We Are NOT Food Scientists | Too Many Tabs Podcast

Summary

Episode Summary: "We Are NOT Food Scientists" | Too Many Tabs with Pearlmania500

Introduction

In this engaging episode of Too Many Tabs with Pearlmania500, host Alex Perlman and his wife delve into the intricate world of food fortification. True to the podcast's format, the couple shares their journey through countless research tabs, exploring the history, benefits, and controversies surrounding the enrichment of our food supply. This episode, released on November 17, 2024, serves as an insightful exploration for listeners curious about how fortified foods shape our health and society.

Historical Context of Food Fortification

The discussion begins with a historical overview of food fortification, tracing its origins to combat widespread nutrient deficiencies.

• Iodized Salt (1924): Alex introduces the concept by highlighting the introduction of iodine into salt to prevent goiters.

  “In 1924, was when they started putting iodine in salt.” (10:16)

  Mrs. Perlman explains what goiters are and their impact on health, emphasizing the success of iodized salt in eliminating this condition.

• Vitamin D in Milk (1933): The conversation shifts to the addition of vitamin D to milk to eradicate rickets.

  “In 1940, the Food and Nutrition Board... commercial bakeries volunteered to fortify bread.” (12:00)

  They detail how vitamin D fortification helped in bone health, preventing diseases like rickets among children in the northern United States.

• Enriched Bread (1943): Further fortification efforts included adding B vitamins to bread.

  “All white bread has to be enriched.” (22:30)

  Alex humorously notes, “You hear that? White breads. You're getting these bees. You're gonna be B boys. White breads.” (22:30)

Golden Rice and Genetic Modification

The episode delves into more modern advancements with the introduction of Golden Rice, a genetically modified organism (GMO) designed to address vitamin A deficiency.

• Development and Benefits: Mrs. Perlman introduces Golden Rice, explaining its genetic modification to produce beta carotene.

  “Golden rice is a genetically modified rice that contains beta carotene. Like is in carrots.” (38:15)

  Alex connects this to his personal experience with fortified foods, noting, “We did use rice cereal for a minute. Yeah, but it's fortified.” (43:47)

• Controversies and Opposition: The discussion shifts to Greenpeace's opposition to Golden Rice, citing ethical concerns and misinformation.

  “Greenpeace immediately was like, this is unacceptable. They scream scandal... you didn't say that it was genetically modified.” (45:22)

  Alex adds, “Greenpeace falls into the 80s idea of a tree hugger, hippie type of thing.” (49:32)

Ethical Considerations and Farmer Impact

The hosts explore the broader implications of GMO crops on farmers and agricultural practices.

• Farmer Resistance: Mrs. Perlman discusses Filipino farmers' resistance to Golden Rice, highlighting concerns over corporate control and seed ownership.

  “They feel like it's being driven by profit... they just want to use their crops that they genetically own.” (55:30)

• Corporate Influence: Alex critiques the role of corporations like Monsanto in enforcing GMO usage, leading to dependency and reduced farming diversity.

  “You end up getting like the same way you can only download apps that are approved by the Apple Store for an iPhone.” (56:07)

Modern Implications and Public Perception

The episode examines how food fortification has evolved and its current impact on public health and perception.

• Over-Fortification: The couple debates whether fortification has gone too far in modern diets, potentially leading to excess intake of certain vitamins.

  “Most American adults already get enough calcium, folic acid, and iron without eating fortified foods like today.” (27:42)

• Misinformation and Public Understanding: They discuss the challenges of public understanding amidst misinformation, comparing it to historical misconceptions about vaccines.

  “The misinformation about health is so crazy right now.” (30:55)

Conclusion

Alex and Mrs. Perlman conclude by acknowledging the complexities of food fortification. They emphasize the importance of balanced diets and the need for clear communication from experts to the public.

“We're not food scientists. We just want to say that... there are questions.” (67:01)

The hosts encourage listeners to stay informed and critically evaluate the information surrounding food science and nutrition.

Notable Quotes

• “We're not food scientists.” — Alex Perlman (00:28)
• “Golden rice is a genetically modified rice that contains beta carotene.” — Mrs. Perlman (38:15)
• “Greenpeace falls into the 80s idea of a tree hugger, hippie type of thing.” — Alex Perlman (49:32)
• “Most American adults already get enough calcium, folic acid, and iron without eating fortified foods like today.” — Mrs. Perlman (27:42)
• “The misinformation about health is so crazy right now.” — Mrs. Perlman (30:55)
• “We're not food scientists. We just want to say that... there are questions.” — Alex Perlman (67:01)

Key Takeaways

1. Historical Successes: Early food fortification efforts successfully reduced deficiencies like goiters and rickets through iodized salt and vitamin D-enriched milk.
2. Advancements and Controversies: Modern initiatives like Golden Rice aim to address ongoing nutritional gaps but face significant opposition from groups like Greenpeace, raising ethical and environmental concerns.
3. Impact on Agriculture: GMO crops can lead to corporate dominance in agriculture, affecting farmers' rights and farming practices.
4. Public Perception and Misinformation: The balance between scientific advancements and public understanding is delicate, often skewed by misinformation and skepticism.
5. Balanced Approach Needed: While fortification has clear benefits, it requires careful implementation to avoid over-supplementation and ensure equitable access.

This episode offers a comprehensive look into the nuanced world of food fortification, encouraging listeners to think critically about the sources and implications of the foods they consume.

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Note: Timestamps are referenced for notable quotes to provide context, enhancing the summary's alignment with the original podcast content.

Transcript

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[Alex Perlman]

CT mobile.com welcome to Too Many Tabs, a podcast where a husband and wife sit across from each other at a desk. And what do they do at that desk? Well, if you haven't figured it out by now, then I want to take your hand instead of my wife's and explain to you the deep lore of so many different things. Like the lore of this podcast. How did it start? What is it about? Who are these people? Their names are the Perlmans. And this podcast is about opening so many tabs as you delve deeper into the lore and the background that is our world. What is there? What is this? What is now? What is when? Why is this new camera?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Everyone's spiraling.

[Alex Perlman]

I am. Everyone's spiraling.

[Mrs. Perlman]

This podcast started because we made TikToks with a SpongeBob filter.

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, that's right. And now we don't. And people were like, I would listen to a podcast about this, and we said, okay, that was some pretty quick lore there.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yep.

[Alex Perlman]

All right, let's do it. Too many frauds and too many scammers that we wish weren't real. Too many cons and too many spammers. And we're starting to feel like we've got too many tabs.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Open it.

[Alex Perlman]

Too many tabs. Remember to smile. Hello and welcome back. Thank you, guys. For everybody, this is the announcements part. First announcement, let me tell you something. I got a new camera.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Nice.

[Alex Perlman]

For the YouTube. Hello, everybody. On YouTube, more and more people are starting to listen to us over there and. And watch us. By watch us, I mean watch me.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

But I will say I really like this new camera. Giving me a little bit of more body dysmorphia. Oh, good. It's good. It's good. Healthy body dysmorphia. Feeling a little certain way about it, but we're learning a lot.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Doctor said you're doing good.

[Alex Perlman]

No, I did. I went to the doctor. Doctor said I was fine. Then also today, like, just, I have one of those apps where they're like, here's all your charts and everything.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And I'm like, I feel like you should call me on those instead of just sending me random numbers. Like, what does this mean?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Jerks. Yeah, Real jerk behavior.

[Alex Perlman]

But beyond that, what are our announcements? Well, we did an episode of the Warm Up.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey, everybody.

[Alex Perlman]

Hey, everybody.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I hope you're taking a hot shower, drinking a lot of water.

[Alex Perlman]

A lot of water.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Go to sleep. Stop scrolling. Go to sleep.

[Alex Perlman]

Go outside. Get some sun on your face. Seasonal depression is real.

[Mrs. Perlman]

If you got a kitty cat, kiss his own little forehead.

[Alex Perlman]

If you got family, Puppy dog.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, scratch his little butt.

[Alex Perlman]

If you have children, hold them kisses. Give them kisses. Watch them. Sesame Street.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. Have a good time.

[Alex Perlman]

I don't care if they're 13, watch them sesame Street.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So listen, honestly, Sesame street might be great.

[Alex Perlman]

The Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster Covering any movie.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, my God. Cookie Monster has covered. Les Mis was a great one.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Jurassic Park.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep. The Avengers.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The show with the zombies.

[Alex Perlman]

He did Walking Dead.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

For those of you guys who haven't watched Sesame street in a while. We've been watching a lot of it.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We're deep in the Sesame Street Cookie.

[Alex Perlman]

Monster does movie and. And TV parodies.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And they're. They're actually really good.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, the Twilight one. Did you say that already?

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, no, I did not say there.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Is the Twilight one. Is.

[Alex Perlman]

There is. Yeah. There is a Twilight. Not Twilight Zone. Twilight. Yes. That one with the sparkle vampires. That one. There is a Twilight Cookie Monster parody where he plays, I think, the dad.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I don't.

