I didn't dive deep on MSG just to not sound like I'm ranting about that specifically but you nailed it. It was more about Chinese restaurants (at least that's how I heard it) and I remember my parents saying we don't go to Chinese restaurants during the hysteria.

Sucks because I love Chinese food, and Thai, Korean, Japanese and more.

Not exclusively though. For many the fact that there a scary sounding chemical called MSG in their food is enough. Lots of people are obsessive about 'additives' and assume they are all bad.

Perhaps, but I've seen prejudice against MSG in many Asian American families including those of Chinese descent. Anecdotally, it's more than xenophobia at play for its reputation.

I mean, unless this article is a fabrication, I think that's enough deaths for concern.

Not suggesting in any way that it was the fault of the mfr, but to me that's plenty to justify folks wanting something done to curb it.

And I curse those folks every single time I have to smash through the lid of my Persil laundry discs with brute strength because the lids are actually people-proof. 🙂

Some people literally were tho.

I agree, but the "Tide pods are bad don't eat them" is true... (Though almost all media hysteria is over blown, it's a constant.)

And even then, small amounts will make you immune. No seriously, I saw it in a documentary called the Princess Bride.

All of those could be explanations. Here's another one.

Big macs are 583 calories... two big macs are about 1100 calories... aka perfectly reasonable in a healthy diet. I forget if he ate two a day or two in some meals, but a nutritionist would ok that Calorie count.

Morgan Spurlock pushed "no one can eat here and be healthy" but he constantly pushed for combo meals ate in one sitting, and supersized every time they asked. That's like someone going into a bar and saying yes every time the bartender goes "Want another one" and then going "OMG I'm so wasted and got alcohol poisoning" he set the rules up to make sure he failed, because no one is saying eat a combo meal at Mcdonalds for three meals a day.

The thing is it WOULD be interesting if he looked into why he can maintain a reasonable weight while eating it.... but of course they didn't because that would prove Mcdonalds isn't the worst thing ever. Morgan had two goals. Prove Mcdonalds is unhealthy (And ignore contrary evidence) and make an entertaining documentary. He did the later, but I feel like he never even came close to the former because his methodology was shit.

He's not all that special or unhealthy. 2 big macs is about 1k calories, if you get them as two meals with coke it's about 2k calories. If that's your food for the day it's perfectly fine for a moderately active person. The sodium is probably the most dangerous part and just drinking more water would likely keep that in check as well.

Plus the reporting on it.

At a certain point, people start saying things like "X is supposed to be bad now, but give it 5 years and it'll probably be healthy again!" or "they say you're not supposed to do Y anymore...".

Because, of course, most people get their information from news sources who are always trying to find the next superfood or poison that we've all been consuming for hundreds of years. And often, many of the things were taught when we're younger are no longer considered correct, or at least fully correct, anymore.

So at a point people just get tired, ignore all of it, and just do whatever they were going to do anyway, because from their perspective, scientists can't make their mind up anyway.

The problem is most people aren't doing that, and even those who do get second hand/rumors/stories from other people and eventually succumb to misinformation.

I've heard many times that X is cancer causings. I wish it was one wave that you could ignore but this shit gets repeated entirely too often, and even if it's not, the misinformations operates outside of the individual, because downstream products (diet coke) moved away from this because of bad PR.

Don't forget TV shows, more documentaries and more.

Morgan Spurlock did VERY well for himself based on that completely bias "Study". Sadly that became the style of documentary for a while (and potentially still is). Fuck the facts, let's make entertainment!

Everyone knew McDicks is bad for you. It was an entertaining doc. That's why people loved it. Also, most Americans are 100% ignorant to nutrition. Count your blessings it's a no brainer for you.