[herbivore]

In a 2030 version of Hackernews someone will point out that a lot of people must have known about coordinated efforts to dump fluoride into our water and everyday products, pasteurize cow's milk to produce a liquid substance that does not exist in nature and then push it as healthy and essential. That thousands of people sprayed produce with toxic chemicals. That thousands of people stood behind a counter and sold people a product that kills half a million of them every year along with 50,000 of their acquaintances (cigarettes) and that America's greatest investor pushed Coke and its evil twin Diet Coke to millions of people who later abused it as part of their path to obesity and heart attack.

[sp332]

The micro-organisms usually present in stagnant fresh water are much more harmful than low levels of chlorine or fluoride that are added to kill them. Diet Coke does not promote obesity. Pasteurized cow's milk is fairly nutritious and is much less likely to harm you than unpasteurized milk (although the regulations in the USA are too strict IMHO).

[Peaker]

I thought fluoride is put in water for its teeth/health benefits.

[bdonlan]

It is. Chlorine is what is used for disinfecting the water supply.

[46Bit]

Indeed, it's supposed to protect teeth of people unable to afford toothpaste. Whilst it actually just causes cancer. In a similar way to how X-raying everyone who wants to get on a plane protects us from non-existent terrorists.

[Pwnguinz]

Do you have a source for your first statement? Not that I'm implying you are lying. Certainly it's added as a mineral fortifier, but to protect the teeth of people unable to afford toothpaste? That is news to me.

[ams6110]

Flouride additions to water was started in the 1960s or 1970s as a public health initiative to fight tooth decay, a significant health problem. It was not added as a "fortifier" in the same way that vitamin D is commonly added to milk.

[kragen]

Fluoride is not a nutrient. It is added to drinking water for the same reason it is present in toothpaste: to convert tooth enamel from hydroxyapatite to harder and more acid-resistant fluoroapatite. For details, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoride_therapy http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11571 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056796.htm.

[sp332]

Oh yeah, my mistake.

[gcb]

which makes as much sense as putting soap in our milk to keep us clean.

name one person in this day and age that does not brush their theets with a fluoride tooth paste.

[Peaker]

Is the benefit only for those who don't brush? Isn't it meant to provide the body with the fluoride it needs for the teeth?

[spindritf]

> Diet Coke does not promote obesity.

I don't have a good source* on me but aspartame likely increases appetite and feeling of hunger so I don't know about promoting but it may be contributing.

* see this for example though http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2359769

[wordplay]

There's a difference, subtle though it may be to some, between common legal practices in food and drug production and conspiring to criminally poison consumers for profit. Many of the items you mention are likely bad for the long term health of our species--but I would compare them more readily to medical practices in the dark ages than the short sighted and improperly structured health / regulatory environment we have today.

I'm deeply concerned about the world my children will inherit, but it's difficult for educated mainstream individuals to take the issues you point out seriously if they are presented from a paranoid and conspiracy theory embracing perspective. Even taking a giant leap and supposing any of the conspiracies exist to the extent some claim, the presentation still suffers because of a lack of willingness by the populace to embrace such a dark view of a society that they participate in.

[rickyconnolly]

This kind of post does not belong on Hacker News. We appreciate data and reason, not conjecture and appeal to emotion.

[goblin89]

IMO grandparent provides an interesting perspective.