If you understand the rules of logic, you don’t believe these advertising gimics.

One day, when he challenged the little black boy who lived next door to a footrace to the bus stop, Patrick cheerfully accepted. Patrick was five and had no qualms about making it an honest race. Rob was whupped. After the bus hauled the school children off, Rob seemed more thoughtful than crushed. My curiosity got the best of me and I asked him, “How did Patrick beat you if you’re the fastest runner in the world?”

His answer showed a bright future as a logician: “I guess Patrick is the fastest runner in the world.”

I smile as I remember the story, but his reasoning is perfectly sound. 

The premises of an argument don’t have to be true for the logic to be sound. 

I read a similar incident yesterday. The headline informed me that it turned out that a certain oil turned out to be the “worst thing for your waistline.”

Here was their test. They fed one group of mice massive amounts of fructose. 

They fed other mice massive amounts of soybean oil.

The mice fed soybean oil gained more weight than the mice fed fructose.

I know this is a chipmunk, but close enough!

So fructose is now the SECOND worst thing for your waistline and Rob is the SECOND fastest runner in the world.

The reasoning is sound. The premises (that fructose is the WORST until displaced by soybean oil) is completely false. 

Here are some truths that when you apply logic may lead to discovery of truth. (Even true premises, if logic is misapplied, do not yield truth.)

1.Fructose is bad and “natural” sugar is good. Sugar is sugar. Ask any scientist. Your body must break down all foods into glucose before it can be used as energy. Table sugar (white granulated) is sucrose and breaks into half fructose and half glucose. Honey is 25% higher in Fructose than glucose. Some honey is more than 50% fructose. I wonder why health food merchants don’t market honey as “high fructose honey”. But I repeat: whatever the food, (including fats and proteins) your body must break it down to glucose before it can be used as energy. Sugar is not bad for your body, it’s essential. But overeating sweets in any form cheat your body of more nutrient dense foods and usually give more calories than you need. (And they rot your teeth if you don’t use proper hygiene)

 2. There is absolutely no evidence that genetically modified foods harm anybody or anything. Gullible Americans are thinking that they MUST be bad because the packaging has changed from saying, “NO FRUCTOSE” to “NO GMO”.
I saw a piece of facebook propaganda showing the gruesome stomachs of “Pigs fed GMO grain”. What’s wrong with this picture? They did look gruesome. But then again, what does a pig fed nothing but kitchen scraps look like? What does the dead stomach of a pig look like if it’s fed nothing but organically grown grain? I’m betting they’d look equally gruesome.

Here’s why I conclude this. Who do you think is most threatened by the use of grains, fruits and vegetables that need no pesticide, no fungicide, but grow generous, healthy crops all on their own? Your first impulse is to say the pesticide manufacturer. That’s exactly WRONG. GMO seed will destroy the Health Food industry. Think about it! If all food is organically grown with no pesticide or need for other spraying, the health-food industry would be out of business! But they have a lot of money and they have powerful lobbyists and they won’t give up without a fight. They demonize the companies that have developed these seeds that can be grown organically a very low cost. The horrible truth is that GMO foods also qualify as organically grown if no pesticide or fungicide is needed. They are probably more pure than things grown intentionally “organic” because even organic farmers use some pesticides.
GMO seed does not contain a natural pesticide. They have removed the gene that signals grasshoppers or aphids or whatever pests might infest a crop so that they don’t recognize the plant and pass it by. But that missing gene is not absorbed in the human digestive process. Your body cannot detect a difference even on the molecular level. Add to that the fact that we’ve been eating genetically modified food from the day we were weaned. All plants’ genetics’ modify naturally from plant to plant or even fruit to fruit.

3. Taking vitamins is an antidote for a poor diet.
Americans have the most expensive urine in the world. While it’s true that sometimes it’s difficult to eat enough food to get plenty of every necessary nutrient, a healthful, well-balanced diet should give you every thing you need. If you take a supplement, most of it is stored in your fat cells or washed out in your urine. Vitamin poisoning occurs when so much of a certain vitamin is stored in your cells that you develop symptoms (sometimes severe). Interestingly, in some cases the vitamin poisoning’s symptoms are the same as deficiency symptoms.

 Here’s why: Most foods either contain the vitamins or minerals necessary to absorb their own nutrients, or are usually paired with food that do. We often eat potatoes with red meat because it just so happens that the vitamins in potatoes are necessary for the absorption of the iron in the meat. (There’s a reason to order fries with a hamburger!) The riboflavin, (a B vitamin) is contained in the meat itself and is necessary for absorption of the nutrients in the meat. This natural pairing is why it is so difficult for a vegetarian to absorb all the needed nutrients without taking artificial supplements. Riboflavin is only found in animal sources.
The American pyramid or the “My plate” recommendations really are the best way to ensure a healthful diet. You LDS should note that it parallels the Word of Wisdom with a grain-based but all inclusive diet. Without exception (prepare to read an anecdotal example of true premises not really leading to logical proof) “my friends who are prone to follow fad diets and extreme eating regimens are the least healthy people I know.” (The premises are true, but they don’t necessarily lead to a true implication that fad dieters are the least healthy people.) (Which doesn’t stop me from believing it.)

The Lord created this wonderful world, filled with plants and animals and air and water that give us everything we need to be healthy. I recommend that when someone urges a product or extreme behavior that departs from accepted science, or implies that you must have some exotic ingredient to be healthy, examine what the sponsors of the product or behavior (advertisers) have to gain. Follow the money and you’ll find the hole in the science. All things in moderation (except faith.) (Abundance of faith is a GOOD thing.) But apply the rules of logic to your health and filter each new claim by “what does this company or industry have to gain by my following their advice” and you’ll likely be a wiser and healthier person.