Which might be do-able if they're open to learning and you've contrived an explanation they can wrap their head around. However a lot of particularly older people aren't that open to learning and aren't that easily trusting of foreigners.
It is very easy to sit in our ivory tower and pretend like we, in the west, are above it but the recent measles outbreak at Disneyland would beg to differ...
I agree it's frustrating that people won't simply believe facts about how to fix their health problems when presented to them, and then are happy to embrace superstitious symbols instead of logic. But I'm not surprised, considering how many people I know who complain about the common symptoms of dehydration daily but refuse to believe that what they need to do is just drink some water... But are happy to take an Excederin with Coca Cola to mask their dehydration headache.
> artificial colors, preservatives and sweeteners
I understand that they are a signal that what you are about to consume has been processed, and is likely unhealthy on balance; do you see an inherent problem with these ingredients?
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7521/full/nature1...
My perspective is that additives are nutritionally neutral at best, and many may be mildly harmful. So, given the choice I don't consume them. If I'm shopping I would prefer something like butter vs Blue Bonnet margarine. I don't feel convinced of the safety of chemicals like Yellow #5, and if I need for my food to be fluorescent yellow for some reason, would prefer turmeric. I consider whole foods to be better tested over time for human health than a semi-synthetic concoction.
As you say, generally the presence of synthetic colors and presevatives tells me the manufacturer has the wrong priorities (cost and surface presentation vs flavor, freshness or nutrition).
An example of food I shun is the typical grocery store tortilla. Most are loaded with presevatives so they can last on the shelves for months, which gives them a bitter taste. When I compare one of those brands, with 10-15 ingredients, most of which aren't technically food, to what I'd call normal tortilla with 4 ingredients, all of which are something someone would have in their own kitchen, and it's clear the simple tortilla wins in every way but shelf life. Since I consume my tortillas within a couple of days and am willing to keep them in the refrigerator, presevatives enhancing shelf life benefits the manufacturer and distributors, but fails to benefit me in terms of flavor and possible negative nutritional effects.
Given this is all crap lucky you haven't convinced many people. This is really really bad advice at most points, nothing advice with the rest.
Even eat vegetables is meaningless. Chips are vegetables and so are potatoes which I also don't think are very healthy.
Potatoes would fall under the starch food group, rather than vegetables. Vegetables, in the food pyramid/food group sense, are fairly well defined based on nutritional value.
Drinking game water... Generally preferable to dehydration.
Eating vegetables, well, some are nutritionally useless and can all be prepared in unhealthy ways. However, generally eating a varied diet wih fiber and fresh vegetables is healthy for people and hats my suggestion.
Artificial colors, preservatives etc... There's no good reason to eat these ingredients and many of them ate questioned for health effects.
Exercise proper precautions on workshops means actually wear eye protection, hearing protection, and follow fire codes in a trade I am involved in.
All seem like good ideas to me, and as noted, your attitude is about what I have come to expect - pointless rejection of obviously wise courses of action.
Sure there is. Artificial colors make food more attractive, which is an important part of the esthetic experience of eating. Don't believe me? Try blending all your meals up into a gray goo and see what that does for your eating enjoyment. Nutritionally it would be the same, but esthetically you'd be eating something that looked like vomit.
Preservatives keep it from going bad, which is a major health issue in most of the world. The "no preservatives" lifestyle is a luxury that is, in general, only available to those with high-tech western lifestyles. Other than very locally and very recently, people have been eating food with loaded with preservatives (including, most prominently, salt, but also sugar, nitrates, nitrites, lactic acid, benzoates, smoke...) for a long, long time.
Manufacturers can choose less harmful presevatives such as vitamin E vs bha/bht, but choose not to for their own economic reasons.
I'm able to avoid presevatives because I cook a lot of good myself, from scratch. This involves cooking vs say, watching tv and is actually cheaper than processed or fast foods. Cooking rice and beans from scratch is not first world privelege - eating synthetic compounded beans from Taco Bell is, actually.
Living on dried food like beans and rice is a recipe for malnutrition.
You've heard of scurvy, right? Among other things.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/widespread-childhood-malnutri...
"I'm able to avoid presevatives because I cook a lot of good myself, from scratch."
Yeah, well, not everyone has a Whole Foods down the block, or could afford to shop there even if there was.
I don't think the food scarcity in Guatemala is relevant. Kale and carrots and dairy products can be obtained for pennies a day, and meat is subsidized and readily available in raw form.
If you want to see the other side of that, which is abundance of low quality, toxic food, check out the various odd Heath problems that are on the rise in the US such as childhood obesity, diabetes, unexplained hyperactivity and so on.
This sort of ignorant attitude is why we have a obesity epidemic.
What do people use instead of harmless 'Artificial' colors, preservatives and sweetners because of 'superstition', they add sugar and fat. Because it's a real world, with real people not theoretical.
Even drinking water is a dangerous topic, people start to believe coke is better than nothing. Dehydration is not a scary thing, like being hungry it's normal and ok as long as it doesn't go on to long.
No problem with safety equipment.
Adequate substitutes for colors include carrots, beets, and turmeric, which don't involve fat or sugar. I don't even believe fat and sugar are harmful... They're food.
The way to avoid presevatives is to eat food that's actually fresh. This isn't difficult to do.
Coke is certainly not better than nothing - that's the sort of thing I recommend water instead of. And, the topic is chronic dehydration that leads people to complain to me of headaches, muscle aches, etc and then, as noted, be frustrated when they refuse to drink somethin hydrating. Not sure why you think dehydration is not a problem.
Educated men can ignore evidence. These women likely hadn't seen real evidence, and might not even know about the periodic system. It doesn't take much intelligence to detect things that kill fast, but detecting things that kill you slowly is hard.
Also, the health benefits probably weren't obvious to these women; they just heard strangers claim there were health benefits.
We say "the fish has iron in it, you need iron" because we have a basic level of education. They say "the fish is lucky, I'll put that in the pot if the community says to" because community and tradition are good proxies for safety if you do not have that education.
Also, if we miss a pay check or a grocery store trip, we're fine. If they zig when they should zag it can mean death or deprivation. We should not lightly mock choices made when the stakes are so high and the known and understood information so low.
I don't have the answer here but I know that "well, Darwin will get them" isn't it.
And yeah, finding a way of them to accept this knowledge is important (and tricky)