New_Scientist_3_08_2019

26 | New Scientist | 3 August 2019

Editor’s pick

The food advice I needed

came from a song

13 July, p 32

From Alan Larman,

Congleton, Cheshire, UK

Your article on food advice was

unintentionally very amusing. I

have read New Scientist from cover

to cover since your first issue and

have followed the changing, often

conflicting, advice on food and

nutrition. Since leaving boarding

school, I have lived by the advice

that “a little of what you fancy

does you good, but too much of

anything will kill you”.

I have a very varied diet and love

fruit, vegetables, fish and meat, but

have only a small appetite. I recently

turned 80, but I am often mistaken

for 60 or even younger. Another

good piece of advice, taken from an

old song, is “I’ll eat when I’m hungry,

I’ll drink when I’m dry... if whisky

don’t kill me, I’ll live till I die.”

I hope to be following New

Scientist for many years yet –

and enjoying my food.

There are other reasons

to prefer organic food

6 July, p 22

From Cathy Cook,

Lyndhurst, Hampshire, UK

James Wong considers organic

food only from the viewpoint that

it is said to be more nutritious.

But probably the most important

motivator for its consumers is

to avoid the pesticide residues

that industrially farmed fruit

and vegetables typically contain.

I don’t know of there yet being a

requirement anywhere to disclose

the level of pesticides in food to

shoppers, so the safest bet is to

buy organic.

Another wider-reaching

reason for buying organic food,

which should be of interest to

everyone whether they have a

taste for pesticides or not, is that

it supports traditional farming

methods that have existed for

millennia. As we face such a

precarious future here on Earth,

these methods must now be

preserved at all costs for future

humans to benefit from.

Organic farmers work with

the soil to build and preserve

its fertility, and thus increase

its productivity. In contrast,

industrial-scale, chemically

assisted farming exploits the

land relentlessly until the soil

is depleted and the land eroded.

From Aroha Mahoney,

Te Awamutu, New Zealand

Wong describes many reasons

why analysing the nutrient

composition of organic and non-

organic food is difficult to do.

Surely a better way to look at an

organic diet would be to compare

the health outcomes in groups

that are made up of those who

primarily consume organic food

and of those who don’t?

I have rheumatoid arthritis and 

can report that when I eat a mainly

organic diet of home-grown

vegetables and organic meat

and fish, my pain levels are lower

and my energy levels are higher.

It would be interesting to see if

there is a measurable difference

in things like diabetes or cardiac

problems in these two groups.

Don’t just plant trees,

make things with them

20 July, p 20

From Butch Dalrymple Smith,

La Ciotat, France

Over and over, we hear that one

of the solutions to global warming

is to plant trees. Certainly, these

magnificent means of pulling

carbon dioxide out of the

atmosphere are an essential part

of our response to climate change.

But it is equally important to

do something with the wood that

is produced. Leaving trees to die,

rot or burn returns the carbon

to the atmosphere. If we build

houses, furniture and boats out

of wood, we not only lock all that

carbon away for as long as the

object exists, but also reduce the

production of cement and plastics

that have their own detrimental

effects on the environment.

It is better to power electric

vehicles with hydrogen

13 July, p 18

From Scott McNeil,

Banstead, Surrey, UK

Electric cars are in the news again.

Over the past few years, I have

become concerned that people

often treat battery-powered

electric vehicles as a panacea.

I see many problems with this.

If demand for cobalt, nickel and

lithium for batteries can be met, it

will cause environmental damage

in places such as China, Bolivia

and the Democratic Republic of

the Congo. I have always suspected

that the environmental cost of

producing such batteries has

been glossed over.

A report for Volkswagen earlier

this year did try to address this.

Electric vehicles should be more

environmentally friendly in the

long run. But the report showed

that manufacturing an electric

car emits twice as much carbon

dioxide as its diesel counterpart.

It seems that the majority of

that difference is due to the

manufacture of the battery.

And the issue of recycling is

also yet to be fully addressed.

So I was delighted to see you

discuss the potential benefits

of hydrogen power (8 June, p 20).

Hydrogen fuel cells are a proven

technology which, unlike

batteries, last for the life of the

vehicle and extra energy isn’t

consumed to carry a heavy battery.

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