[Alex Perlman]

I.

[Mrs. Perlman]

All I know is the girl is the funniest part.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, the girl who plays Bella. Yeah, she the one who plays Bella and the guy who plays Edward. Like, they have, like, an Edward. It's y'all. The lame. They nail Eddie Redmayne in the Les Mis one. It's hard to explain to y'all, unless you also have been having a manic depressive episode with a baby while watching YouTube.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Just a bit of existential crisis.

[Alex Perlman]

Just a little bit.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's why I'm saying let's take hot showers and drink some water and go outside.

[Alex Perlman]

But also have things to look forward to. And as we announced on a previous episode, we got stuff to look forward to. I am in the middle of reading Acotar 3, so Horny Fairy 3 will be happening by Thanksgiving. And Mrs. P has.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I think it's by Thanksgiving. It's just this month.

[Alex Perlman]

This month? Yeah. Well, it's gonna be. I.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Don't you see something? People are gonna come at you. You're late or something.

[Alex Perlman]

That's true. I am trying. Desperate. It's the worst book I've ever read. I hate this than anything else.

[Mrs. Perlman]

He reads it in bed and somebody.

[Alex Perlman]

Just rolls over, y'all. I've been going to bed angry every night, and not because of the state of the world. It's been because of the decisions that were made by Sarah J. Maas, the author of acotar. And people in the background going, nya, no. Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And then I just giggle.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. As I can see the shudder with anger. But you also had an announcement in time for next week.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh. So in the spirit of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, we are going to number one, I'm going to post on the Patreon my Devil Dag recipe.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep.

[Mrs. Perlman]

As a PDF, you can print that bad boy out and then you can make them.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep. And it's going to be available for all. All levels.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yep. It's going to be delicious.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And then as Patreon exclusive, we are actually going to do an audio recording of me explaining this recipe and how to make it to Alex, who is not the best at cooking.

[Alex Perlman]

No.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But I'm going to explain to him how to make deviled eggs. And that way, if reading and doing a recipe is difficult for you, there'll be an audio version so you can listen to it in the kitchen while you're making deviled eggs.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Boom.

[Alex Perlman]

And. And final thing is we've been slowly growing more and more with ad reads and stuff like that. And so for anybody, again, as always, the Patreon exclusive episodes, whether it be the warmup or this show itself on the Patreon app, does not include advertisements. So if you want to hear the show without any advertisements, go join over there and you will get access to that show. So that's it. If you want to join that, you.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Should do a Patreon exclusive where you describe where we videotape you making hellofresh.

[Alex Perlman]

You've tried.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I want that so bad.

[Alex Perlman]

I know. I was like, the thing is, with the hellofresh, it showed up in, like, the final weeks of the election cycle.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And I just looked into the window. I was like, I. I have to cook dirt right now. And you're like, yeah, it's going to go bad, so you got to cook it. And I Did. And listen, I. I learned a lot about what I hate about our kitchen and.

[Mrs. Perlman]

All right, well, speaking of our kitchen.

[Alex Perlman]

Yes.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Let's get this episode.

[Alex Perlman]

We should get into this episode because this is all gonna be about food. It's all about the food pyramid.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Nope.

[Alex Perlman]

No.

[Mrs. Perlman]

This is about food fortification.

[Alex Perlman]

Food fortification. You know what? I don't even know what that means.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yep.

[Alex Perlman]

So we're going to take a break.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yep.

[Alex Perlman]

And when we come back, we're going to know all about food fortification.

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[Mrs. Perlman]

Also, I like to say that, like, maybe you won't know everything. This isn't like an educational podcast. This is just two people doing research.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I mean, researching, Trying to tell each other some stuff.

[Alex Perlman]

Listen, Researching and yapping. Yeah, we just, we used, you know, we used to cover a lot more at the very beginning of our episodes before we'd started doing more historical stuff. We've been a kind of a history kick for a bit.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

We would remind people, though, constantly, like, we're not journalists.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

No, and I think that should be clear. I hope that's clear.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I hope it's clear.

[Alex Perlman]

I feel like it should be. But that. And in this case, talking about food fortification. We're not food scientists. This.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No.

[Alex Perlman]

And I wish I was.

[Mrs. Perlman]

What a cool job.

[Alex Perlman]

I just started following one on TikTok and she keeps posting about conversations, but.

[Mrs. Perlman]

She gets bummed out about people asking her about the seed oils, the non pasteurized milk.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. Don't drink raw milk.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. And it's like, these are real life conversations online.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The, The Trad wives. The Trad wives online, they'll all talk about their. Their unpasteurized milk that. The raw milk they get, but then they go home with it and they're like, well, I gotta boil it first. I'm like, okay, so you do understand.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You're boiling it.

[Alex Perlman]

That's pasturization.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I. Louis Pasture. Did not.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. Louis Pastor Yeah. The. It is actually very funny that watching. I will say, even though we're not journalists.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Is. I will say it's been very funny watching journalists catch up to you. A year ago, like, the amount of people are like, what do you mean? Trad wife content is actually a gateway for conservatism.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, my God. Guys, guys, we've been saying it.

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, real quick, real quick. By the way, to anyone who listened to last week's episode, I once a day I look at my reflection in the mirror and yell socialist sheriff. And then back away.

[Mrs. Perlman]

He. He still can't handle it. So listen, the National Library of Medicine's overview of food fortification in the US And Canada writes, quote, in the United States, as in most parts of the world, fortification of food was initiated as a systemic approach to correct identified nutrient deficiencies in the population. So the first real time we started fortifying food.

[Alex Perlman]

What is. Real quick, what is food fortification?

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm about to tell you.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The first time we did it, okay. In 1924, was when they started putting iodine in salt.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay. Why do we do that?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Because a bunch of people in the health space realized that Americans specifically kept getting goiters.

[Alex Perlman]

Goiters.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Do you know what a goiter is?

[Alex Perlman]

I know that term.

[Mrs. Perlman]

When your thyroid swells up in your neck and it like, it's really. We don't. We actually, because of iodized salt, we don't see people with goiters anymore.

[Alex Perlman]

Is that where you have like the bullfrog neck?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Kind of. Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So your thyroids get inflamed and swell because you grow these goiters on your thyroids. And that's because you don't have enough iodine in your diet.

[Alex Perlman]

Goiters are also. Those are like the thing I think I've had, like dogs get. You know how they get like those lumps? That's like a goiter, you know, like with sometimes like dogs. We had a dog that had them.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. It was iodine.

[Alex Perlman]

No, it's not iodine. I'm saying that. But that's like also what a goiter is. It's like that kind of lump swelling. And it's not a tumor.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, it's not.

[Alex Perlman]

It's not a tumor. It's just.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But it does have negative effects. Cuz. On your thyroid?

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. What's on your thyroid? So I can push on things and it can ruin other stuff.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

So they added iodine to salt in.

[Mrs. Perlman]

1924 because there was such a crisis of goiters in America. So basically The American Public Health association, the Council on Foods and Nutrition, the American Medical association, and the Committee on Food and Nutrition of the National Academy of Sciences all got together and we're like, hey, if we put iodine in salt, everybody uses salt. It will lower the amount of goiters in America. And this is when they were like, we could just make additions to food.

[Alex Perlman]

And that worked.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Have you seen a goiter? In a minute.

[Alex Perlman]

It's been a minute.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's been a minute.

[Alex Perlman]

But I also haven't been looking.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Because also, I just want to stop you real fast.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay.

[Alex Perlman]

Before you move on.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay.

[Alex Perlman]

Because everything you just described to me sounds Illuminati. I just want to throw that out there. It sounds.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Not only Illuminati, I'm gonna. I'm gonna also guess Freemasonry. Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

I'm gonna throw a little Freemason in there.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You know what's interesting is so, like, when I was. When I went down this rabbit hole, and when our amazing research assistant sent me over some information, and I, of course, said, hey, shout out. Yeah. When I was going through and, like, following up some stuff, it was interesting because as we talk about this, there'll be a lot of pros and cons to all of this.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And, like, I don't have a specific set opinion on all of it in, like, a very firm way, but there is, like, this weird pushback.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And we'll. We'll talk about it. Like, what you're saying. So that our initial fortification effort had another one in 1933, which is when they started putting vitamin D in milk.

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, we add that.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We add the vitamin D to the milk.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You know what's interesting is, as someone who takes calcium supplements.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. My doctor told me, because you don't like milk.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's one reason.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But also because of the celiacs. So the. I have. When I take my calcium, he says, oh, also you have to take a gel cap of vitamin D, because vitamin D helps you absorb calcium better.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Right. And so that's the main reason they started putting vitamin D in milk.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So that people would absorb calcium better.

[Alex Perlman]

So if you. So if you're drinking raw milk, you're going to get some gut bacteria from. From a poisoned udder and E. Coli. And some E. Coli. But you're probably not going to. You're not going to get any vitamin.

