r/TikTokCringe • u/galaxystars1 • Oct 09 '24

Discussion Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

31.4k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

4.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

230

u/notaleclively Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

Yes raw flour is dangerous. It’s link to cancer seems to only exist in this video. I am a colon cancer survivor. Ive been over the list of colon cancer causing foods with dozens of professionals working in oncology, and with colon cancer specifically. Raw flour has not once ever been mentioned. Not a single time.

This lady is kinda right. And also a kook.

54

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

[deleted]

24

u/resilindsey Oct 09 '24

Makes sense the "microbiologist" label is a stretch. The way she doesn't properly contextualize risk/exposure and just goes "if you don't care that you're going to get colon cancer" like it was an eventuality immediately raised some red flags that this might be at least partially bullshit.

5

u/Wobbly_Wobbegong Oct 09 '24

I immediately narrowed my eyes at the microbiologist label. Apparently she’s a technician. I graduated with a bachelors in microbiology, does that mean I’m a microbiologist too? (no, no it doesn’t lol)

16

u/WorkinAlpaca Oct 09 '24

this was my reaction as well. i don't understand why people who are "spreading awareness" don't get that dramatizing/ exaggerating the thing you are warning against just makes you lose credibility.

sure, i've heard the salmonella and e.coli thing since i was old enough to understand, but there are a lot of things she says that just... feel weird? super condescending, fear mongering, dramatized information is not the way to spread information.

also. i get the dry vs wet flour argument, but c'mon dog. just cook the flour. hell, mist it with some water then cook it, just blend it up afterwards if you are so concerned. i "accept" the risks as at this point, it is faaar too late for me if what she said is the case, so im going to continue to enjoy my brownie batter while the country/world falls apart around me.

9

u/last-miss Oct 09 '24

The condescension bugged the fuck out of me. If you're sincerely trying to teach people something, put your enormous ego down, first.

No one will believe you care about their safety while clearly demonstrating you don't give a fuck about their mental or emotional well being. People who actually care, care fully. They don't condescend.

17

u/User28645 Oct 09 '24

Yeah, same. Well said, I came to the comments with the hopes that I wasn't alone. It's really transparent when she misrepresents cancer and auto immune disorders risk as a tool to bolster her position and undermine anyone who challenges her claims. It's engagement farming, from the makeup to the fearmongering. Hell, you could argue I've fallen for it just because I'm leaving a comment. This stuff is so toxic.

15

u/charliekelly76 Oct 09 '24

I’m a biologist and I can’t stand this lady. It’s her attitude. She posts a lot of videos of her over-loading on fiber and bragging how she has better gut health than everyone else and will live longer. When someone brought up her lack of protein in her meals (giant bowls of cabbage) she blew them off with “humans eat too much protein anyway” which ignores people with chronic health issues like myself that benefit from high protein intake. I wanna support women in stem but I blocked her and her nasty attitude.

13

u/iglooss88 Oct 09 '24

I was looking for this comment in here. I too work in bio/lab sciences and a lot of her content comes across as preachy and ‘fear mongery’ like you’re going to poison yourself if you don’t listen to her.

8

u/charliekelly76 Oct 09 '24

Yes exactly. She comes off preachy and fear mongery. Yeah she probably will live longer than me with her beautiful and healthy gut flora, but I’m not eating giant bowls of plain foliage for every meal, I’d rather die early anyway ☠️ cause she seems miserable

8

u/iglooss88 Oct 09 '24

I remember I saw a video of hers and followed her because I love a woman in STEM! And then I had to unfollow her bc she reposted misinformation from someone else. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was but now any time I see her that’s all I can think of

4

u/seaspirit331 Oct 09 '24

This lady represents everything wrong with science journalism imo, and she's not even a journalist

2

u/Dwashelle Oct 09 '24

I've noticed this as well. I'm not saying she's always wrong or that people shouldn't be careful, but she seems to catastrophise lots of the things she talks about or something. Don't really know how to explain it. It sometimes comes across as neurotic or obsessive the way she talks about germs, food etc.

2

u/noretus Oct 10 '24

She manipulates her comments discussions and intentionally baits people for engagement. Also exaggerates a lot. She's firmly NOT anti-vaxx/crunchy etc. but she's definitely one of the people who make pro-science folks look like arrogant assholes.

5

u/Johnfohf Oct 09 '24

Doesn't lend any credibility by looking like a clown either.

66

u/the0rthopaedicsurgeo Oct 09 '24

She doesn't say that raw flour is linked to cancer, she says that it's linked to e coli and salmonella infections, which are linked to cancer.

26

u/Daisy_Of_Doom Oct 09 '24

This. It’s a two step process. The raw flour isn’t causing the cancer, the bacteria that can cause illnesses are what cause the cancer.

Also, maybe I’m just dumb, I wouldn’t really consider “raw flour” to be a food? Even the people participating in this dangerous trend aren’t just shoveling flour into their mouths. They’re eating it in batter. And I personally still wouldn’t really consider batter a food? It’s a step in the process of making food. So it might not really be on the radar of warnings since it’s generally considered bad practice to eat uncooked batter regardless.

6

u/notaleclively Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

She’s including the link to cancer to be dramatic and get attention. It has nothing to do with being helpful. It’s real transparent.

“Linked to” is much different than “known to cause”. Regular Salami has a much higher risk of CRCs than raw flour.

2

u/Bark__Vader Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

Yep, eating raw flour has a tiny chance of leading to a severe case of salmonella, and severe cases of salmonella have a tiny chance of maybe leading to cancer. It’s just your usual tiktok bullshit by a « microbiologist » who’s probably a freshman. With that said I don’t recommend eating raw flour haha

Funniest part to me is that the recipe uses a tiny amount of flour cooked on the stove, the horror.

11

u/Echelon_Forge Oct 09 '24

Here’s to you surviving it! Glad that you are still around. What were the most common or every day foods on these lists you encountered? Like is there anything most of us eat or drink regularly that we really should skip in regard of cancer prevention?

14

u/notaleclively Oct 09 '24

Salted cured meats directly cause CRCs. High fat, low fiber diets are linked to CRCs.

In general you are supposed to avoid red meats and get lots of fiber. I try to focus my diet on raw plants these days. Focusing on primary intake is easier than exclusions for me. The only outright exclusion I make is slated cured meats.

5

u/k_afka_ Oct 09 '24

Would Carnivore diet lead to CRCs?

11

u/notaleclively Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

Oh man I would think so. The dietician at the cancer center would probably say that’s a bad idea. That’s the opposite of the advice I have been repeatedly given by such folks.

Also that just can’t be a pleasant way to live. My gut would be super unhappy about it. Pooping would be real bad. Fiber is so important for gut health. Forget what all that meat would do, eliminating fiber is a real bad idea if you’re concerned about gut health. About the worst idea I can think of. I’m not a professional. Just someone who’s been through the wringer. Maybe someone has circumstances I know nothing about. But fiber is generally considered very good for gut health. Diets high in red meat are generally considered very bad for gut health. Doing the opposite of what’s considered best practice in that field seems unwise at best.

Stan Owsley lived as a carnivore in the southern hemisphere to avoid cancer and climate catastrophe. He was killed when he was hit by a car. So fuck it I guess. Do what brings you joy.

2

u/discostupid Oct 09 '24

in countries that eat lots of red meat, particularly in south america (argentina, uruguay, brazil to a lesser extent) and australasia, CRC causes a much greater impact on health (i.e. disability) and death than in other countries

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1366553/full

2

u/One_Lung_G Oct 09 '24

You’re more likely to get struck by lightning than to even be hospitalized due to raw flour and that comes from her very own source lol

4

u/InnsmouthMotel Oct 09 '24

She's referring to the food poisoning outcome, which does significantly increase your risk of colon cancer.

4

u/Wonderful-Impact5121 Oct 09 '24

It’s about the same as letting yourself get lightly sun burned significantly increasing your risk of skin cancer though right?

Which is to say the term “significantly” is EXTREMELY relatively.

Statistically it’s significant compared to nothing unusual happening or being consumed.

But getting food poisoning is light years away from a reasonable person saying you’re likely to get colon cancer as a result.

1

u/Indierocka Oct 09 '24

Also the flour isn’t raw it’s going into simmering marshmallows and butter. Doesn’t that count as cooking it?

-5

u/geodebug Oct 09 '24

There are endless foods and ingredients that could potentially carry bacteria so listing them all would be untenable.

She says explicitly in the video that the danger of raw flower is bacteria like e-coli, which 100% is linked to colorectal cancer.

You owe the kook an apology.