
As anyone who has ever stepped inside a Whole Foods can attest, “sustainability” and “health” are carefully crafted to be marketable, palatable and ultimately profitable. Chugging coconut water and kombucha is healthy because, well, it says so on the bottle. But a closer look at trendy health food products shows they are not quite as close to perfection as their marketing suggests.
What people put in their mouths is their own business, and there isn’t a right or wrong way to eat. That said: when we stock up on “superfoods,” we may be telling the world that our commitment to maintaining healthy antioxidant levels makes us hip and healthy, but our shopping habits may be fueled by misconceptions of the health benefits of these foods as well as ignorance of their environmental and social impact.
Here are some trendy health foods that have questionable effects on your body and the world.
People all over the world have been drinking coconut water since long before American health food stores discovered the naturally hydrating, miracle drink and started marketing it as an “all-natural Gatorade” and post-yoga beverage. At one time, leading brand VitaCoco’s claim that coconut water had 15 times the electrolytes of a sports drink was one of the selling points that helped fuel a $500 million industry, according to Mother Jones. A 2011 class-action lawsuit forced the popular brand to rewrite some of its overblown claims.
The industry is also environmentally irresponsible. Much of the coconut water consumed in the U.S. comes from Indonesia and the Philippines, and shipping this drink around the world, releasing carbon emissions in the process, isn’t a sustainable environmental practice. Neither are some coconut farms’ labor practices. Back in 2012, Time reported that coconut farmers are at the bottom of the coconut water supply chain. Coconut farmers reportedly receive only a small portion of the product’s revenues: “Most growers across Asia sell to middlemen, who then resell the coconuts to factories for as much as 50 percent more ... the increasing demand for coconut water and oil has yet to translate into higher coconut prices due ... to the fact that the young industry is still dominated by a few large companies.”
2. Almond Milk
Nutritionally speaking, almonds are nearly a perfect food. According to David Jenkins, professor and research chair of nutrition and metabolism at the University of Toronto, almonds carry “idyllic” levels of monounsaturated fats and cardiac benefits due to the nuts’ high concentration of vitamin E, fiber and antioxidant phytochemicals. California’s multi-billion-dollar almond industry is doing quite well. But the demand for almonds, particularly in the form of almond milk, presents several economic and ecological problems.
It takes over a gallon of water to produce a single almond, and California, the nation’s leading almond producer, is in the midst of its worst drought in recent history. The water-intensive nature of farming almonds and producing almond milk endangers king salmon habitats in northern California’s Klamath River, as NPR’s Alastair Bland reported. According to Bland, if more water is not released into the river soon, the salmon face the danger of gill rot. Unfortunately for the salmon, California doesn’t have water to spare. Almond milk is often used as a substitute for dairy, and it's not like the dairy industry is a paragon of environmental purity. It seems opting out of milk and milk-like products may be the healthiest option for the Earth.
3. Quinoa
Quinoa's increased popularity in the U.S. hurts indigenous Andean cultures in quinoa-producing countries like Peru and Bolivia. Called a “miracle grain of the Andes," quinoa became the complete protein of choice for vegans and many others, “a healthy, right-on, ethical addition to the meat avoider's larder (no dead animals, just a crop that doesn't feel pain),” as the Guardian’s Joanna Blythman writes. Consequently, the price of quinoa in Andean countries has gone up, and poorer people who have traditionally depended on the grain as a staple food can no longer afford it. “The quinoa trade is yet another troubling example of ... well-intentioned health and ethics-led consumers here unwittingly driving poverty there. It's beginning to look like a cautionary tale of how a focus on exporting premium foods can damage the producer country's food security,” Blythman concludes.
4. Goji Berries
Tom Philpott of Mother Jones explains, “Goji berries ... are indeed loaded with phytochemicals, plant compounds that seem to protect us from heart disease, brain deterioration and cancer ... Other boasts are, well, less true: Açaí and goji berries are not really miracle cures for everything from obesity to sexual dysfunction.” Also, Goji berries are primarily grown on industrial plots in China, despite being labeled a “Himalayan superfruit.” Is anything a regular fruit anymore?
