Unintuitive Outcomes
More food ingredients = good? Smoking more = less lung cancer?
I can never eat most of the food they give you on planes because I’m allergic to peanuts and they somehow never know if the main dish has peanuts. So, instead I eat the bread and the crackers.
On my latest flight to Europe, I actually looked at the ingredients for the crackers for the first time. To my surprise, it takes 20 ingredients to make two little crackers.
I assumed that having so many ingredients would make it unhealthy. So, being the AI-native guy I am, I asked ChatGPT. It turns out that most of these ingredients are actually fine.
Wheat Flour – Common refined carbohydrate; not inherently unhealthy, but less nutritious than whole wheat.
Palm Olein / Palm Kernel Oil – Highly processed oils; high in saturated fats. Questionable health impact when consumed frequently.
Malt – Can provide some minerals and antioxidants; moderate.
Salt – Fine in small amounts; excessive intake can raise blood pressure.
Yeast – Generally healthy; aids in fermentation and digestion.
Corn Flour – Can be healthy if whole corn; often refined and low in fiber.
Sodium Bicarbonate / Ammonium Bicarbonate – Leavening agents; safe in small amounts.
Soy Lecithin – Common emulsifier; generally safe and may have cholesterol-lowering effects.
Vitamins (A, B1/Thiamin, B3/Niacin, B5/Pantothenic Acid, B6, B12, E, K, Folic Acid) – All essential and beneficial.
Rosemary Extract – Natural antioxidant; healthy.
I guess processed foods aren’t all bad?
Smoking And Lung Cancer
Everywhere I go here (London and Paris), I see people smoking cigarettes. I almost never see someone smoke a cigarette in America. It turns out that is actually true. 18.4% of EU adults are daily smokers compared to less than 12% for America.
So, I thought the warning label on the side of every cigarette pack would be true and rates of lung cancer would be higher in Europe vs America. It turns out the opposite is true, even when you add in the Canadians, who basically never smoke (8% smoke daily).
Northern Africa’s smoking rate is about the same as us and the Europeans, and they have way less lung cancer. The Caribbeans actually smoke more (14.4%) than the Americans, but have less lung cancer. Up to 3/4 of men in some Melanesian countries are smokers, and still, a lower lunger cancer rate.
I have no idea how to square this circle.