[Mrs. Perlman]

D. No vitamin D. There's none. None.

[Alex Perlman]

You got to drink a Sunny D for that.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. So in the 1930s, the United States began to fortify milk with vitamin D in an effort to eradicate rickets.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay. What's a ricket?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Rickets is a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency that softens and weakens the bones. It was actually rampant among poor children in the northern United States. In 1923, American physician Harry Stingenbach demonstrated that they could irradiate milk with ultraviolet light, which increased the vitamin D content. So that's how they did it. Rickets in itself is, like I said, the softening and weakening of bones and is characterized by people with bow legs, delayed growth, and motor skills. And also they have a lot of spinal pain. Historically, the Medici family was said to all have rickets.

[Alex Perlman]

Medici. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Also, O.J. simpson had it.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. They thought. They thought I was going to be bowlegged a little bit as a kid. Yeah. But then my legs, like, just straightened out, but. Yeah. No. Okay. All right. So rickets. Ricketts is one of those ones I would hear about in stories.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Would it be like, oh, that's little Tim, and he has the rickets.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. Tiny timing.

[Alex Perlman]

Had rickets. But, yeah. Vitamin D you can get from sunlight, which is why they're using UV rays to get it in there. Exactly. But also. Wait, so if you take a vitamin D supplement, you're literally taking a sunlight pill?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Sort of. Kind of. Not really.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay. But I'm just gonna. I'm gonna go.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I think we talked about a cult that ate sunlight.

[Alex Perlman]

Timeout. Timeout. I think you're talking about Breatharians. Timeout. I want to just go. And from here on out, I'm just. Listen, America, I heard you're looking for a liberal Joe Rogan.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, no.

[Alex Perlman]

So I take a vitamin D. That means I get the sunlight in my body, and then once I get the sunlight. Jamie, can you pull up this.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Sorry.

[Alex Perlman]

No, I. I find this very interesting because, you know, it's very funny how in the 20s and 30s, as they're starting to fortify these things and get rid of all these diseases and children start living longer, we. We, like, peak.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And then we just get real dumb.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. Okay.

[Alex Perlman]

Maybe I just feel like, again, it's one of those things where, like, maybe it's survival. Survival bias.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Exactly. Because we don't know what rickets is now.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So we're like, well, why would. We need to. Why would that be the milk?

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's clearly bad.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's like. Well, that's because we got rid of rickets.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. Well, there used to be more.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I only use pink Himalayan sea salt because I don't want that iodized.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, I only like my Himalayan sea salt brought over to me by Tibetan slaves that are being crushed by the Chinese Communist Party.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, no.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep, yep.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So moving on, away from rickets.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The. This is funny. The National Park Service. That's where this information is pulled from. The National Park Service says during the Great Depression, many across the United States suffered from hunger and malnutrition. A main concern was a widespread lack of B vitamins, resulting in tired, nervous, and a depressed population.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And this is very funny because, like, there's a lot of people that'll be like, I'm B12 deficient. And that's why they're depressed and anxious, because people are B12 deficient. It's also just, like, a funny thing to say when you're just swirling in anxiety and you're like, it must be because I'm not taking B12. Not everything around us.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay, so saying on B12, it's like saying that Mercury's in retrograde or whatever.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Sort of, kind of.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay. But I mean, it's like. It's like that kind of thing of like, oh, this thing is. Is.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm pretty sure we're in Scorpio. I don't know.

[Alex Perlman]

I don't know.

[Mrs. Perlman]

As World War II became increasingly inevitable.

[Alex Perlman]

I like how I push back a little bit on the astrology. And you're like, shut up.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm not. I literally, on my Instagram right now, I am fighting with a cooking website because they posted a meme about the different types of mashed potato or different type of potato dishes that each astrological sign would like. And it's so wrong that I'm mad. And I've been posting on Instagram about it, people. I'm like, libra would never like German potato salad. I have strong opinions.

[Alex Perlman]

What'd it say for Taurus?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, it said, like, baked potato soup.

[Alex Perlman]

What?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Exactly. No, no. And I said, no. A Taurus wants shoestring French fries so they can fistful them in their mouth and somebody else cook them.

[Alex Perlman]

Yes. Oh, my God.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Exactly.

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, I bet it was an AI generated meme.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, it's actually from, like, one of my favorite cooking.

[Alex Perlman]

But the thing is, what you're describing, I've heard of this meme before. They just changed it to other stuff, though I will say I was recently. I was really on that. On a. On a short form video game show called Gaydar.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yep, I remember that.

[Alex Perlman]

And it was very.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You did great. People loved it.

[Alex Perlman]

Listen, people really enjoyed it. But they, they just released a new episode and the first question they asked the person is, what are your thoughts about astrology? And he said, they said, I don't subscribe to racism from space.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Space races.

[Alex Perlman]

And I paused. I. I paused. Yeah, I was like, you boom me on that one. Yeah, it is very true.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's funny.

[Alex Perlman]

But yeah, no, listen, I'm, I'm here. This is the one thing I'll say about astrology, but I don't yuck anybody's yum on it.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I know.

[Alex Perlman]

I. When it comes to astrology, wherever you find peace, my mom goes to. What are the people sticking with the needles? Acupuncture. I don't believe in it, but she feels better afterwards.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It makes Magistra happy.

[Alex Perlman]

It makes her happy. It makes her happy. Listen, that's fine. However, if she said, I'm going to do this instead of going and getting a specific treatment that has been, then we're going to have a problem.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

If you come in, you are literally.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The most tourist person ever.

[Alex Perlman]

What?

[Mrs. Perlman]

You are.

[Alex Perlman]

I am not.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, are you? I'm very stubborn.

[Alex Perlman]

I'm very chill and go with the flow.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay.

[Alex Perlman]

I have, I have. I'm not opinionated at all.

[Mrs. Perlman]

What do you, what would you prefer to go out to a nightclub until 5am or to stay home, snuggled up on the couch, watching all your favorite shows, eating all of your favorite snacks?

[Alex Perlman]

What's the temperature outside? What day of the week we talking?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Wednesday. Large crowd on a Wednesday. You want to do it?

[Alex Perlman]

I'm. Honestly, I'm more likely to go deal with large crowd on a Wednesday. I'll be fucked if it's going to be a large crowd on a Friday or a Saturday. I'll be fucked if I go out there with those, with those weekend jovial people. I used to go out every Wednesday and I go out there. I would do open mics. I'd stay out till 3 o'clock in the morning.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Now I take heartburn medication.

[Mrs. Perlman]

When you wake up so that you can sleep later, you have to do it 12 hours in advance. Yeah, okay.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So, okay, listen, it's prescription. The, the. So World War II is. We're on the precipice of World War II. Right.

[Alex Perlman]

And wait, now?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, in my, in my, in my.

[Alex Perlman]

In your story, in my notes. Hold on. Timeout.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay. Oh, I'm sorry.

[Alex Perlman]

I mean, we're on the precipice.

[Mrs. Perlman]

War.

[Alex Perlman]

War. Yeah, I know. No, no, I mean in this story. So we're talking about, we're talking about like 1939, 1940.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. So the vitamin D stuff started in 33. Okay. So the government's getting worried because, like I said, Everybody's B12 deficient. And they're concerned because so many civilians that they need to pull into the military are not healthy enough. They're all malnourished and unfit to serve.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So they are like, okay, we can kind of see the writing on the wall. It's 1940 now. Like, we gotta get these people healthy so that if we pull them in for war, they're not malnourished.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. Which is a problem, actually, historically, for armies that they can have such a unhealthy populace that more people die from just disease and starvation than they do the actual fighting.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

That's why most wars are won via logistics. Just so that's my fun little side. Now. Keep going.

[Mrs. Perlman]

In 1940, the Food and Nutrition Board, the FNB, was founded to advise on nutrition problems in connection with national defense. That same year, commercial bakeries volunteered to fortify bread. They added. Well, they replaced B vitamins that were removed. So basically, when you refine wheat into white flour, it takes all the B vitamins out. So they started adding the B vitamins and other vitamins and minerals after the flour had been refined.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And so that's why we have enriched bread. Enriched white bread. That's what it means. They're putting all the B vitamins and other vitamins and mineral. And so this became a government mandate in 1943 that they said all white bread has to be enriched.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. You hear that? White breads. You're getting these bees. You're gonna be B boys. White breads.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And, you know, this was to combat poor nutrition.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But also they had this other thing where they could have kind of aimed it directly at certain groups because they were like, these are the people that are gonna go to war. But they made it a national thing because they knew they needed to enrich the food for all the kids because most of the doctors, one in three doctors, were going to war. And so they knew that they needed to keep the kids healthy because there were not going to be as many doctors around.

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, also, it's one of those things. Again, there's a lot of conversations about targeted population for when it comes to, like, tax breaks or to certain programs. And I'm always for opening up just for everybody. Yeah. Because then you're going to cover everybody.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

But because there was an argument about when we're. When they were talking about student loan debt forgiveness, they want to do what's called means testing.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh.

