Why is it that people are so afraid of chemicals in their food? Yes, certain chemicals within food may not be healthy, but other chemicals are completely natural and not harmful in any way. Of course, too much of any chemical is harmful, in fact, too much of anything is harmful, so it’s best to eat/ drink in moderation. One of my favorite things to see is someone listing off a number of chemicals and ingredients and asking, “Would you still eat it?” Most of the time, my answer is, “Yes,” since I could probably list the chemical ingredients of a natural berry and ask the same question and have the person answer, “No.” Obviously, not all chemicals are healthy, but this also means that not all chemicals are unhealthy.

Mastication. Weird word, right? It’s just the technical term for chewing. There’s a myriad of long, complicated words for normal, everyday, and dull words. In fact, we even have an adjective that describes words that are long and multiple syllables, sesquipedalian. I find it mildly comedic that the word “sesquipedalian” is itself sesquipedalian. These long words are referred to as “sesquipedalia,” which kind of sounds like a new biological kingdom. In regular speeches and normal english, these long words can make you seem more intelligent, or pretentious, even if nobody knows what they mean. However, when you begin to use the chemical names for normal, everyday chemicals, they look like dangerous drugs. For example, trimethylxanthine. I mean, it has the word “meth” in it, but it’s a chemical that most of us consume on a daily basis. If someone came up to you one the street and asked, “Hey kid, want some trimethylxanthine?” you would most likely assume he was trying to sell you drugs. Instead, he holds out a cup of coffee. Trimethylxanthine is simply caffeine. Another chemical that may sound dangerous is Phosphoric Acid. It’s commonly found in soft drinks to prevent mold and bacteria growth that can occur rapidly in the sugary drink, it is found naturally in the foods we eat, but as with any other substance, too much can be harmful, so consume in moderation. Just because the word is longer, sounds like a dangerous poison, and has the word “acid” in it, doesn’t mean that it’s dangerous. Unless it is, in fact, a dangerous, poisonous acid with a long name(I’m looking at you, hydrochloric acid). Honestly, most of the time, I don’t even look at the ingredients of the pop I drink, nor do I care. All I care about is the trimethylxanthine content.

Why can food go back up into our nose? I am so tired of getting ghost pepper in my nostrils. I am in physical pain, people. What actual reason is there to have our nose so closely connected to our mouth? Apparently, it’s so we can taste better, but after getting several peppers, some carbonated drinks, and even hard candy going into my nose, I can say that I’m good. The soft palate is fleshy, flexible connective tissue in the mouth. The role of our is soft palate is supposedly to prevent food from entering our nasal airways, but it doesn’t do its job. I am writing this article with a small amount of Runts candy within my nose. I sincerely hope that I myself am an outlier, and I am the only one who gets food within my nasal airways. During my sophomore year, I went to HuHot and made the spiciest sauce. Of course, it got into my nose while eating, so all I remember was sitting there wondering why our bodies are so cruel.