Comments on: Soundbites for Science (or, Why I’m afraid of the Internet)

By: Johnathan Walmsley

Johnathan Walmsley — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:29:43 +0000

Interesting read. There is currently quite a lot of information around this subject around and about on the net and some are most defintely better than others. You have caught the detail here just right which makes for a refreshing change – thanks.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:38:05 +0000

“I was able to weed through the glut of websites … and find good solid facts to back up my statements.”

It looks like Dr. Sanford used Google website results as her sources. I don’t see the need to resort to these when journal articles (e.g., from Google Scholar or PubMed) are more credible.

By: Introducing SkepticBlog « Open Parachute

Introducing SkepticBlog « Open Parachute — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:24:48 +0000

[...] Soundbites for Science (or, Why I’m afraid of the Internet) [...]

By: MarkA

MarkA — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:01:41 +0000

In my neck of the woods (upstate New York), I used to hear Dr Joel Wallach’s self-promotional radio show. I have not heard it lately; I wonder if he still does it. In any event, he is a big advocate of the “carbonated beverages wreak havoc on your body” school of thinking. He was also very opposed to “fried foods”. Though I don’t believe his theory that the majority of human diseases are caused by failure to take his line of vitamins and minerals, he had a very polished presentation. I don’t think there was ever a person who called his show who wouldn’t be helped by taking the “pig pack” many times a day. It was apparent that his audience was composed of those disenfranchised by mainstream medicine.

By: Aaron W. Johnson

Aaron W. Johnson — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:25:45 +0000

In the case of water, nutrients as providers of calories (as they have been discussed previously in this post) are lacking. None of the typical components of water has any caloric value. It is true that water can be a significant source of trace elements and minerals (especially in places where water is very hard, such as my home here in the midwest). In fact, in some areas, the sodium content of ground water is high enough to be of concern to those who follow a low-sodium diet. Furthermore, water can be a source of potentially toxic elements (e.g. heavy metals, arsenic, selenium) when groundwater either carries them naturally (as in the case of some aquifers in rocks that are rich in these elements) or where groundwater has been contaminated by human activity. To complicate matters, where water contains organic molecules (either naturally or from anthropogenic sources) the equation becomes even more complicated. However, B. Basinger’s point is well taken: water can be a crucial source of trace elements necessary for life, and therefore can be considered to contain nutrients. Mea Culpa

And a p.p.s. to Kirsten: I went on to earn a Ph.D. in Geology and become a professor at a regional university in the midwest. I research the Evolution/Intelligent Design debate in my spare time. And, I am a skeptic to the core…

By: B. Basinger

B. Basinger — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:15:13 +0000

Water does contain nutrients:

The results of our study suggest that drinking water may be an important dietary source of Ca2+, Mg2+, and Na+. This is because minerals are highly bioavailable in water and because drinking water sources available to North Americans may contain clinically important levels of these minerals. Adequate daily consumption of some tap and bottled waters may help North American children and adults supplement dietary intake of Ca2+ and Mg2+ as well as reduce Na+ intake.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1495189

BTW,
Leave a whole raw egg in a container of vinegar. I don’t remember how long to leave it in, but once shell is gone + some extra time, remove the egg and bounce it on the floor. Really.

By: mattdick

mattdick — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:11:56 +0000

Is a soundbite a good place to start?

Kirsten, don’t feel bad about only being able to fill that spot with a tiny amount of good information. It’s television, that air time was going to be filled with something, and in the absence of folks like you who are willing to over-prepare to put good information there, that vacuum would be filled by whatever flotsom wanders by.

Thanks for putting in the time for the good guys.

By: Arthur De Vany

Arthur De Vany — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:03:16 +0000

One of the ways the body buffers acid is to leach calcium from bone. So, there may still be a connection. Tight physiological regulation of acid is maintained but there is potential loss of bone calcium. I don’t know the answer to that. But, it is not enough to say there is tight control to conclude that there is no loss of bone material.

By the way, homeostasis is dead. We are open, dynamical systems.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:48:54 +0000

Thanks for all the great comments on this first post, everyone. I’m excited to see such a response.

My choice of “nutrient-poor” to describe sods, while water was described as being nutritious, was not not optimum. I should have used “less nutritious”, or even healthy versus unhealthy, but therein lies the rub of a blog — no editors to catch those little things, which suddenly become much bigger upon inspection.

I’m glad I have you all to help me become an even stronger writer. Thanks again, and I hope you keep reading.

P.S. to Aaron Johnson – That’s not teaching. It’s propaganda. Seriously, what misrepresentation to suggest that soda actually STAYS in your stomach for days, and that your stomach is like dead meat. Grrr…

By: Aaron W. Johnson

Aaron W. Johnson — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:10:50 +0000

I think that Kirsten was talking about healthier alternatives. Water, while having no nutrients, is absolutely essential to biological functions. If you simply replace ‘nutritious’ with ‘healthier’ the sentence is, I think, truer to the point Kirsten was making.

On a separate note, I feel the need to share the results of an ‘experiment’ that my 4th grade teacher performed for my class in 1976 or 1977. This teacher took a small piece of hamburger, placed it in a cola bottle that had about 1.5 inches of cola in the bottom and replaced the cap. My teacher placed the bottle on the window ledge of a westward facing window that received sun for about 6 hours a day. Of course, the hamburger rotted in less than a week, turning a number of magnificently gruesome colors, sprouting grayish mold that covered the burger in fine hairs, and generally becoming, in the words of my 4th grade classmates, GROSS! At the conclusion of the experiment, the teacher announced to the class, “If cola will do that to hamburger, imagine what it does to your stomach.”

That experiment remains with me to this day, as a great example of the power of the ignorant (or willfully misleading) in positions of authority. It was years before I could bring myself to have a soda.