[Alex Perlman]

And part of that is like, hey, if you make over $250,000, you shouldn't get any student loan defense. And they're like, why? And because then it becomes a tax break for the rich. I'm like, well, what. What amount are we talking about here?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And so it became this. It becomes this sort of thing, and what it ends up doing is swiping the legs out from our it. So if they had only targeted enriched white bread to people who were 16 years to 35, because that's the only people who could get drafted, it would not work.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And so by targeting it to the entire nation and getting every bakery to do this.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

You cover the entire nation. You're definitely. It's being outside the goal.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

So when you're. When you have a goalie. I'm using a lot more metaphors now.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

When you have a goalie defending a goal. Right. In soccer, sometimes they're further out so they can jump on the ball sooner.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

As they get further and further back into the goal, they. They are covering less and less space with how much they have to move.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And so that's that same general idea. I think that's really, really neat. And I wish we were still that smart.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. And basically, I also just found some more information about how, like, that program with the white bread was also. They also segued it into school lunches because again, men were going off to war at this point.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Women had to go into the factories, so school lunches were provided, and they had to make sure that was with the enriched bread and the vitamin D milk and the iodized salt, you know what I mean? Because, like, they knew that maybe mom was too busy to pack lunches, so they were making sure that the school lunches had all these rich foods in them.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. And in some cases, they might not even have food at home or mom is working now for the first time.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Because that was a big part of this, was women going into the workforce.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, man. Rosie the riveter baby.

[Alex Perlman]

Yep. That's a riveter noise.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's the riveter noise. So since their introduction, fortified foods have been used to combat global malnutrition.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 2 billion people are. Have a deficit in key vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A, iodine, iron, and zinc. Most of these affected populations are from developing countries where they have multiple deficiencies in their diet. And of course, the most vulnerable group is children, pregnant women, and lactating women. Okay. So the World Health Organization says the leading cause of child death worldwide is linked to malnutrition. And there's also, like, long term consequences to being micronutrient deficient. Right. It can be irreversible, like not having iodine, not having these certain vitamins, long term consequences. And so me being, Me having, like, I knew about the bread thing, and I was like, that's a good thing we did as Americans. We were like, let's enrich the bread so that kids get this. And I always knew what iodized why we iodized salt, because as someone who bakes and cooks a lot, I have both kosher salt and iodized salt in the kitchen at all times. So, like, I've always known the difference and why I had eyes salt. I guess I don't know when I learned it, but I just always knew it. So, like, I was always like, this is a good and important thing.

[Alex Perlman]

Right.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That we've done. But here's the thing again, I don't have a solid opinion on this. I just kind of wanted to yap about it.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I think maybe sometimes America went too far.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's like the thing is, right. I don't know, is that like, we. We fortified the food. Right. The certain things. But then we fortified everything.

[Alex Perlman]

Everything.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You know, like, like we add these minerals and micronutrients to so much stuff that like, is it. Did we overdo it in the way that Americans overdo everything? So, like, most American adults already get enough calcium, folic acid, and iron without eating fortified foods like today.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

For healthy people eating a varied diets, they might not even need fortification at this point. And so, like, that's the thing is like, they're kind of like talking about general people that are like, I guess statistically, like the average.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But again, people in poverty might not have access to, like, as much spinach.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So adults need like 1000-1200 milligrams of calcium per day. And you can get that in dairy, you can get it in spinach, beans, fruits, nuts. But you don't want to exceed a certain amount of calcium per day. But, like, if you're eating all these different fortified foods accidentally and not knowing it, you could, like, be at risk for medical issues like kidney stones can happen if you have too much calcium.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So, like, it's just interesting to me.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That like, we might have overdone it in these certain ways. Another one is like folic acid. So the Institute of Medicine recommends that adults consume 400 micrograms of folate per day. That's folic acid is folate, which you get from beans, leafy greens, eggs. But you shouldn't get more than a thousand micrograms. Right.

[Alex Perlman]

In a day.

[Mrs. Perlman]

In a day.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But many manufacturers add folic acid to bread, cereal, flour, pasta, rice. So, like, if you are having like a really diverse diet, you might be getting too much. So you have to know to look for it. But we don't talk about it.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And I think opposite, we. Because we see like these supplement shillers on the Internet who are always just selling new types of multivitamins.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

They're like, this one's for your hair. I'm looking at Tati Westbrook right now. She is her, like little hair gummies or whatever. It was the, the hair pills that started drag, was it not? Dragon magedon, whatever. I forget what it was called.

[Alex Perlman]

It was when all the dramageddon.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Dramageddon. When all the beauty flu went for each other.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That started because of biotin pills.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That were like high in folate. So your hair would grow. Yeah, whatever. So, like, because we have like people online, like the fitness people and all these are always selling supplements like you with. There's so many extra supplements going around right now.

[Alex Perlman]

I understand what you mean.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

I think, I think the problem you end up with, and I understand what you're saying is there is a combination of us actually having too much information.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Alex Perlman]

And I think that there are guidelines and there are areas where we're like, hey, this is about. Right. But then people will lose their minds. Like again, I go back to that one food scientist I think I mentioned on the warm up before. This one I watched. There's a food scientist I follow on TikTok now where it's her talking about, like conversations she has all the time. And one of them recently was about aspartame being a carcinogen. And she was like, yeah, in the amounts there are per Diet Coke, you would have to drink 19 to 24 of them. A day. Yeah, a day. It's crazy to get cancer. And it was like, oh, it's like, yeah, like in these certain amounts that we've done the testing on them.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And so there's. There's being aware of it and then there's being too aware. But also like, I don't know.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But that's the thing is like the misinformation about health is so crazy right now.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And so like. Well, it has been for last. Since the Internet.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And so, like, I think that's just such a. I don't want to say interesting. It's very complex and nuanced. And so, like, no, again, why.

[Alex Perlman]

We're not fight. We're not food scientists.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We're not food scientists.

[Alex Perlman]

We just want to say that I'm.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Just a lady that got stuck with too many tabs open looking at folic acid.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. But also. But no, but I think. I think you're right. Is that there can be concerns about those things, but I think it's more important that people just know that, hey, some of these things are fortified by it to look at what those amounts are on the nutrition label. And I think more people need to understand on how to read a nutrition label and then to keep those things in mind because, like, I've never even, like, until you've said folic acid to me right now.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

I've never thought about it really, as folic acid as a thing.

[Mrs. Perlman]

See, and until you start talking when I was pregnant, that's all. It was all folic acid, baby.

[Alex Perlman]

No, I know. I. Well, I know, because then that's when we started talking about it. You would. You would look at certain things like, I can't have this as too much of this. I can't have this. This is what's setting this off. But for me, I'm over here of just. I open my food hole, I put food in it. You sometimes. Hold on.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Shrimp penne from Chili's.

[Alex Perlman]

Sometimes I put in too much fried food. And then you're like, you're depressed. Eat a vegetable. Yeah, and then I eat a vegetable.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And then I poop. And then I go, what was I so sad about?

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's just lack of fiber, really.

[Alex Perlman]

A lot. Most of my answers are just eating more fiber.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Fiber and water cure a lot of what's going on with you.

[Alex Perlman]

That's most of me. But at the same exact time, like, we've had these conversations before about, you know, I'm. I'm like. I'm, like, hesitant to get too much into the dietitian nutrition game.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Because until 500 some days ago, I was ripping cigs. I was just ripping them babies. And like, you know, and me, too.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's the thing is, like, I can't.

[Alex Perlman]

I.

[Mrs. Perlman]

There's. You know, I think I've said this on the podcast before, but there's nothing that drives me crazier than someone who's like a health nut and is like, you need to eat organic, non GMO Baba. And then they're like an ex drug addict. Like babe, I snorted who knows what off the back of the dirtiest toilet in the dirtiest bar. I'm not gonna say nothing about whether or not it's organic. I don't care.

[Alex Perlman]

And you know, and you know, Mrs. P. With that, I think we should take a break for our commercial sponsors, y'all. If you don't want to hear an ad, join us on our Patreon. But if you are okay with it, just sit around. We'll be back right after this.

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[Alex Perlman]

Ready for fall flavors?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, I am.

[Alex Perlman]

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[Mrs. Perlman]

Also, it's incredibly convenient. It comes right to your door. All the ingredients are in the bag and when it's time to make dinner, you just pull it out. Everything's pre portioned and ready to go.

[Alex Perlman]

And you have the recipes right there. And it's so simple to use and follow. HelloFresh has over 50 recipes to choose from each week and over 100 market add on items like desserts, breakfast and snacks. So HelloFresh has you covered. Get 10 free [e-mail] Free tabs applied across seven boxes. New subscribers only and varies by plan. That's 10 free HelloFresh meals just by going to hellofresh.com hello free tabs and we're back.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We're back.

[Alex Perlman]

We're here.

[Mrs. Perlman]

What were we talking about?

