Saturday, September 3, 2011

Equivalent

You may say I was twisting the facts - those fake eggs are a small aggregate of harmful chemicals.

Alas, that may be right, but I was presenting the fact - though not the whole fact.

Well, who would? Even if we confine ourselves to food chemistry, there're no short of examples. When margarine was first made, it was meant for the low cost and ease of storage. (This hard cube of modified plant fat is actually more environment friendly as compared to the traditional butter, but somehow no one use this point for marketing.) Nonetheless, it was promoted to the public by its appeal of being more healthy than butter - low saturated fat and cholesterol...

... until the problem of trans-fatty acid surfaced.

And, this is not an isolated incident. Saccharine was first widely used not by dieters but during World War I when sugar supply was limited. No good, true. That's why when the price of cane sugar surged again in mid 1970s, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) became popular.

Therefore, don't call the eggs invented by our bare-foot chemists fake; they are healthy eggs - and in no time some new ones would be proved to be bioequivalent.

As Zhuangzi (莊子) said: It you steal a hook, you would be called a crook; if you steal a country, you would become a Duke (竊鉤者誅,竊國者侯).

No comments: