VPN services
Credit card insurance. If stolen you’re only liable for the first 50 bucks
I’m pretty sure credit card companies already take care of preventing and reversing fraudulent transactions free of charge.
AirUp/Flavored water companies
If you want orange flavored water, squeeze an orange in your water, damn it! You don’t need a subscription service for some chemicals that taste like orange
Anti virus software. To protect your computer let’s constantly run this software with root privileges!
I have a couple from the hip actually, because America has grifting baked into it’s soul. In no particular order:
- MMS (Drinkin’ bleach)
- Crystal healing (most sellers)
- WitchTok kits (TikTok influencers selling expensive spices)
- Brain pills
- Any product peddled by a megachurch (see the Baker bucket for a great example)
- Chiropractors
As more of these come to me, I’ll try to expand the list.
Update: I can’t believe I forgot chiros! They turned themselves into a religion at one point to try to dodge medical licensure laws.
Dietary advice based on the food pyramid/MyPlate. Before the late '70s, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and mental illnesses were all rare in the general population.
We need to be eating fewer carbohydrates, not basing our diets around them. We need to be getting most of our calories from fat, not demonising it.
Thankfully, we have people like Dr. Ken Berry, Dr. Chris Palmer, Dr. Anthony Chaffee, Dr. Georgia Ede, Dr. Shawn Baker, Dr. Paul Mason, Dr. Tony Hampton, Dr. Jason Fung, and others spreading this message.
Saturated fats are bad. Unsaturated fats are better for you most fats should come from mono and polyunsaturated fats. Carbs are quick energy broken down into sugars, but raw sugars are bad for blood sugar, and gut bacteria diversity. There needs to be a relative balance of protein, carbs, and fats. Blood sugar shouldn’t go up and down in spikes. It should flow like slight rolling hills. Increase the diversity in diets for wide/diverse gut microbiome are super important not probiotic supplements but from actual food sources. Vitamins and minerals should be balanced in foods and drinks, almost all added sugars and salts should be cutout of consumption.
This sounds like snake oil in response to snake oil
Your snake oil is snake oil! Here, take my snake oil instead, it’s definitely not snake oil!
Any “quick fix/all-in-one” fitness or nutrition solutions. While there are minute optimizations for elite athletes, 99.99% of the population can adhere to the general consensus of nutrition and health science.
- Do something that gets your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day. Speed walk, bike, row, shoot hoops, jump rope, doesn’t matter, just get your heart pumping hard for at least half an hour a day.
- Roughly a third of your food should be fresh leafy greens & veggies. A third should be whole grains and unprocessed starches and sugars like sweet potato and fresh fruit. The final third should be a protein. Lean meat like fish or chicken, or if you’re veg/vegan, beans, tofu, seeds, peas, etc.
- To build strength, general bodyweight exercises combined with stretching is fine for most people. If you wanna get really strong, get a few kettle bells or adjustable dumbells on the used market for $50-$100. You don’t need an expensive fitness club membership or one of those all-in-one $2,000+ fancy machines that mounts on your wall.
- Don’t drink often, don’t smoke, don’t pound stimulants like caffeine or nicotine.
- Brush your teeth well.
- Get 6-8 hours a night of good quality sleep.
- Keep your brain engaged, read, play music, play games, learn a language, etc.
I’m speaking from experience, because I have fallen for stuff over the years that promised fast results and optimal methods with minimal effort. Fact is, unless you’re training for the Olympics or you have very specific heath conditions, those basic bullet points will cover the vast majority if general health and fitness.
Essential oils. Homeopathy. Chiropractic. Reiki. Juice cleanses. Perineum sunning. Internet accelerator software. Iridology. Faith healing. Organic food. Oil pulling. Gold plated digital audio cables.
I mean isn’t it obviously homoeopathy and a significant part of the rest of alternative medicine (not all of it I guess). It is a billion euro business in Germany alone.
There’s a word for alternative medicine that works. It’s “medicine”.
I forget the attribution.
Apple products
I don’t think you understand what “snake oil” means.