[Alex Perlman]

We were talking about over fortification.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Mixed in with kind of the levels. But I, and I understand what you mean because also a bigger difference Which I was thinking about a little bit during the break is some of. Especially in processed foods that we get these days are a lot more complicated than what was offered in the 1930s.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

So in the 1930s, you would get something that maybe had six ingredients in it. It wasn't being run through food science, but we also didn't have as great of an understanding over what could be done with food. Yeah. So, you know, I feel like there's something always talks about, you know, when people are like, what would you. What would the founding fathers think if you took George Washington and brought him to look at America? And what they mean is, like, isn't it so woke now? And, like, isn't this been ruined? And it's like, no, legit. This is what they would think. We would hand them a Dorito, and they would kill themselves because they'd be like, they would not understand. A cool ranch Dorito.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

I think a cool ranch Dorito would make Thomas Jefferson weep.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I think he'd have a lot more to weep about.

[Alex Perlman]

I think he'd have a lot more to weep about.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But also, we'd bring him to center square and be like, this is Thomas Jefferson. And it'd be bad. Bad news. Bearish for that guy.

[Alex Perlman]

Would it be that? But I feel like Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin. Like. Like, y'all.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Benny would be like, wait. Only fans.

[Alex Perlman]

I feel like, though, I mean, people need to keep in mind that we fought. And by we, I mean the human race.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Has fought wars over spices in ways that we can't even imagine. And not even don't even use.

[Mrs. Perlman]

All the spices, and you don't even use them. Right.

[Alex Perlman]

But I just had a little bit of coriander. Just add a little bit of coriander.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Cory Mander. Is that what you're saying?

[Alex Perlman]

Corymander.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So what you're saying right now.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. That's my daughter, Cory Mander.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, my God. So wait, listen.

[Alex Perlman]

The second half, it's like, Sally. Sally Mander.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Sally Mander. So then what happened was. Started looking more at, like, the GMOs, right. Genetically modified organisms.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. Right.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Because, like, that's the. The next level of fortification is, like, you change the makeup of the food itself.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And those are highly contested. Right. Like, people are like, no GMOs. Or some people, like, GMOs are good. And so I was always like, I think I always thought GMOs are good because they create food for a population that maybe might have access to food, but it's, like, incredibly nuanced. And as I was reading it, I was like, there. It's nothing but gray areas.

[Alex Perlman]

With GMOs.

[Mrs. Perlman]

With GMOs.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And so I just picked. Well, with the help of Sabbage, of course, we picked a specific type of rice called golden rice. Have you ever heard of golden rice?

[Alex Perlman]

No.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So golden rice is a genetically modified rice that contains beta carotene. Like is in carrots.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Right.

[Alex Perlman]

And I. I love that beta carotene is in carrots because it's in the name.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

All foods should do this. You know what I mean?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Like orange.

[Alex Perlman]

No, no. But. But potassium shouldn't be called potassium. It should be like, put banana. None, but like, put banana in the word. Put it in the thing. Beta carotene. Nailed it. Everyone else should copy beta carotene. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? Whatever. Our new government is no government talk.

[Mrs. Perlman]

All right, so that's so funny talking about all of this and then being like, no government.

[Alex Perlman]

No government.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So beta carotene is important. It's obviously. We all know carrots are good for your eyes. Beta carotene itself helps prevent blindness. Okay. And it's also just like a nutrient your body needs.

[Alex Perlman]

It's our eye fortification. Right.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Fortifying eyes. Fortify. Every time. I know Carrot. I know you don't play RPGs role playing games. No, but especially video game RPGs. No, but every time you played Animal.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Crossing, is that count?

[Alex Perlman]

No. Every time you say fortify, I think of Skyrim and making potions in the game Skyrim. Because you can fortify like skills in that and make them stronger. So I can fortify like my one handed weapon ability or my archery or my pickpocketing skills. So you can take like, you can make and take potions that'll fortify specific skills.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's what I'm talking about today.

[Alex Perlman]

No, I know.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We're fortifying food for skills.

[Alex Perlman]

I wish it was just potions, though. Honestly, if we called all medicines potions, this would be so much easier.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So on the way to that, we are very close.

[Alex Perlman]

Well, that was like a clink with King Charles the Third.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Which. It's gonna drive me crazy. I always forget that we're on King Charles III now of England, because my whole life there was only two, and now we've had three. And I've been ignoring it the whole time, but he has. He has the cancer.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay.

[Alex Perlman]

You know, it's. It's been pretty public about it, but like, he's. He's. I think I've Heard it's bad. And he's been doing alternative medicine.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No.

[Alex Perlman]

And because he's. He's old.

[Mrs. Perlman]

He's like apple cider vinegar.

[Alex Perlman]

He's old and fucked. And. And. And their country's dying, but they're like, yeah, the king hasn't been seen in a while, and we've heard he's been taking potions. And I was like, yes, we're fucking back, baby. Let's go.

[Mrs. Perlman]

There's a court.

[Alex Perlman]

An alchemist.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Alchemist. Making potions.

[Alex Perlman]

But I feel like instead of calling them supplements.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Katy Perry with apple cider vinegar.

[Alex Perlman]

No. Katy Perry strikes again. No, I feel like. I feel like supplements in general. We should just call them potions. Potions. Yeah, let's just call them potions and then, honestly, from there on out. Fine, yeah, whatever you want. Just don't call it a supplement.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, listen, listen. We could do a whole episode on why supplements are what's called supplements and how they're not regulated. But listen. Yeah, so the most. This is one of the most famous varieties of rice. When it comes to golden rice, it's. Okay, so here's how it starts. Right? The Rockefellers.

[Alex Perlman]

No, for real.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The Rockefeller foundation started funding a global network of scientists through their nonprofit work to do research about the problem of malnutrition globally.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay, timeout. Yeah, I need you to say it now. All like. You're Alex Jones.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, I can't.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay, I will. The Rockefeller. The Rockefellers got in touch with their global network to study the new malnutrition of children. Do you hear what I'm saying? America, My fellow patriots, the Rockefellers and their global network of scientists. Anyway, that'll bring the money in.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Back when billionaires did stuff for the good kind of. This is again. This is a weird one.

[Alex Perlman]

It's a sprinkling on top. It was a cover.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It was a cover.

[Alex Perlman]

All right, that.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Nope. I think maybe. I don't know. So they got their first real breakthrough in 1999 when some of the scientists in Switzerland inserted two genes into rice that switched the production of beta carotene in the rice. So a single bowl of this new golden rice can supply 60% of a child's daily requirement for vitamin A and beta carotene. Okay, this is incredible. Right? Because rice doesn't have that much vitamin A or beta carotene.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And so they have genetically changed the genes in rice that it now contains these things.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And it. It turned the. The end. It's called the endosperm. It turned the endosperm of the rice yellow. And it made the rice yellow. So it's called golden.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And this yellow color is the sign of. It signifies the beta carotene, the way the orange are not orange.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So we got beta carotene and vitamin A. Very important. Regular white rice doesn't have these nutrients. And globally, many children, when they're weaned off of breast milk are weaned with rice cereal.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, right.

[Mrs. Perlman]

They say, like we did a little.

[Alex Perlman]

Bit with our son.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And also this is an oatmeal household. This is an oatmeal household. But we did use rice cereal for a minute. Yeah, but it's fortified. Yeah, but. And also it's just. But where places can get it as well because rice is more abundant. So you can do rice cereal also. Rice milk.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. But also, like, I think when we're talking about non developed countries, they're taking rice, boiling it and making.

[Alex Perlman]

That's what I mean. But it's also rice.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But like, ours was like, our doctor was like, hey, get this one. Because. And she said to me, it's fortified with iron. It's important that the baby has iron at this stage.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And I said, okay, got it. So, like, this is a huge deal. This golden rice is going to change the way that children are weaning and like getting these nutrients. Right. So it's really important.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So some of these US Funded researchers published the results of this nutritional. Of a nutritional study showing that people's bodies easily absorb this beta carotene from the golden race. And they had done the study in China on children. Right. And this result seemed like great news. But then the environmental group Greenpeace immediately was like, this is unacceptable. They're like, they scream scandal. They're angry and furious because they were like, you're using Chinese children as guinea pigs. And you didn't clarify to the parents that these were genetically modified bowls of rice. You didn't say that. You just said, oh, they have beta carotene. But you didn't say it was genetically modified.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So like green pieces, like. And then the Chinese government stepped in and fired all the researchers and it was like a whole big deal.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. This is why you need to have ethics and research.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yes.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You have to have.

[Alex Perlman]

I mean, I agree with that.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

I have my issues with Greenpeace sometimes.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But listen, Okay, I.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I never knew nothing about no Greenpeace.

[Alex Perlman]

What?

[Mrs. Perlman]

And then I started reading and I'm like, why is Greenpeace yelling about food science? And then I Started reading about Greenpeace. Yo. What? They're like, PETA level crazy about.

[Alex Perlman]

They're all over the place. They're.

[Mrs. Perlman]

They take up all kinds of different.

[Alex Perlman]

Like, I. Listen, I had no idea. I have a theory about PETA and Greenpeace. Yeah. That they exist to make reasonable ideas seem insane.

