• boonhet@lemm.ee
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      13 hours ago

      I think it was because people overate a lot in Chinese restaurants and felt bloated afterwards. Also racism

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOPM
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      2 days ago

      I believe so. The only thing I see in this meme template that’s confirmed bad for you is aspartame, but they’ve all maintained a presence in conspiracy-oriented circles.

      • HiddenLychee@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Can you share the info you’re taking that from? My memory was that aspartame was only bad if it was mixed with alcohol

        • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOPM
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          1 day ago

          It’s been many years, but I remember a neuro professor back in college explaining that aspartame breaks down into phenylalanine, which competes with the precursor for serotonin to transport across the blood brain barrier. So effectively by having higher levels of aspartame in your diet, you can indirectly be reducing how much serotonin your brain can produce.

          • robolemmy@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            That’s true, as far as it goes, but the amount of phenylalanine created is incredibly minute and is matched by other, “natural” foods. In the vast majority of people, the body quickly metabolizes excess phenylalanine. The only genuinely well-documented danger is for people with phenylketonuria, because they have a genetic variation that breaks that ability to metabolize.

            Last I checked, which was admittedly years ago, the studies that showed direct harms were flawed, not statistically significant, or have not been repeatable. The early studies that led to its ban in the EU used absolutely massive doses of aspartame, well beyond what you could possibly ingest in a day.

            I’m not saying it’s safe for sure but it’s safer than obesity or massive doses of sugar on a regular basis.

    • robolemmy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      In dietary terms, literally nothing is wrong with it. There are economic concerns because the business model is to patent (copyright?) the GMO stuff and force growers to buy seed every year, instead of saving seed from each harvest. There’s also some concern that really successful GMO crops, such as Roundup-ready corn, will dominate planting and become a monocrop which could lead to massive crop loss if a blight or other disease evolves to target that particular strain.

      The other things in the picture vary between probably-but-maybe-not-harmless (aspartame), definitely harmless (MSG), to actually helpful (fluoride and Prozac).

      Bottom line: the meme, when interpreted correctly, implies that pop songs are generally good but somewhat artificially manipulated.

    • Novaling@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Well, there’s all kinds of GMOs that serve different purposes, because GMO is not just a thing or chemical, it’s literal DNA and genes that they alter in crops. They can be good, like the corn that has fish genes to make it more resistant to frost, or the golden rice in Asia that contains more carotenes so kids don’t go blind.

      But as the other comment said, they’re expensive and can’t be regrown again, as if they’re copyrighted. And yes, if we replaced regular non-GMO crops with GMO crops and reduced genetic diversity, then we’d be fucked if a plague or virus hit them and they all died. Furthermore, if one of these crops still actually had the potential to grow seeds and got out into the wild, it could cause environmental issues like becoming an invasive species, and we already have a shit ton of those around the globe.

      But people used to use GMO as a trigger word to scare uninformed people into denouncing all GMOs and looking for GMO free foods.

      Technically, almost all foods we eat today are “GMO” in a sense, as we’ve been doing selective breeding of crops and animals since the ancient times, hence why we have such fat animals, bananas without huge seeds, mostly orange carrots instead of the other colors, etc. But the genetic modification stuff didn’t start until the 70s.

      Here’s a lovely video I remember watching back in middle school that talked about them by Kurzgesagt

      • robolemmy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Most or all of the GMO crops will both pollinate and germinate. The requirement to buy new seed is legally enforced, rather than a biological necessity.

        There have been cases already where pollen and/or seeds have blown into neighboring fields and hybridized with non-GMO crops. At least one grower has been sued by Monsanto for harvesting and selling Roundup-ready soybeans that were hybridized that way.

  • ikt@aussie.zone
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    19 hours ago

    uncle roger very disappointed in niece and nephew who make this image, msg make everything better