Skeptoid 4: Astronauts, Aliens, and Ape-Men
Page 20
3. CARBOHYDRATES
These are your sugars and starches, which all break down into monosaccharides: the single sugars glucose, fructose, galactose, xylose, and ribose. Two of those together may come from a disaccharide like table sugar; a longer polysaccharide chain may come from the carbs in a granola bar. Whatever we eat gets broken down into those monosaccharides (though some populations may have enzymatic deficiencies that hamper the digestion of some combinations, like lactose). Those monosaccharides fuel our metabolism, and are the principal building blocks of the synthesis of other needed compounds. Any extra monosaccharides are put together into space-saving polysaccharides for storage.
4. VITAMINS
Exactly what is a vitamin? There’s a simple and clear definition. We’ve just discussed the three basic types of nutrients; a vitamin is any other organic compound that our body needs, that we are unable to synthesize enough of, and that we must get from food. Vitamins were discovered throughout the first half of the 1900’s, and each time we learned about a new one, it was given a successive identifying letter: Vitamin A, B, C, and so on. After we learned about Vitamin B we found it was actually eight different vitamins, and so we have Vitamin B1, B2, B3, and the rest. Many animals synthesize these vitamins from proteins and fats, so they don’t need to eat such a diversity of different foods to get them, the way we do.
There are two basic kinds of vitamins: water soluble (vitamins B and C) and fat soluble (all the others). If you consume more water soluble vitamins than you need, the excess will be quickly and harmlessly discharged in your urine. Overdosing on fat soluble vitamins provides a bit more of a challenge to your body though, and can lead to hypervitaminosis, which can be dangerous in extreme cases.
With a few notable exceptions, anybody who lives and eats in a modern industrialized country gets more than enough of all the vitamins their body needs, and there’s no need to spend money on vitamin supplements. If you eat three meals a day, the buckets in which your body has room to store vitamins are brim full, and vitamin supplementation would be like pouring more onto an already overflowing bucket. Save your money.
5. MINERALS
These are defined as the inorganic chemical elements that our body needs. There are sixteen essential elements (chemically, they’re not really all minerals) including iron, calcium, zinc, sodium, and potassium. There are some half-dozen others considered conditionally essential, but if you stick with the sixteen you’re probably all right. Minerals obviously have to be consumed; our bodies are not atomic reactors and so we can’t synthesize chemical elements.
With a very few exceptions, anyone who eats regular meals in an industrialized country gets more than enough of all the minerals they need. Perhaps the two most common exceptions are pregnant women who can benefit from iron supplementation, and people who avoid dairy products and could often benefit from calcium supplementation.
6. WATER
Kind of an obvious one. It’s the only thing anyone needs to drink — there’s no substitute — and most of us get all we need from what’s contained in our food and other drinks.
And so, there we have the six fundamental compounds that make up all food. The basic argument against all of the various “You shouldn’t eat this or that” claims is that those foods all break down into the same building blocks, building blocks which you would also get from other food. The opposing argument in favor of those claims is that some of these building blocks are good (like essential amino acids) and some are bad (like trans-fat), and we should strive to eat foods that deliver the most good nutrients with the least amount of harmful contents. Kind of a no-brainer, obviously, but it’s rarely the argument that’s actually made. Instead, the arguments I usually hear call out a particular food based on some ideology rather than its actual contents. Not that there’s anything wrong with ideologies, but they should not be misrepresented as food science.
Other than a glass of pure water, there is hardly a food source on the planet that delivers anything less than a radically complex assortment of proteins, lipids, and starches, laced with vitamins and minerals. It’s the proportions that differ. Looking at it from this perspective, there’s little fundamental difference between milk and orange juice. The orange juice contains more sugar and vitamins but less fat and protein, while the milk contains a more even spectrum of nutrients. An argument like “Cow’s milk is bad because early humans didn’t evolve to drink it” becomes completely goofy when you consider only this one irrelevant characteristic. The same goes for arguments against manufactured pet food. There is no reason at all why pet food should look like, or come from the same source as, the animal’s natural food; so long as it delivers the nutrients the animal needs.
Cooking introduces chemical changes that are, for the most part, the same as the first step in digestion. Some compounds cannot be digested unless they’re cooked first to break certain chemical bonds. Most claims that cooking destroys nutrients are wrong; cooking merely starts the ball rolling on what your digestive system was going to do to the food anyway.
One nice thing about being a technological society is that we have the capability to understand food science, and to design nutritious foods that are more attractive and tasty than our ancestors were able to find on the savannah. The bottom line is that if you wish to evaluate any given food’s nutritional value, you must look at what it actually delivers. Simply considering where it came from, or who designed it, is not a useful assessment of its actual substance.
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
ADA. “Position of the American Dietetic Association: Nutrient Supplementation.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 1 Dec. 2009, Volume 109, Issue 12: 2073-2085.
