Food Glorious Food - From the Economist

Regulating Health Food - From the Economist

Omega 6 and Omega 3's - From the Economist

A lot of money is made from convincing wealthy patrons that they might live a little longer by spending quite a bit of money on foods and supplements.  This is a long established pattern of behaviour that one can see even in legendary Chinese Emperors dispatching armies to search for immortality -- Even French adventurers such as Ponce de Leon.  Though some might scoff at such gallantry, smaller forays are often done at health food stores and pseudo-medical interventions.

Much may do no harm, and some might do some good, but almost all share one trait: no strong evidence for doing good.  The Placebo effect grants that a person perceives benefit 20% of the time, despite no actual drug (established using drug and sugar pills).  If this effect is present in health foods (which it no doubt is), then one might surmise that many people are paying a lot for a psychological effect.  Small benefits are hard to prove; and harder still to disprove to an undiscerning public.

If any of you are loyal consumers of high priced health foods, recall that many such fads have come and gone, and some gone only after vast sums of money have been exchanged.

Of course, the worst fads do harm.

Ciao.