53. Fighting "Chemophobia" & Why There is No Such Thing as Natural | James Kennedy

Ketogeek's Podcast

Are "natural" foods really "natural"? Are organic foods better? What about preservatives, tons of health and nutrition claims and strange chemicals on food and make-up labels? The reality is, everything we eat is chemicals and processed to some extent. In this podcast we make sense of all these chemicals and claims while also touch on how many health gurus and bloggers can cause serious harm by making dangerous claims about "real" and "natural" foods while manipulating consumer naivety.

Bio: James Kennedy is a British-born author and chemistry spokesperson. Kennedy is a chemistry teacher in Australia who created the All-Natural Banana poster series and founded the Sincerely, Chemicals chemistry outreach initiative in 2017, which runs live workshops with journalists and healthcare practitioners that aim to improve chemistry communications between experts and the public. Kennedy contributes to magazines, television and radio interviews to talk about chemistry-related topics with the aim of improving public perceptions of chemistry. He hosts an educational YouTube channel called Sincerely, Chemicals.

Time Stamps:

0:15 - Ketogeek updates, Energy Pods updates & more!

8:33 – How did you get into chemistry, outreach and battling chemophobia

11:45 – Why did you decide to write a book about Chemophobia?

13:32 – What is chemophobia and when did we start fearing chemicals?

16:43 – Are people becoming more or less acceptable of chemicals?

17:45 – Why there is no such thing as “Natural”

22:47 – How many chemicals exist in fruits and vegetables?

25:13 – How selective breeding has chemically altered fruits and vegetables and is turning them into gummy bears

28:41 – Why promoting “Real” and “Whole” food for treating medical conditions may be a dangerous idea

31:42 – How to figure out which foods are safe to eat?

34:38 – How a famous fitness blogger caused Subway to wrongfully give up on a chemical through fear and power of social media

39:52 – Viscosity, satiety, hunger, texture, nutritionism and why foods aren’t just nutrients

47:11 – Biggest milestones in the world of Chemistry?

48:41 – Why does plastic get so much slack?

52:08 – Is interest in Chemistry declining in schools?

53:18 – Is organic food necessarily better?

57:08 – How tell what chemicals are safe in food labels?

1:00:35 – Importance of dosage and teaching the public on how to think like a chemist

1:03:54 – Are food preservatives safe?

1:06:08 – Recommended reading resources and people to follow

1:11:54 – Final Plugs

James Kennedy Links:

• Fighting Chemophobia(Book): https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Chemophobia-marketers-capitalise-chemicals-ebook/dp/B07G6L6NT7
• Website: https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/
• Sincerely Chemicals YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgjIYPRmQZqjByCOgOaV0_w
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JamesKennedyEDU

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References:

• Beverage viscosity is inversely related to postprandial hunger in humans.