[Mrs. Perlman]

This is an opinion. This is an opinion.

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, wait, hold on. Don't have that button. There we go. But I. And again, it's a theory. This is literally just one of my sub things. But, like, I have everything that PETA has ever tried to do, the Humane Society has done.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yes.

[Alex Perlman]

There are so many things like that. And with Greenpeace, especially with how they've. They. I think they started, like, a big thing with them was, like, nuclear.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And the demonization that they did of nuclear power and a few other things that I've always just been like, it's not sit right with me. They feel very much in the same sort of way. There's been a recent thing that people have said of, like, there are certain people get really loud and will claim conspiracy. And what they really mean is they just don't understand how it works.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And that is always kind of been like a sticking point with me, with Greenpeace in particular. Now, can they sometimes be calling out evil people? Yes, 100% of the time.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

But are they necessarily the ones who should be leading the fight?

[Mrs. Perlman]

But that's where I'm stuck when I started. Okay. So then, of course, I opened a tab on Greenpeace because I was like, who are these people?

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And as I was reading about it, I was like, you know, they are very bad at comms, communications, awful at it. They're so bad at getting their point across, and they sometimes, not all the time, come off so crazy aggressive that they push their point in the wrong direction. And I was reading about this. What was it, in Greenland? Do you know this story? No, I'm gonna get this all wrong.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But. So in, like, Greenland, the vibes are.

[Alex Perlman]

Gonna be right, and you're gonna be in the right ballpark.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm in the right ballpark.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I am not a journalist. So these people, this company, found gas in the ground, right? Yeah, Natural gas. Natural gas in the ground in Greenland.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, that happens.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And they were like, oh, money, money.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And Greenpeace found out and showed up on ships that they own. They own ships?

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, they do.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Crazy. So they show up on their ships and they start talking to the locals about how terrible this company is and how they're going to get all this natural gas and it's going to kill everything. But they were. So they also told the locals and the indigenous people while they're there talking shit on the natural gas. They also said you guys have to stop eating like seal and whale blubber.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. Which. Which they've historically.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Which historically. Like part of their culture, part of their cuisine, all that stuff. And so these, the indigenous people were like so off put by these people on their boat showing up being like, you need to not accept this natural gas. And also you got to stop eating that whale and blah, blah. And like just talking mad shit.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That the indigenous people were like, yo, fuck you, Greenpeace. And then like purposely invited the natural gas company in just to spite them.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And I was like, yo, this is. I was.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, they're Brita. They're Brita from the community. Like Greenpeace and Greenpeace. And like there's. Brita was based on that type of activism that is like, can't fucking pick the one thing.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And like just pick the one thing that's.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I think that's the whole thing is like when I was started reading and I was doing this and I saw the green piece, I also. I knew the name, but I never knew what they did. Like their name isn't giving me a direction on what they're trying to accomplish.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Not a good name.

[Alex Perlman]

Greenpeace falls into the 80s idea of a tree hugger, hippie type of thing.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

They again, seemingly have their heart, much like the Green Party.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And we all know my thoughts on that.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm sorry, don't start that.

[Alex Perlman]

But they seemingly have their hearts in the right place, but seem to bungle in a direction that often feels like, in my opinion, drives both the conversation and the reality on the ground into the direction of the most evil bastards on earth. And that's just. That's again, that's my feeling about it. That has been my experience with what I've seen them do. Now in the case what you're saying, though, they did. The ethical arguments that they are bringing up.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

About the disclosures that are being done to these children in China.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

That is 100% I agree with.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. For sure.

[Alex Perlman]

I think it is. You should be disclosing to people, hey, we're trying something differently.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Here's every detail about it.

[Alex Perlman]

Yes.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Before you agree to put it in your body.

[Alex Perlman]

Now, the one thing about genetic modification is that I will say is like, it also is a buzzword. It depends on how you're doing it.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

We're not going into each grain of rice and tweaking every little one. Is this being done through selection? Because one thing that somebody pointed out to me recently was, like, how many things are actually just cabbage?

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. A lot of things are cabbage.

[Alex Perlman]

A lot of things are actually just.

[Mrs. Perlman]

A lot of things are strawberries.

[Alex Perlman]

A lot of things are strawberries. A lot of things are cabbage. Like Brussels sprouts are cabbage.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. Pineapples or strawberries.

[Alex Perlman]

Pineapples or strawberries. All these different things are from times and, like, thousands of years of humans being like, I want it to be more leafy.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. I want to be more compact broccoli. Not even real.

[Alex Perlman]

We invented that from cabbage.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, from cabbage.

[Alex Perlman]

Cauliflower is cabbage.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yep.

[Alex Perlman]

They're all just cabbage. We just slowly went like, I want that one to be a little bit more stocky.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

I want that one to be a little bit longer. I want that one to be a little bit more leafy. I want that one to be a little bit more.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We do with dogs.

[Alex Perlman]

We've been doing it with dogs. Nobody ever says a dog's GMO next time.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay. A golden doodle is gmo. A golden, golden noodle is gmo. They give off real GMO vibes. And golden doodles.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah. Yorkies. Yorkies are straight up from Jurassic Park.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, my God. You held a Yorkie.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay, shut up. We said we weren't going to talk about the election, but okay. This is what I sacrificed for democracy and it didn't work out. I will admit one. I like one, like, pseudo fear. I don't like Yorkies.

[Mrs. Perlman]

He has never liked them.

[Alex Perlman]

It's. It's because of a very long standing thing. I had a friend of mine growing up whose grandma had a Yorkie. His grandma passed and the family inherited this Yorkie. And the Yorkie hated me. And we would be over at his house, like, we'd be watching TV or, like, hanging out in his basement, and the Yorkie would get loose and attack me. So, like, I view them as land piranhas.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And so whenever I see Yorkies in general, I had a bunch of bad experiences with them. I don't mind a pit bull. I'll fucking listen. I understand the pitbull. I look at its body language. I look at the owner. I take in the situation. Every pit bull I treat as an individual. Every German shepherd I treat as an individual. Every other dog on earth. But with fucking Yorkies, I'm like, y'all the same. All y'all Are Dutchess. That Yorkie's name was Dutchess. And it tried to bite me in the neck. Okay? So I don't trust a fucking Yorkie. And so on election day, I was working the polls and I was greeting people and this lady showed up with two fucking Yorkies and she said they won't let me take them inside. And the other person I was working and like volunteering with, Lily scooped them up and just handed me one. And before I knew it, I was holding a yorkie for 12 minutes so.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Someone could go vote.

[Alex Perlman]

So someone could go vote. And I was like, maybe we'll win by one vote. We lost by 140,000.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Should we take a break?

[Alex Perlman]

Maybe I think we should take. You're right. I'm getting loud.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You're getting loud. We should take a break.

[Alex Perlman]

I'm getting loud. We'll come back when we come back. What are we doing? We're still talking about.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We're talking about rice. I just gotta finish this rice. Thought I had.

[Alex Perlman]

Go ahead, finish the thought then. Let's take the break.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, no. There's like a lot. I didn't even get to why I was so upset with Greenpeace.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay, we'll be right back at T Mobile.

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[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay, we're back.

[Alex Perlman]

All right, now we're going to back. Okay, so you were talking about Greenpeace and rice. Yeah, GMO golden rice.

[Mrs. Perlman]

GMO golden rice. Okay. So then I was reading about gold. They tried to start growing golden rice in the Philippines.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And the Philippines, the farmers and some co op of farmers got really upset about it. They, pardon me, they didn't really want to have genetically modified crops because they feel like it's. It's being driven by profit. Like so there's these groups of corporations that are making billions of dollars selling gen gen genetically Modified seeds and herbicides. And the companies are like, well, it helps poor people. And see, biotechnology is good for the poor and is helpful. And so they're like, no, they're just using this. It helps poor people as a branding thing. They just want to use their crops that they genetically own, not that they genetically own, that they own the rights to. And that's what happens with Monsanto all the time.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Right. Like, so they own the corn, so then the farmers can't use any other corn. And if the corn blows another field, then they own it there.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, there were some legal arguments with that. And then also on top of that, what they're talking about is stuff that's like, roundup ready.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

So you can only really use. You end up getting like the same way you can only download apps that are approved by the Apple Store for an iPhone.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

That's what ends up happening, is you end up kind of in this one company's universe.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Exactly.

[Alex Perlman]

And the other issue that you have with GMOs because of copyright law, which is where people were getting another layer of it. Like there's. There's a certain layer of people who are like, GMOs are evil because they're gonna do these things to our body. But there's a secondary level of it where GMOs are evil because our copyright law is fucked. And it's because they're like, hey, we made Betty Beta carotene rice. Or I made a special apple and you can't keep the seeds.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And in some cases they made GMOs now where most of the crops won't be self replicating.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

So like right now, with a potato, you grow potatoes. You put a potato in the ground, it makes five potatoes and then you're like, cool. And now I'm going to sell four of them and I'll put the fifth one back in the ground. I have self replicating potatoes.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

We can do this for however long. We can try make a special one where it's like, it don't self replicate anymore.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And that instead of it making five, it only makes two. So you need to keep coming back to this specific corporation to buy your seed every year. And they're going to cut into your overhead costs. And farmers are already running on razor thin margins.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And that's kind of where the GMOs get extra crazy.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. So the green piece blocked Golden Rice in growing in the Philippines. They, like, did a big push in the Philippines, like going out to the farmers and meeting up with the co ops and being like, don't do this, don't do golden rice, blah, blah, Talking about all the different ways that it's bad.

