Fads we’ve found and lost

Phosphates in detergent. Years ago, no detergent ad would fail to mention, contains phosphates. Now they are never included as they induce pollution and eutrophication of waterways.

Salt intake limits. Not that long ago, one thousand milligrams (a gram) was considered dangerous. Now it’s OK to have 3000 milligrams – three full grams.

Speed. At one point, forty miles per hour was thought to be fatal, if a train could achieve that.

Pet food that contains no plant matter. This is a misconception. I could not keep Spring Peeper frogs (Hyla crucifer) because I did not know about gut-load. You feed the insects on this gumbo before feeding them to the frog. Many predators ingest a fair bit of plant matter when they consume their prey. Frogs eat bugs who eat leaves, among other things. So why is it so wonderful that there is no plant matter in Rover’s dog food? When a wolf eats a rabbit it gets the stomach too, right?

Thinking. The world is now informed from a Twitter account. Personal attacks are standard; denial and prevarication expected. What do you believe? Why?

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