleading advertising have a name, and if so what is it called?

Have you noticed that the health food sections of most supermarkets are packed with products that look suspiciously like cookies and candy bars and sugary drinks? Does the issue of disguising sweets as health food have a name? How have we wound up with so much health food that isn't healthy for us?

But it's natural, and therefore it must be good for you - at least that's the message that many of the labels seem to be suggesting. It happens to be true that sugar and corn syrup are 100% natural. But so is hemlock, and remember what happened to Socrates when he drank tea made from that! I searched for "natural" to see what Wikipedia had on the subject, but it just led to the article on nature. But how natural is refined food really? You don't find snack bars growing on trees.

I'm no longer surprised that people can eat 3,000 calories a day and still wonder why they are so huge. Some don't wonder about this, they know why they are overweight, but they feel helpless about their predicament, left wondering why they are so hungry all of the time. They may not be aware that hunger is not only triggered by a lack of calories, but also by a lack of nutrients. As of 8/4/2007, Wikipedia's article on hunger only mentioned this with respect to rats. Many refined foods are stripped of the most nutritient-rich parts of the food, retaining the parts that have mostly calories. That's why such foods are said to contain "empty calories". You can eat a ton of potato chips and not get the vitamins and nutrients you need. It should be little surprise that we're still hungry, but most of us are.

I'm interested in health: what it is, how to get it, and how to keep it. I'm also interested in the causes of unhealth, whether they be environmental or sociopolitical, and how people make lifestyle choices which result in poor health - are they disregarding their health, or simply ignorant of their choices? Are doctors and pharmaceutical companies selling cures, or just treatments with no end in order to maximize profit? I wish to understand more about the circumstances and issues pertaining to society's health and health-awareness, and to find the articles (on Wikipedia and abroad) covering these issues. I wish to learn as much about these topics as I can.

If you can point them out to me, please do.

Healthwise 20:06, 4 August 2007 (UTC)