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I think this conceptually overlaps with another thread, my most relevant comment from that:

Which I think is consistent with:

Which I think is a reasonable interpretation of the Epictetus quote.

It also seems similar to the idea of focusing on the journey, not the destination. E.g. if you’re driving to the next city, you need to be thinking about how to drive not what you’re going to do when you get there. I think that’s a decent metaphor because you have to concentrate on the driving and even with a lot of experience and automation you still need a significant degree of alertness to the unexpected. I think focusing on the destination of a learning journey means taking concentration off learning the current thing.

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This app appears to be more of a note-taking app than a traditional flashcard app (although the notes are organized as flashcards), but I actually like that, as I was often using Mochi in a way more like note-taking anyways. So it’s nice to have an app that’s more purpose built for that. I tried taking some notes from a chapter of A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy to test the app out. In the below, each heading is the title of a notecard and the content that follows is the content of the card.

Won’t Stoics, due to their greater appreciation of the people and things around them, be pained more deeply when they lose stuff?

No.

  • They’ll lack the guilt that comes from failing to appreciate people when you have them.
  • They’re mentally more prepared for loss due to contemplating it regularly.
  • Basically, they’ve trained themselves to appreciate stuff more without clinging to it.

Won’t Stoics be glum and anxiety-ridden due to all this negative visualization?

No.

  1. Stoics just spend some time thinking about such things, not all the time.
  2. You can contemplate something without worrying about it. Contemplating is an intellectual exercise.
  3. Negative visualization can increase the extent to which people enjoy the world by reducing the degree to which people take things for granted.

Catastrophe-induced personal transformations vs negative visualizations

Catastrophes can knock people out of their jadedness and inability to appreciate what they have, but have several drawbacks that Negative Visualizations lack:

Catastrophe-induced personal transformations Negative Visualizations
Don’t happen to everyone Can be practiced by everyone
Might kill us Can’t kill us
Tend to wear off Can be done repeatedly and thus have indefinite benefits

What is Negative Visualization?

Contemplating negative events before they happen, such as the death of oneself, a loved one or the loss of friends to death or a falling-out.

Advantages of Negative Visualization

  1. Lets you think about ways to prevent bad things from happening
  2. Lessens impact when bad things do happen
  3. Helps you appreciate and have desire for the things you already have, forestalling Hedonic Adaptation
  4. They lack the downsides of catastrophe-induced personal transformations

Hedonic Adaptation

People work hard to get something and then grow bored of it after a while and want something else. E.g. people grow bored with new TV and want newer TV, or grow tired of current relationship and want new relationship.

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Nice article. I thought the discussion of case and finite vs non-finite verbs was especially helpful as that is an aspect I have not paid much attention to.

I’m still playing with SuperNotes app and made some notecards about this article.

Nonfinite Verbs (Elliot Article)

  • Complete thought in English requires subject/verb/tense.
  • When verb is used for complete thought, it’s called a “finite” verb. This is a “normal” verb.
  • Verb used for incomplete thought is a “nonfinite” verb. In this role, verbs serve as nouns or modifiers, and can’t perform normal verb role, even though they have some characteristics of verbs.
  • “Nonfinite verbs use a word that’s based on a verb to communicate an idea, concept, trait or thing instead of communicating a complete thought about an action that happened or is happening.”

curi.us

Case & Nonfinite Verbs

English has three main cases which are primarily used with pronouns. For example, “I” is the case indicating a subject, “me” indicates an object, and “my” indicates possessive. I/me/my are different forms of the same word which indicate different cases. When we aren’t using pronouns, the subject and object case are the same, e.g. “John” or “ball” can be a subject or object. The possessive case (“John’s” or “ball’s”) is different though.

Finite verbs use subject case for their subject and object case for their object. E.g. “He saw him.” shows different cases of the same word for the subject (“he”) and object (“him”).