[Alex Perlman]

Right? Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And then that was in 2016. 107 Nobel laureates signed a letter protesting and begging Greenpeace to stop their anti golden race stance.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay.

[Mrs. Perlman]

So we get like, these Nobel laureates who are like, please, this could really help a lot of children get these nutrient nutrients that they need.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And Greenpeace is like, no. And so this, I mean, it's like, it's such a nuanced argument that I'm like, I don't know which is the best. Right. Which is the right way to go. And then I started looking into these farmers groups. It's called massipog. I cannot. That's an acronym. And I could not even begin to try to pronounce it. It's a Filipino.

[Alex Perlman]

Okay, got it.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm not gonna try.

[Alex Perlman]

We can just say Filipino farmers group.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Filipino farmers group, massip. And they, you know, they have, they know what they're talking about. I believe, like, they're, they understand that the vitamin deficiency leads to a lot of people passing away. And it, they need it for kids, but they're also talking about how, like, they are forced to buy these crops and you have to use the specific type of, what's it called? Monoculture. Basically, the way that they do farming is like, all of this is corn, but, like, they want to do, like, some of this is rice, some of this is these fruit trees. Some of this is this so that you have all different things going at the same time and they all help each other.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And you can't do that with these GMOs. Apparently, like, they don't grow that way and they're not as resistant to certain things.

[Alex Perlman]

Got it. And that could actually. That could destroy the farmland.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Exactly.

[Alex Perlman]

So that's where we get into crop rotation, leaving fields fallow and all this different stuff. So that way the nutrients can come back to actually allow the, the plants and the, the plants to actually grow. Because that was an issue. That's what part of what caused like, the dust bowls and stuff like that.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, they overdid it. But, yeah, so, yeah, no, I mean, I, I completely. Again, this is why you need to have experts in the field. And those experts aren't necessarily just scientists. This is why a technocracy wouldn't work, but also why you don't want an oligarchy. At the same time, you need experts.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That are scientists, but you Also need an expert who are farmers and you need an expert in farming and you need nutritional experts. You need like everybody together.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And then like somebody that can communicate to the masses.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Of like, how do you explain this to the farmers and the consumer and like all this? Because that's not what's happening.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And then people are like, well, I did my own research and I went online and I read this scientific paper. It's like, have you ever read a scientific paper? They are written so crazy.

[Alex Perlman]

Y'all. I just got my charts. I think I said this in the warm up. I went to the doctor and I got a checkup and they did blood work and then they sent me my charts. Yeah, I'm not a doctor.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No.

[Alex Perlman]

I have no idea if I'm okay. They just sent me charts and they were like, you know what the lady told me? She goes, if we call you, there's a problem. If you don't get a call, you're fine. I got no call, so I'm assuming I'm fine. But mind you, during my physical, my doctor walked in, he's like, you quit smoking, right? I was like, yeah, I quit smoking like 500 days ago. He's like, oh. And then he poked me in the tummy. He went, you can work out more, but I guess you're fine. And then he just was like, we're going to take your blood. And then he left.

[Mrs. Perlman]

But also, you have as a. I think this is a.

[Alex Perlman]

This is a guy doctor thing.

[Mrs. Perlman]

A guy doctor thing?

[Alex Perlman]

I have a guy doctor.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, I think it's just like, guys get treated differently than women by doctors, obviously. And my. The one thing that just blew my mind recently is like, I was been having really bad indigestion. And so I'm like googling like, I'm like, oh, I wonder what it could be. I need to go to my doctor and ask some questions about it. And I was like, oh, I wonder if I have like gerd, right?

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

And then you look at me and you go, oh, I have that. And I was like, what do you. What do you mean? You're like, yeah, my doctor gave me a pill. And meanwhile, if I go to my doctor and I'm like, I think I might have gerd. They're going to put me on a special diet. They're going to be like, you got to do this, this and this. They're never just going to give me a pill. Yeah, but your doctor knows you.

[Alex Perlman]

And he's just like, no, my doctor didn't know Me. When I went in, I was like, I get. I keep getting a heartburn. I was like, I cut, like, certain things on my diet. It went away, but I feel like I used to be able to eat those things. And he was like, yeah, you're getting old. Sounds like you have Gerd. And then they had me do, like, a little, like, quick test. He's like, yeah, you got Gerd. Take. Take this. And I was like, for how long? He's like, rest of your life, probably. I don't fucking care. And he just left. Like, my doctor. I don't know how I always end up with grumpy doctors. Like, they seemingly hate me because, like, I just show up. And, like, the best was. He was like, cuz again, I see him once a year, and my doctor, like, walked in. He's like, don't you do something? Like social media or something? I was like, yeah. He was like, how's that working? I was like, it's been better. He's like. And then he said something. He's like, well, at least you still have health insurance. For now. And I was like, for now? And he just, like, walked out of the room. He just says the most cryptic, and I'm like, I'd much rather. This is why I should just go to an astrologist.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Astronomer. No, just kidding.

[Alex Perlman]

No, not astronaut. I want astrology. I wanted. I want somebody to read my. Read my palm.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm gonna read your palm. Oh, no. We'll go to see Cher in Atlantic City.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay. So basically, what then happened?

[Alex Perlman]

We're still on gmi.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I don't know. I. I've lost myself. So then Greenpeace still really, like, don't eat the Golden Race, guys. And there are. Greenpeace is trying to say that you got to eat 15 pounds of cooked rice a day to get enough of the vitamin A. But the scientists are like, actually, you just need 2 ounces to get enough vitamin A. And so is it misinformation campaign? I don't know. And then Greenpeace is like, listen, there are better ways to deal with vitamin A deficiency. This golden rice is. Is unnecessary. We don't need it. And they're like, we can just do supplementation and fortification, so.

[Alex Perlman]

Which is exactly what they're doing with GMOs.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, it's. It's a different way to do it. They're like, well, we can just fortify the food. We can fortify the rice with the beta carotene. And they're like, okay, but we just grew it into it. Whatever. And then the thing that was crazy is they're like, oh, it'll be more cost effective if we do supplementation. So pills. Like we'll give out pills of vitamin A and beta carotene, everybody. And then somebody did the estimates and was like listen, it'll cost $4,300 for every life they save in this was in India. So 4, $300 for every life they save in India to, to do supplements. To the supplements. But Golden Rice would cost a hundred dollars per life.

[Alex Perlman]

That's a pretty big savings. Crazy. Pretty big savings. So you can save 4,000.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Say 4K per person. Okay. The other thing too, I'm, I, I keep thinking this. It just reminds me of like so many things.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

That's what's like driving me crazy about. There was another example that just kind of like popped in and popped out of my head real fast. But like these arguments, a lot of times they're just. Oh, I remember it's like vaccines.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

A lot of people, they always point to this. The first guy who did that claiming the vaccines were the MMR vaccine.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The guy that lost his medical license. That guy.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, yeah, the guy in England. But what people always forget is his argument wasn't that all vaccines were bad.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, he just didn't like that one because he had his own vaccine. He wanted to sell.

[Alex Perlman]

He wanted to sell a three part vaccine and they had figured out how to do. He wanted to do three shots and they figured out how to put three shots in one. And he was like, no, you should do my three shots.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, make more money.

[Alex Perlman]

I can make more money. And they were like, no, we have this working one. And then slowly again through misinformation that morphs Jenny McCarthy. There's actually for the, there's a really great.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm blaming her. She's my playgrat.

[Alex Perlman]

She's your playground.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Jenny McCarthy's my playground.

[Alex Perlman]

She's your Gabriel Princep. She's the guy. He's the guy who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

And started World War I. Now I, there's a guy on YouTube called H Bomber Guy. If you ever just need to just go deep on especially the vaccine stuff. He and like where it starts. So that way the next time it happens you can kind of be like, oh, this, oh, we're doing it again. Which is how I kind of view history at this point. I, I've stopped trying to view history as we can stop this. I'm starting to view it. I'm just like, oh, this is a preview oh, oh. It's so much simpler than oh, and then they use, what, a printing press? Have you tried. AI y'all, we're getting cynical.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We've been going for an hour, and I think. I think we've horseshoe theory ourselves.

[Alex Perlman]

I think we have. I think we have, which is why I love Tulsi Gabbard. No.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No.

[Alex Perlman]

What? I'm sorry.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I wish I had, like, a thing to slap you with. Like a newspaper, Like a. Oh, like a dog.

