Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Natural isn't always better

The health benefits of consuming aloe vera are highly suspect:
Aloe vera food supplements and drinks are supposed to help your gut stay healthy – or so herbalists claim. But now a warning flag has been raised by the US National Toxicology Program (NTP), which has found that rats given drinking water spiked with an extract of the succulent plant developed tumours in their intestines.
The health risks of synthetic chemicals are surely overstated while the dangers of natural products are understated. Natural foods, organic or not, are in fact loaded with carcinogens.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Chistery said...

This reminds me of a Jack Marx story on Goji berries and how the natural health industry is the natural home of snake oil salesmen.

6:27 AM  
Anonymous Dan Lewis said...

I can't stand the number of people who get excited about products being safe because they are "natural".

Arsenic is natural. As is heroin.

6:32 AM  

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