Nonfinite verbs don’t specify case. They use object case for both subjects and objects. For example, consider “I regretted him leaving the company.” or “Him leaving the company was really hard for us.”. In both examples, the subject of the gerund “leaving” is “him” not “he”, even though “he” is the subject form of the word. Similarly, in “I wanted him to sing”, the subject of the infinitive “to sing” is “him” not “he”. Note, in the first example, “leaving” is the object of “regretted”. In the second example, “leaving” is the subject of “was” and “to sing” is the object of “wanted”. “Leaving” and “to sing” both play a noun role. The finite verbs are “regretted” and “was”.

Mood

a category or form which indicates whether a verb expresses fact (indicative mood), command (imperative mood), question (interrogative mood), wish (optative mood), or conditionality (subjunctive mood)

Incompleteness of Finite Verbs

Things finite verbs can be missing:

  • Subject
  • Tense
  • Object
  • Mood
  • Case

Types of Nonfinite Verbs

Tense Form Role
Gerunds None End in “ing” Noun
Participles Past and present Normally end in “ing” (present) or “ed” (past) Modifier
Infinitives None start with “to” and use base form of verb (e.g. “to clean”) Noun or modifier

Finite versus Nonfinite Verbs (Examples)

  • Finite verbs tell us some action happened and who or what is acting.
  • Nonfinite verbs refer to actions without them actually happening in the sentence.
    • E.g. In “I want to leave”, nonfinite “to leave” discusses an action (leaving) without the action being performed by anyone. The action being performed in the sentence is “want”.
    • E.g. In “I saw running water”, “running” describes a characteristic of the water rather than the action (which in this sentence, is “saw”).
    • E.g. In “Running is fun”, “running” is a noun representing the concept of running, and the link between running and “fun” (the “is”) is the finite verb.

Building Up a Sentence

  • Simple sentences can be thought of as starting with a verb and then adding more details until you have a complete thought.
  • Nonfinite verbs are incomplete by their nature, so you can’t form sentences around them.
    • Compete things are finite and don’t leave details left unspecified.
    • Complete things are independent, but nonfinite verbs serving as nouns (which are governed by a verb) or modifiers (which modify other words).
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Continuing the discussion from Curiosity – Caffeine Is Bad:

This is an example of Amazon selling something that was falsely described and might be illegal:

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I just wanted to update because I actually did get to try this.

My Own Experience

I have found it really valuable & surprising. One thing I found out after starting monitoring with the CGM and logging is that my glucose levels after eating are actually very strongly correlated to debilitating health problems that I have been having: my symptoms seem to be at their worst around the same time my blood sugar is peaking.

I had looked at some info from Glucose Goddess (she has an instagram and a book called Glucose Revolution), and tried her hacks and found they mostly don’t work that well for me. They may reduce my glucose levels, but not enough to actually stop the symptoms.

What does seem to work is just eating low carb. But I have to be careful even with that because some foods that some people say are keto are still a problem for me. For example, carrots - some say those are find on keto, and some say they are not. If I eat carrots with only a few other foods, my blood sugar will increase, even if it’s just like 4 baby carrots. If I eat a few carrots as part of a larger meals with fat and protein and fiber, then it seems ok.

So because I keep discovering stuff like that, I have had trouble having “good” days where I don’t have blood sugar increases. I can do it if I just eat a few, known foods, but that is difficult because I have had to cut out a bunch of foods, so I feel like I also need to introduce some new foods or else I will just be eating the same thing all the time.

If you have any resources you’ve found particularly helpful for figuring out keto veggies, please share them! To be clear, I am not actually trying to do proper keto - I am still skeptical of whether going into ketosis is good for most people, and I think there is evidence it can cause harm in some cases. But I am eating primarily “keto” foods now because they are low carb.

What I’ve Learned about CGM Options

I am just gonna share the basics I learned about the different options because I didn’t find anything that really explained it all.

There are two popular brands of CGM I looked into: FreeStyle Libre and Dexcom. FreeStyle Libre has three versions (1, 2, and 3), and the Dexcom has the G6 and G7 (the G7 just became available this month).

