Better Health?

PHOTO: under the Mackinaw bridge
I was at Better Health yesterday afternoon for a tempeh sandwich. Just like their name this store is a pretty generic health foods store here in Lansing, MI. All the hippies in town congregate there to buy organic products. Of course, a lot of times I am right there next to them buying the same things. But yesterday was the first time I realized how easy it is to sell things to hippies. All you need to do is have an earth-tone package with words like "100% natural" or "strong digestive enzymes" and people looking for a healthy product will buy it.
While I was waiting for the tempeh to be grilled I noticed a lady selling some dietary supplements. So I went over to her table and started reading the pamphlet. After reading most of it I asked her some basic questions about her product. Such as "when you say 'digestive enzymes', which ones are you talking about?" or "here it says 'supplements that pass your blood brain barrier', what exactly are you talking about?" Even though she told me that she is was a Physiology major (in her day), she couldn’t answer me. Instead she just put her pointer finger to her forehead as if she was going to squeeze out the answer. I know from some of my early biology classes that small particles and sugars can cross the “blood-brain barrier”. So was she saying that there is sugar in this dietary pill? ... I don't know. It surprised me to know that no one had asked her these rudimentary questions and it is even more astonishing that someone would buy a pill and put it in their body without knowing the answers to the basic questions. Isn't the whole point of eating healthy, to be aware of what you put in your system?

Rigga dig dig