5. Kale
Despite being touted as the leafy green cure-all, excessive kale consumption may present health problems. According to Oregon State University’s Micronutrient Information site, kale has been shown to cause or aggravate symptoms of hypothyroidism: “Very high intakes of cruciferous vegetables … have been found to cause hypothyroidism (insufficient thyroid hormone) ... Two mechanisms have been identified to explain this effect. The hydrolysis of some glucosinolates found in cruciferous vegetables (e.g. progoitrin) may yield a compound known as goitrin, which has been found to interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis.”
For those who aren’t at risk of developing a thyroid issue, kale does have many nutritional benefits including high amounts of fiber, calcium, vitamin C and cancer-preventing antioxidants.
6. Juicing
A juice cleanse is probably one of the most misguided, nutritionally unsound and uncomfortable health fads a person could ever subject herself to. In theory, the purpose of undergoing a juice cleanse is to boost the immune system, fight degenerative diseases and “cleanse” the body by denying it food. No longer weighed down by food, juice-cleansers are supposed to feel restored mental clarity and energy. However, “detox” may also include a laundry list of unpleasant symptoms like fatigue, headaches, nausea, strangely colored bowel movements and dry mouth, among others.
Possibly the most dangerous and unfounded theory behind juice cleansing is the idea that the body needs cleansing at all, suggesting that bodies can be “clean” or “dirty.” According to biologists Steven Swoap and Daniel Lynch of Williams College, as told to Elizabeth Preston of Inkfish, the body “does its own cleansing via your kidneys and liver. The wastes and unwanted materials those organs filter out leave you via the toilet ... Depriving yourself of calories doesn't make the process go any faster.”
At around $60-$90 per day, juice cleanses don’t come with any proven health benefits and probably aren’t anything more than an expensive way to starve yourself. And if weight loss is the goal, a juice cleanse won’t help with that either: fasting slows the metabolism, making it even more difficult to lose weight.
7. Clay
Contrary to what clay-eating celebrities like Shailene Woodley might believe about the supposed body-cleansing benefits of clay, ingesting clay is extremely unsafe. Earlier this year, actress Woodley explained her clay-based “detox diet” to David Letterman: "Clay binds to other materials in your body and helps your body excrete those materials that aren't necessarily the best for you.”
Woodley further elaborated on Into The Gloss: "My friend started eating it and the next day she called me and said: 'Dude, my shit smells like metal!' She was really worried, but we did some research together and everything said that when you first start eating clay your bowel movements, pees and even you, yourself, will smell like metal."
Paul Mackey, creator of the “living clay” product Woodley was referring to, claims "the benefits of clay's 'full-body detoxification' are nothing short of amazing. It builds one's immune system, balances PH levels and allows the body to naturally heal itself and fight off future disease." Members of the medical community aren’t convinced. In a conversation with the Huffington Post, Dr. David L. Katz said that "removing metal from the body is not necessarily good—iron, for example, is a metal and essential to health. So there could conceivably be benefits, but there could certainly be harms."
Eating clay could cause bowel obstruction, death, and other health problems associated with eating dirt, or anything that is not fit for human consumption. Clay is not a food.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Pledge to Eat Local and Organic on Thanksgiving
‘Existential Threat to Our Survival’: See the 19 Australian Ecosystems Already Collapsing
By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge
In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were "on a collision course." Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a "safe space to operate." These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use.
