I worked at a vitamin store chain owned by the parents of a college friend of mine (who is now worth $34 million lol - that chain has turned into a miniature Whole Foods) for a few months. I remember one customer came in because she was going through a divorce, and the cashier said "oh, you need St. John's Wort for that". Nobody there thought this was unusual in any way.

Also knew a guy in college who claimed to be a Breathitarian. We caught him at the Ponderosa steak house in the next town over one night.

I read a thing recently that argued that "purity" is one of the most distinctive thematic motifs in fascistic thinking, and examined how that is a means by which people can slide into right wing ideologies from an initially left wing position.

It was striking because it made it clock for me why there seems to be a "crunchy eco-leftist turns right wing" pipeline. To attempt to summarise some of the article and my own thoughts following it: A purity oriented framework of health situates "toxins" and the like as the Big Bad Other. Many of us are aware of how dangerous the notion of a Big Bad Other is if we're thinking about people, but it can creep up with us in contexts like this because it doesn't seem harmful initially. However, by thinking about health in this way, we train ourselves to think in terms of the Big Bad Other, and condition ourselves towards thinking about things in a black and white manner.

The one that had me cry-laughing was the "sun your genitals" fad that lasted what, a week?

I lost a ton of weight and that gave me the courage to go to the nude beach. That day I got exactly 30 seconds of sun on my cock and that was enough to sunburn my knob. Itch/burn for days. There's a reason it's known as *where the sun don't shine". Can't imagine what it was like for the dopes that gave themselves 15 minutes under the Cali sun.

Firehouse in the USA: "right leaning straight white guys that watch FOX news" is over represented. We work 24 hour shifts and thus cook two meals a day at the station. Inevitably that means I get to experience whatever dumb-ass dietary advice the manosphere/RFK Jr. is pushing: keto, carnivore, MORE PROTEIN, etc.

They get hilariously defensive when I tell them "I don't do fad diets".

Some people mistake healthier with less calories.

I switched from a box of Little Debbie’s a day to a bag of trail mix! Why can’t I lose weight?

That olive oil you’re using is good for you, sure, but it’s not a freebee. It has calories. Things like this are often not even noticed or counted.

Whilst this is true; your body does have some pretty neat tricks to maintain homeostasis; it can shift the energy budget around quite a bit to where it is needed.

Your body will down regulate some systems to try to keep your total energy balance within what is "normal" for each person.

Digestion uses quite a bit of energy; this is why sometimes you feel sleepy after eating; your brain has been down regulated to enable digestion.

Another common example is when runners get into "the zone"; this is your brain prioritising the required processes and reducing the energy of other parts, putting you into a semi trance....this is so your body can maintain an energy balance.

It is also why we sometimes feel sick if exercising hard and then eat quickly afterward; your gut is not ready for that job.

High energy process that can be "switched off" or at least significantly reduced:

• Brain processes (up to 25% of your energy budget)
• Immune system (~20% when fighting infection)
• Digestion (dependent on food 3[sugar] - 30[protein]% of food energy)

Just because you have done some exercise; doesn't mean you have used more total energy that day....it seems counter intuitive; but your body likely shifted energy from one thing (immune system, brain) to muscles, for the time your were exercising.

In saying that exercising is so good for other things; physical and mental health are enhanced by exercise, there are so many good things about exercise, just don't rely on it for weight loss.

As the old saying goes "you can't out run a bad diet"; you are correct, if over the long term you eat fewer calories than your body requires, you will see an effect. But your body is a tricksy beast, it will do all it can to prevent this; it is why dieting is so hard in an age of abundant food.

I'll just keep repeating this, but your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is not scientifically set in stone.

While it's accurate for I would say 90% of the population, rough estimate, there are many things that can cause your BMR to not be accurate, like thyroid issues or lack of musculature due to sedentary lifestyle or due to hormone imbalances or any number of myriad things.

I went and had mine tested and it cost me I believe $70 at a sports medicine place, and I burn approximately 200 calories less than my BMR chart says that I should.

So if I wanted to maintain my weight, and I ate the calories the internet says that I should every day, I would actually gain almost 20 lbs a year (a nice rough estimate is every 10 calories a day you cut from your diet you lose one pound a year).

And as I am working on losing weight, and I'm eating 500 calories under my BMR, I'm actually only eating 300 calories under my true BMR, which means my weight loss is incredibly slow.

So yes, while calories and calories out is true, there are external factors that make it difficult to get accurate numbers to compare against.

Therefore calories in calories out is much simpler to say than it is to do for some percentage of the population.

Almost like the only "scientific knowledge" you need is to burn more and take in less.

I loved it when Gwyneth Paltrow said she drinks alkaline water for the health benefits... with a slice of lemon.

With a squeeze of lemon!

I don't eat gluten because it provokes my auto immune disorder and makes my psoriasis bloom.

25 years of doctors telling me that diet cannot influence the condition(s) while prescribing progressively more intense medications. They would sarcastically smirk when I asked... Ohohoho silly patient why would you ask such a dumb question. Not just GPs but Dermatologists too.

I found out by accident when I taught myself to cook and accidentally cut out wheat and barley.

Lots of people are intolerant but don't realize. Many people realize and cut it out of their lives, then have to deal with the sarcasm/cynicism/ignorance of others.