Chiras, D. Human Biology. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2005. 81-92.
Holick, M. “Vitamin D Deficiency.” New England Journal of Medicine. 19 Jul. 2007, Volume 357, Number 3: 266-281.
Kennedo, G. “Dietary Reference Intakes Tables and Application.” Institute of Medicine. National Academies of Sciences, 14 Jan. 2010. Web. 25 Jul. 2010.
Simopoulos, A., Cleland, L. Omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acid ratio: the scientific evidence. Basel: S. Karger AG, 2003.
USDA. “USDA Nutrition Evidence Library, 2010.” Nutrition Evidence Library. USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, 15 Jun. 2010. Web. 26 Jul. 2010.
USDA. “Questions To Ask Before Taking Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.” Nutrition.gov. USDA National Agricultural Library, 11 Jun. 2009. Web. 7 Jul. 2010.
31. SOME NEW LOGICAL FALLACIES
A look at some newer logical fallacies, often used in place of sound arguments.
One of the most popular Skeptoid podcast episodes ever was A Magical Journey through the Land of Logical Fallacies (see Volume 2 of this book series). In it, we looked at some of the most common fallacious ways to argue a point; in essence, the use of rhetoric as a substitute for good evidence. Logical fallacies can be deliberately employed when you don’t have anything real to support the point you want to make, and they can also be accidentally employed when you mistake compelling rhetoric for a sound argument. Good attorneys and debaters are experts with wielding fallacious logic, as are the most successful salespeople of quack products.
In the adventure of producing Skeptoid, I’m frequently deluged by logical fallacies in emails from those who disagree with me. On the Skeptalk email discussion list, we often have fun identifying such fallacies in news articles or promotions by charlatans. As a result of all this experience, I’ve compiled a list of some newer logical fallacies we’ve found most entertaining. Now, admittedly, some of these are pretty similar to the traditional fallacies, but you may be more likely to recognize them in their contemporary guise. Let’s begin with:
APPEAL TO LACK OF AUTHORITY
Authority has a reputation for being corrupt and inflexible, and this stereotype has been leveraged by some who assert that their own lack of authority somehow makes them a better authority.
Starling might say of the 9/11 attacks: “Every reputable structural engineer understands how fire caused the Twin Towers to collapse.”
Bombo can reply: “I’m not an expert in engineering or anything, I’m just a regular guy asking questions.”
Starling: “We should listen to what the people who know what they’re talking about have to say.”
Bombo: “Someone needs to stand up to these experts.”
The idea that not knowing what you’re talking about somehow makes you heroic or more reliable is incorrect. More likely, your lack of expertise simply makes you wrong.
PROOF BY ANECDOTE
Many people believe that their own experience trumps scientific evidence, and that merely relating that experience is sufficient to prove a given claim.
Starling: “Every scientific test of magical energy bracelets shows that they have no effect whatsoever.”
Bombo: “But they work for me, therefore I know for a fact they’re valid and that science is wrong.”
Is Bombo’s analysis of his own experience wrong? If it disagrees with well-performed controlled testing, then yes, he probably is wrong. Personal experiences are subject to influences, biases, preconceived notions, random variances, and are uncontrolled. Relating an anecdotal experience proves nothing.
MICHAEL JORDAN FALLACY
This one can be used to impugn the motives of anyone in the world, in an effort to prove they are driven by greed and don’t care about anyone else’s problems:
Bombo: “Just think if Michael Jordan had used all his talents and wealth to feed third world children, rather than to play a sport.”
Of course, you can say this about anyone, famous or not:
Bombo: “If your doctor really cared about people’s health, he’d sell everything he owned and become a charitable frontier doctor in Africa.”
In fact, for charitable efforts to exist, we need the Michael Jordans of the world playing basketball. Regular non-charitable activities, like your doctor’s business office, are what drives the economic machine that funds charity work. The world’s largest giver, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, would not exist had a certain young man put his talents toward the Peace Corps instead of founding a profitable software giant.
PROOF BY LACK OF EVIDENCE
This one is big in the conspiracy theory world: The lack of evidence that would support their conspiracy theory is due to the evil coverup. Thus, the lack of evidence for the conspiracy is, in and of itself, evidence of the conspiracy.
Bombo: “The passengers on Flight 93 were taken off the plane and executed by the government.”
Starling: “But there’s no evidence of that.”
Bombo: “Exactly. That’s how we know it for a fact.”
There are certainly things in the world that are true but for which no evidence exists, but these are in the minority. If you want to be right more often than not, stick with what we can actually learn. If instead your standard is that anything that can’t be disproven must therefore be true, like Russell’s teapot, you’re one step away from delusional paranoia.
APPEAL TO QUANTUM PHYSICS
This is a form of special pleading, a scientific-sounding way of claiming that the way your magical product or service works is beyond the customer’s understanding; in this case, based on quantum physics. That sounds impressive, and who’s qualified to argue? Certainly not the average layperson.