The Good and Bad News
<p><span>Ecosystems consist of living and non-living components, and their interactions. They work like a super-complex engine: when some components are removed or stop working, knock-on consequences can lead to system failure.</span></p><p>Our study is based on measured data and observations, not modeling or predictions for the future. Encouragingly, not all ecosystems we examined have collapsed across their entire range. We still have, for instance, some intact reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, especially in deeper waters. And northern Australia has some of the most intact and least-modified stretches of savanna woodlands on Earth.</p><p><span>Still, collapses are happening, including in regions critical for growing food. This includes the </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/importance-murray-darling-basin/where-basin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Murray-Darling Basin</a><span>, which covers around 14% of Australia's landmass. Its rivers and other freshwater systems support more than </span><a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/latestproducts/94F2007584736094CA2574A50014B1B6?opendocument" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30% of Australia's food</a><span> production.</span></p><p><span></span><span>The effects of floods, fires, heatwaves and storms do not stop at farm gates; they're felt equally in agricultural areas and natural ecosystems. We shouldn't forget how towns ran out of </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/issues-murray-darling-basin/drought#effects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drinking water</a><span> during the recent drought.</span></p><p><span></span><span>Drinking water is also at risk when ecosystems collapse in our water catchments. In Victoria, for example, the degradation of giant </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/logging-must-stop-in-melbournes-biggest-water-supply-catchment-106922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Ash forests</a><span> greatly reduces the amount of water flowing through the Thompson catchment, threatening nearly five million people's drinking water in Melbourne.</span></p><p>This is a dire <em data-redactor-tag="em">wake-up</em> call — not just a <em data-redactor-tag="em">warning</em>. Put bluntly, current changes across the continent, and their potential outcomes, pose an existential threat to our survival, and other life we share environments with.</p><p><span>In investigating patterns of collapse, we found most ecosystems experience multiple, concurrent pressures from both global climate change and regional human impacts (such as land clearing). Pressures are often </span><a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13427" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">additive and extreme</a><span>.</span></p><p>Take the last 11 years in Western Australia as an example.</p><p>In the summer of 2010 and 2011, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-heatwaves-are-getting-hotter-lasting-longer-and-doing-more-damage-95637" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heatwave</a> spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers ravaged both marine and land ecosystems. The extreme heat devastated forests and woodlands, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. This catastrophe was followed by two cyclones.</p><p>A record-breaking, marine heatwave in late 2019 dealt a further blow. And another marine heatwave is predicted for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/24/wa-coastline-facing-marine-heatwave-in-early-2021-csiro-predicts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this April</a>.</p>What to Do About It?
<p><span>Our brains trust comprises 38 experts from 21 universities, CSIRO and the federal Department of Agriculture Water and Environment. Beyond quantifying and reporting more doom and gloom, we asked the question: what can be done?</span></p><p>We devised a simple but tractable scheme called the 3As:</p><ul><li>Awareness of what is important</li><li>Anticipation of what is coming down the line</li><li>Action to stop the pressures or deal with impacts.</li></ul><p>In our paper, we identify positive actions to help protect or restore ecosystems. Many are already happening. In some cases, ecosystems might be better left to recover by themselves, such as coral after a cyclone.</p><p>In other cases, active human intervention will be required – for example, placing artificial nesting boxes for Carnaby's black cockatoos in areas where old trees have been <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-carnabys-black-cockatoo-calyptorhynchus-latirostris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removed</a>.</p><p><span>"Future-ready" actions are also vital. This includes reinstating </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/a-burning-question-fire/12395700" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultural burning practices</a><span>, which have </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-you-have-unfinished-business-its-time-to-let-our-fire-people-care-for-this-land-135196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multiple values and benefits for Aboriginal communities</a><span> and can help minimize the risk and strength of bushfires.</span></p><p>It might also include replanting banks along the Murray River with species better suited to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/my-garden-path---matt-hansen/12322978" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warmer conditions</a>.</p><p>Some actions may be small and localized, but have substantial positive benefits.</p><p>For example, billions of migrating Bogong moths, the main summer food for critically endangered mountain pygmy possums, have not arrived in their typical numbers in Australian alpine regions in recent years. This was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-million-hectares-of-threatened-species-habitat-up-in-smoke-129438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019-20</a> fires. Brilliantly, <a href="https://www.zoo.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zoos Victoria</a> anticipated this pressure and developed supplementary food — <a href="https://theconversation.com/looks-like-an-anzac-biscuit-tastes-like-a-protein-bar-bogong-bikkies-help-mountain-pygmy-possums-after-fire-131045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bogong bikkies</a>.