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I do hate journalism and media on the whole, with their need to sensationalize everything even if it means bending or obscuring the truth. I hate the people who write the titles to the stories even more (though they are not nearly as bad as the UpWorthy/Viralnova style titles, which are the absolute worst).
So why oh why do I occasionally read online news articles?
There's no great answer to that, though often the comments prove both more entertaining and more annoying than the articles. Maybe I am a masochist, but I do feel guilty if I have no idea what is going on in the world, so...
And occasionally two articles/comment sections collide and make connections and I end up learning something (not from the comments themselves, I'm not daft enough to believe what I read there, but it makes me do research).
This time, it's about food. On an article about Muslims, the comment section got off into food, with one commentator staunchly defending halal food and how much healthier Americans would be if they adhered to the restrictions. I have a brother-in-law who is Greek Orthodox and his wife has a ton of food allergies, and I know the fasting can be tough and if I had to stick to those sort of restrictions I'd almost certainly be a little svelter. So I figured, sure, whatever, we do eat a lot of crap. The commentator specifically mentioned the rate of diabetes, and how that could ask but be eliminated, though other commentators disagreed, citing people they knew who ate halal and were still diabetic.
(Yes, side note, a lot of people do not differentiate between the two types of diabetes, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt and only considering the Type 2.)
This all pretty much rolled over my brain and would have stayed tucked in an obscure corner of my brain, had it not been for another article - one of those heartwarming feel-good stories - about refugees from Syria and them landing on an Italian island and the Italian people being good about meeting their needs, including halal food.
...like chocolate.
Now, while dark, unsweetened chocolate is not bad for you, it's a stretch (yes, even for me) to call it a health food.
So I looked up the rules for halal food, and found that most junk food doesn't actually violate the rules. No MCDonald's hamburgers, sure, but cupcakes and cookies and potato chips and pixie stix are just fine.
So how on earth would that help prevent obesity/diabetes?
Goodness knows.
But bacon and booze and no-nos under halal, so it's not remotely an option for me, since clearly I need the booze to read the news comment section without my brain exploding, and bacon... it's bacon. 'Nuff said!
So why oh why do I occasionally read online news articles?
There's no great answer to that, though often the comments prove both more entertaining and more annoying than the articles. Maybe I am a masochist, but I do feel guilty if I have no idea what is going on in the world, so...
And occasionally two articles/comment sections collide and make connections and I end up learning something (not from the comments themselves, I'm not daft enough to believe what I read there, but it makes me do research).
This time, it's about food. On an article about Muslims, the comment section got off into food, with one commentator staunchly defending halal food and how much healthier Americans would be if they adhered to the restrictions. I have a brother-in-law who is Greek Orthodox and his wife has a ton of food allergies, and I know the fasting can be tough and if I had to stick to those sort of restrictions I'd almost certainly be a little svelter. So I figured, sure, whatever, we do eat a lot of crap. The commentator specifically mentioned the rate of diabetes, and how that could ask but be eliminated, though other commentators disagreed, citing people they knew who ate halal and were still diabetic.
(Yes, side note, a lot of people do not differentiate between the two types of diabetes, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt and only considering the Type 2.)
This all pretty much rolled over my brain and would have stayed tucked in an obscure corner of my brain, had it not been for another article - one of those heartwarming feel-good stories - about refugees from Syria and them landing on an Italian island and the Italian people being good about meeting their needs, including halal food.
...like chocolate.
Now, while dark, unsweetened chocolate is not bad for you, it's a stretch (yes, even for me) to call it a health food.
So I looked up the rules for halal food, and found that most junk food doesn't actually violate the rules. No MCDonald's hamburgers, sure, but cupcakes and cookies and potato chips and pixie stix are just fine.
So how on earth would that help prevent obesity/diabetes?
Goodness knows.
But bacon and booze and no-nos under halal, so it's not remotely an option for me, since clearly I need the booze to read the news comment section without my brain exploding, and bacon... it's bacon. 'Nuff said!