Bombo: “Quantum physics explains why pressure points on the sole of your foot correspond with other parts of your anatomy.”
Here’s a tip. If you see or hear the phrase “quantum physics” mentioned in a context that is anything other than a scientific discussion of subatomic theory, raise your red flag. Someone is probably trying to hoodwink you by namedropping a science that they probably understand no better than your cat does.
PROOF BY MOMMY INSTINCT
Made famous by antivaccine activist Jenny McCarthy, this one asserts that nobody understands health issues better than a mom. Mothers obviously have experience with childbirth and with raising children, but is there any reason to suspect they understand internal medicine (for example) better than educated doctors, many of whom are also mothers? Not so far as I am able to divine.
Remember that Mommy Instincts are no different than anecdotal experiences. They are driven by perception and presumption, not by science.
ARGUMENT FROM ANOMALY
This one is big with ghost hunters and UFO enthusiasts. Anything that’s anomalous, or otherwise not immediately, absolutely, positively, specifically identifiable, automatically becomes evidence of the paranormal claim.
Starling: “We found a cold spot in the room with no apparent source.”
Bombo: “That must be a ghost.”
Since the anomaly is, well, an anomaly, that means (by definition) that you can’t prove it was anything other than a ghost or a UFO or a leprechaun or whatever they want to say. Since the skeptic can’t prove otherwise, the Argument from Anomaly is a perfect way to prove the existence of ghosts. Or, nearly perfect, I should say, because it’s not.
CHEMICAL FALLACY
Want to terrify people and frighten them away from some product or technology that you don’t like? Mention chemicals. Chemical farming, chemical medicines, chemical toxins. As scary as the word is, it’s almost meaningless, because everything is a chemical. Even happy flowers and kittens consist entirely of chemicals. It’s a weasel word, nothing more, and its use often indicates that its user was unable to find a cogent argument.
APPEAL TO HITLER
This one is inspired by Godwin’s Law, in which Mike Godwin stated “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” Ever since, such arguments have become known as the reductio ad Hitlerum, or the Appeal to Hitler. It’s a garden variety “guilt by association” charge, saying you’re wrong because Hitler may have thought or done something similar.
Bombo: “You think illegal aliens should be deported? Sounds exactly like how the Nazis got started.”
Starling gives the common reply:
Starling: “The Nazis also owned dogs and played with their children.”
For good measure, Bombo comes back with a “straw man on a slippery slope” argument:
Bombo: “Are you saying everything about the Nazis was perfect?”
PROOF BY VICTIMIZATION
Beware of claims from those lording their victimization over you. They may well have been victimized by something, be it an illness, a scam, even their own flawed interpretation of an experience. And in many cases, such a tragedy does give the victim insight that others wouldn’t have. But it doesn’t mean that person necessarily understands what happened or why it happened, and should not be taken as proof that they do.
Bombo: “My neighbor’s Wi-Fi network gave me chronic fatigue.”
Starling: “But that’s been disproven every time it’s been tested.”
Bombo: “You don’t know what you’re talking about; it didn’t happen to you.”
Victimization does not anoint anyone with unassailable authority on their particular subject.
BETTER JOURNAL FALLACY
It’s common for purveyors of woo to trot out some worthless, credulous magazine that promotes their belief, and refer to it as a peer-reviewed scientific journal:
Starling: “If telekinesis was real, you’d think there would be an article about it in the American Journal of Psychiatry.”
Bombo: “That rag is part of the establishment conspiracy to suppress psi research. You need to turn to a reputable source like the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. It’s peer-reviewed.”
And so it is, but its reviewers are people who have failed to estab
lish credibility for themselves, as have such journals themselves. There are actually metrics for these things. The productivity and impact of individual researchers can be described by their Hirsch index (or h-index), which attempts to measure the number and quality of citations of their publications and research. A journal’s reputation can be shown by its impact factor, which measures approximately the same thing. Although these indexes are not perfect, you need not ever lose a “my peer-reviewed scientific journal is better than yours” debate. Look up impact factors in the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports through sciencewatch.com.
APPEAL TO DEAD PUPPIES
Sometimes tugging at the heartstrings with a tragic tale is enough to quash dissent. Who wants to take the side of whatever malevolent force might be associated with death and suffering?
Starling: “Thank you, door-to-door solicitor, but I choose not to purchase your magazine subscription.”
Bombo: “But then I’ll be forced to turn to drugs and gangs.”
Oh no! What a horrible image. The Appeal to Dead Puppies draws a pathetic, poignant picture in order to play on your emotions. Recognize it when you hear it, and keep your emotions separate from the facts.
Add these new fallacies to your arsenal. And remember to keep an eye out for them: The spotting of logical fallacies in pop culture can be a fun game, like looking for state license plates on the freeway. Learning to spot them also sharpens your critical thinking skills, so be on the lookout.