[Alex Perlman]

You want to hit me on the nose like a dog? Don't talk about Tulsi Gabbard.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, but. Yeah, that's. I mean, basically, I. After all that, I was just kind of like it. Is the fortification good? Are we getting too many vitamins? Are we not getting enough? Does it matter where you live and your socioeconomic status? Yes and no.

[Alex Perlman]

What you're saying is we're just asking questions.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I'm just asking.

[Alex Perlman]

We're just asking.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, I. Here's. I think I started my research.

[Alex Perlman]

I. I agree. I actually enjoy this better.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Because again, we're not saying that anything's bad. Yeah, we're. We're just saying that there are. Oh, God, that actually sounds worse. Just that there are questions. God, we sound like a Facebook group.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I just question, what have you done to me? I'm just asking questions and doing my own research.

[Alex Perlman]

So anyway, you got to take these brain pills.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. What are in his supplements?

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, no, that's always those same guys, though, who always just ask questions. They always end up showing up with the fucking thing with no label.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

My favorite was during the pandemic. During the height of it was there was a wrestler. His name's mvp. He's a very. He's a great wrestler. Now he's a manager because he's a little bit older, in professional wrestling. And he was talking about how many professional wrestlers went anti Vaxxer. And he had this tweet, and it was something along lines of. He's like, these are trying to read me scientific journals, and these same guys just bought a bag of pills from a man in a gym locker room that are just marked strong.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's what I'm saying. That again, back to what I said before. The one break I have my. In my life, purchased a bag of unnamed pills. I can't say shit.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I don't know. But that's why when I go to the doctor, I ask them questions, and I say, hey, you went to medical school. Me, I went to community college.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Okay, you tell me what I should do the end. Yeah, I'm not doing my own research about these things. My doctor said, take the calcium pills with the vitamin D. And I said, you got it, boss. Yep, you got it. If he has questions about how to make a podcast episode, I got you, fam. I help you out.

[Alex Perlman]

That's true.

[Mrs. Perlman]

People have different skills. Apparently.

[Alex Perlman]

I can't find this tweet because every time I type in MVP vaccine tweet, the nightmares of the world keep erupting in front of me. The horrors and nightmares of the world. And I just remembered what you the piece of news that you told me right before we hit record. I'm not going to say it out.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

So with that, it's fine. We. You know what news we have?

[Mrs. Perlman]

What?

[Alex Perlman]

We have new Patreons and new team leads to greet and new shout outs to give.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Let's do it.

[Alex Perlman]

And we're gonna do that after this quick break. And y'all, thank you so much for everybody who's been supporting us. Let's go meet some of our new team leaders. And if you want to join us, as you know, you can always join [e-mail] and then you can hear things like our Patreon exclusive parasocial podcast, the Warm up and others will be right.

[T-Mobile Representative]

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Minimum of 4 lines for $25 per line per month with autopay discount using debit or bank account. $5 more per line without autopay. Up to $830 off each phone via 24 monthly bill, credit and taxes fees and $10 device connection charge for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue build credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreement to bill credits. And if you pay UP devices early CT mobile.com.

[Alex Perlman]

Pearl Mania. Pearl Mania. Pearl Mania. Pearl mania.

[Mrs. Perlman]

500 yes.

[Alex Perlman]

To join the Patreon, become a teen later. And and to keep our mission going, our mission of bringing the tee hee hees and the giggles right into your ear holes while you try to pass the time at your job. Ask your boss for a raise. Okay, so with that, yep, let's go ahead and start. We got a few. Let's go. We have. Starting off, we have Gwen Dragon.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey hon.

[Alex Perlman]

What a nice name.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I like that.

[Alex Perlman]

I Like that name a lot. After that we have Jessica Hastillo. Hey, hon. After that, this next one. Smart. These people are very, very smart. Okay, figmentpudding.com is on a mission to weaponize joy and whimsy.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Oh, hey, hon, I see what you did.

[Alex Perlman]

I see what you did there too. And now that I'm reading it out loud, I'm like, you know, let me just see what that website is.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Figment pudding.

[Alex Perlman]

Figmentpudding.com. okay, let's see.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I hope it's not something important.

[Alex Perlman]

Be the weird. No, it's crochet stuff. It's very cute. Oh, it's cute. Frog stuff.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Cute frog things.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, this is. Yo, this is cute. They got a little shop here and a portfolio. Look, Crochet Frog palooza. They got a holiday shop collection. Froggy Horror. These look like stickers and things down here. Yeah, they got Magnus. This is really cute stuff. Oh, my God, I love this. Figment Pudding Calm. They figured out how to get past. Listen, do not tell the other sponsors that for $5 figmentpudding.com. i am gonna start checking these though, before I start just screaming at their website, because that's how you start telling people how to go to find out more about QAnon. Okay, up next we have Victor Underscore Skylark.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey, hon.

[Alex Perlman]

After that we have Caitlin.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey, Caitlyn.

[Alex Perlman]

After that we have Jacqueline Paraker Lesieux.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I like that you made him work for that one. Hey, hon.

[Alex Perlman]

You did. After that we have Mystera. Hey, hon. And next we have probably a warlock.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Probably.

[Alex Perlman]

That's their name. It's all one word. Probably a warlock, supposedly.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey, hon.

[Alex Perlman]

After that we have Kiko 83.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey, Kiko, you know what?

[Alex Perlman]

Big shout out to you. I'm guessing you're born in 1983. I always feel bad for anyone born in 1988.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Why?

[Alex Perlman]

Because there will be like something. Something 88. And you're like, either that person is this old, they're 36 years old this year, or they are suspicious. They were there.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We did. We did do that. This episode.

[Alex Perlman]

We did. We should have hit it.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah. Who knew?

[Alex Perlman]

You know what? To be fair with that topic, there was.

[Mrs. Perlman]

That's what I mean. I was like, I don't. Don't hit it. We don't know where.

[Alex Perlman]

We don't know. We don't know. We could end up somehow. The crunchy to Nazi pipeline is so strong. It is so such a short pipe.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's.

[Alex Perlman]

It is such a short.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's a pool noodle. It's not even a pipe.

[Alex Perlman]

Not even a pipe.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It's a pool noodle.

[Alex Perlman]

After Kiko underscore 83, we have Zagreus. Underscore. The underscore knight.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey, hon.

[Alex Perlman]

And night is like a knight of the round table.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Alex Perlman]

Zagreus. After that, we have Sierra. Hey, hon. Love your music. After that we have Katie. And finally, we have Chloe.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Hey, Chloe, what is C or K with ch? Okay, nice.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah, Chloe. But she has the little accent over the E. Oh, she put it in. I. I'm guessing she did on her phone. And I'm guessing she held the letter long enough to get accent.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Congratulations to you.

[Alex Perlman]

I do. It is fancy.

[Mrs. Perlman]

You know, there's a fancy designer named Chloe.

[Alex Perlman]

You know what's always. I always think about is how on the iPhone with autocorrect, Chloe seven year. Yeah, she's great. But when you do autocorrect and type Beyonce, it automatically adds the accent.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Yeah.

[Alex Perlman]

Because she has that power that she's like, you know, there should be an accent.

[Mrs. Perlman]

It is her Internet.

[Alex Perlman]

Yeah.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We're just on it.

[Alex Perlman]

It's very true. And we've all been on it together today. We've all had a really good time. And thank you guys so much for everybody who's been joining us here. This food health journey.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No, it's not a food health journey.

[Alex Perlman]

From freely the banana girl to that one evil nurse from Australia to other Australian grifters.

[Mrs. Perlman]

The Australian grifter game is pretty strong.

[Alex Perlman]

The Australian grifter game is strong. And it. Guess what? It's gonna get stronger in America. I didn't even mention RFK Jr once.

[Mrs. Perlman]

We almost made it.

[Alex Perlman]

We almost made episode. I just for everyone get down in the comments and just what's today's. What's today's. What's our comment gonna be today?

[Mrs. Perlman]

I don't. I don't know.

[Alex Perlman]

How about. We'll go with. I don't want to say fortified these nuts.

[Mrs. Perlman]

No.

[Alex Perlman]

Oh, just the comment should be fortify potion. No, Give me my fortify potion.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Fortify potion.

[Alex Perlman]

Fortify. Alchemy. Fortify.

[Mrs. Perlman]

I thought to spell alchemy.

[Alex Perlman]

They should figure it out.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Everybody doesn't spell alchemy. Just type rickets.

[Alex Perlman]

You heard it here first, everybody. The. The comment of the week is rickets. Too many frauds and too many scammers that we wish weren't real. Too many cons and too many spammers in a. We're starting to feel like we've got too many tabs.

[Mrs. Perlman]

Open it.

[Alex Perlman]

Too many tab. Remember to smile.

[T-Mobile Representative]

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Minimum of 4 lines for $25 per line per month with autopay discount using debit or bank account $5 more per line without autopay up to $830 off each phone via 24 monthly bill credit plus taxes, fees and $10 device connection charge for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreement due bill credits end if you pay off devices early. Ctmobile.com.