</p><p><span>Other more challenging, global or large-scale actions must address the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICpI9H0GkU&t=34s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">root cause of environmental threats</a><span>, such as </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0504-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human population growth and per-capita consumption</a><span> of environmental resources.</span><br></p><p>We must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, remove or suppress invasive species such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mam.12080" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feral cats</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-buffel-kerfuffle-how-one-species-quietly-destroys-native-wildlife-and-cultural-sites-in-arid-australia-149456" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">buffel grass</a>, and stop widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-fire-risk-and-meet-climate-targets-over-300-scientists-call-for-stronger-land-clearing-laws-113172" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">land clearing</a> and other forms of habitat destruction.</p>Our Lives Depend On It
<p>The multiple ecosystem collapses we have documented in Australia are a harbinger for <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/protected-areas/202102/natures-future-our-future-world-speaks" target="_blank">environments globally</a>.</p><p>The simplicity of the 3As is to show people <em>can</em> do something positive, either at the local level of a landcare group, or at the level of government departments and conservation agencies.</p><p>Our lives and those of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-are-our-future-and-the-planets-heres-how-you-can-teach-them-to-take-care-of-it-113759" target="_blank">children</a>, as well as our <a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-care-of-business-the-private-sector-is-waking-up-to-natures-value-153786" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economies</a>, societies and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultures</a>, depend on it.</p><p>We simply cannot afford any further delay.</p><p><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dana-m-bergstrom-1008495" target="_blank" style="">Dana M Bergstrom</a> is a principal research scientist at the University of Wollongong. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/euan-ritchie-735" target="_blank" style="">Euan Ritchie</a> is a professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences at Deakin University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lesley-hughes-5823" target="_blank">Lesley Hughes</a> is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-depledge-114659" target="_blank">Michael Depledge</a> is a professor and chair, Environment and Human Health, at the University of Exeter. </em></p><p><em>Disclosure statements: Dana Bergstrom works for the Australian Antarctic Division and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wollongong. Her research including fieldwork on Macquarie Island and in Antarctica was supported by the Australian Antarctic Division.</em></p><p><em>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, Australian Geographic, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</em></p><p><em>Lesley Hughes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Director of WWF-Australia.</em></p><p><em>Michael Depledge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/existential-threat-to-our-survival-see-the-19-australian-ecosystems-already-collapsing-154077" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>- Coral Reef Tipping Point: 'Near-Annual' Bleaching May Occur ... ›
- Scientists Warn Humanity in Denial of Looming 'Collapse of ... ›
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
New EarthX Special 'Protecting the Amazon' Suggests Ways to Save the World’s Greatest Rainforest
To save the planet, we must save the Amazon rainforest. To save the rainforest, we must save its indigenous peoples. And to do that, we must demarcate their land.
A new EarthxTV film special calls for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous people that call it home. EarthxTV.org
- Meet the 'Women Warriors' Protecting the Amazon Forest - EcoWatch ›
- Indigenous Tribes Are Using Drones to Protect the Amazon ... ›
- Amazon Rainforest Will Collapse by 2064, New Study Predicts ... ›
- Deforestation in Amazon Skyrockets to 12-Year High Under Bolsonaro ›
- Amazon Rainforest on the Brink of Turning Into a Net Carbon Emitter ... ›
Trending
By Anke Rasper
"Today's interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The report, released Friday, looks at the national climate efforts of 75 states that have already submitted their updated "nationally determined contributions," or NDCs. The countries included in the report are responsible for about 30% of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions.
- World Leaders Fall Short of Meeting Paris Agreement Goal - EcoWatch ›
- UN Climate Change Conference COP26 Delayed to November ... ›
- 5 Years After Paris: How Countries' Climate Policies Match up to ... ›
- Biden Win Puts World 'Within Striking Distance' of 1.5 C Paris Goal ... ›
- Biden Reaffirms Commitment to Rejoining Paris Agreement ... ›
Plastic Burning Makes It Harder for New Delhi Residents to See, Study Suggests
India's New Delhi has been called the "world air pollution capital" for its high concentrations of particulate matter that make it harder for its residents to breathe and see. But one thing has puzzled scientists, according to The Guardian. Why does New Delhi see more blinding smogs than other polluted Asian cities, such as Beijing?
- This Indian Startup Turns Polluted Air Into Climate-Friendly Tiles ... ›
- How to Win the Fight Against Plastic - EcoWatch ›
In a historic move, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted Thursday to ban hydraulic fracking in the region. The ban was supported by all four basin states — New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York — putting a permanent end to hydraulic fracking for natural gas along the 13,539-square-mile basin, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
- Appalachian Fracking Boom Was a Jobs Bust, Finds New Report ... ›
- Long-Awaited EPA Study Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water ... ›
- Pennsylvania Fracking Water Contamination Much Higher Than ... ›