The FreeStyle Libre 1 & 2 both require that you manually scan them with your phone to transfer the data over, and they only hold 8 hours of data. SO if you forget to scan within 8 hours of the last scan, or if you sleep longer than 8 hours, you will lose data. The FreeStyle Libre 3 and the Dexcom ones use bluetooth to transfer data in real time.

The apps/programs that will provide you with a CGM will usually give you either the FreeStyle Libre 1 or the Dexcom G6. (As far as I know, Signos does the Dexcom G6, Levels will do either Dexcom G6 or FreeStyle Libre 1, and everyone else does FreeStyle Libre 1 or maybe 2.)

If you are able to get a prescription from a doctor or a naturopath, you might be able to get it covered by insurance. I was told that insurance is more likely to cover it for concerns about hypoglycaemia, if you are non-diabetic. You can also buy it yourself out of pocket for cheaper than a lot of the apps/programs charge. If you go to GoodRX you can check the prices you can get locally.

Note when price checking, they are all a bit different: FreeStyle Libre all require 1 sensor per 14 days, so about 2 per month. Dexcom G6 requires 1 sensor per 10 days, so 3 per month and ALSO 1 transmitter per 90 days, so 1 every 3 months. Dexcom G7 requires 1 sensor per 10 days, so 3 per month.

When I price check, the FreeStyle Libre versions are all about $140 a month. The Dexcom G6 is around $170 per month for the sensors and $50 every 3 months for the transmitter, which averages to a total of around $187 per month. And the Dexcom G7 is about $185 per month.

I have been using the Dexcom G6. When I got it, the G7 wasn’t available yet, and I didn’t know the FreeStyle Libre 3 didn’t require scans. I want to upgrade to the G7 when I can. I especially don’t like the issue with the transmitters needing to be re-used. It is a bigger issue if you only want to monitor every few months: the transmitter only lasts 90 days from when you first use it, so you will have to buy a new one if you take a break from monitoring for a while.

Also, the G7 makes the changeover from one sensor to another easier than the G6. I didn’t realize this when I started, but the sensor gives you bad data for the first 12-24 hours, sometimes even longer. (It’s about 12 hours for me.) This apparently has to do with your body mounting an immune response to the sensor. The G7 lets you apply the sensor before the old one is finished, so you could just apply it 12 hours early, and then get good data immediately when you stop the old one. Bad data for an entire day is actually a pretty big deal when you are changing these things every 10 days.

The FreeStyle Libre 3 might also be good, but I have figured out an app that works well with the Dexcom, and I’m not sure if anything will work well with the Libre, so I am probably just going to stick with Dexcom. (If anyone else has used it, I would love any ideas!)

The app I have been using that I like is called Sugarmate. It only works with Dexcom. It is free, and it is actually one of the best apps I found for just looking at your blood glucose levels and keeping logs of foods you ate, exercise, notes about how you were feeling, etc.

I can write more about the apps I have tried later if you are curious, but I am done writing for now :)

I will say I didn’t trial most of the apps/programs that will send you a CGM, since they all require kind of a high initial payment, and most of them use the FreeStyle Libre with manual scanning, which I didn’t want. I did try Levels, and there are definitely some things I like about their app that Sugarmate doesn’t do, but also some things I don’t like. And it’s missing some things that I would consider basic functionality, so I’m not sure if it’s worth the price compared to just using Sugarmate.

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The variation in blood sugar when eating carrots more on their own vs part of a larger meal is interesting, and strikes me as a bit counterintuitive.

My current veggie selection is pretty repetitive. Mostly broccoli, cauliflower in various forms, and salad stuff (lettuce/cucumbers/tomatoes/avocados).

Visuals like these (which gives net carbs by 100g serving) can help give one a general idea but they aren’t perfect.

image
image1920×866 368 KB

One issue is that tomatoes vary significantly. One of my “exceptions” where I don’t use the lowest carb option is for tomatoes. I often use cherry/sweet tomatoes, and those are closer to 6g net carbs per 100g, so double that in the graphic (though I do use them sparingly, closer to 50g max then 100g).

If I don’t already have an intuition about some food’s carb level I will literally just search for it in my food logging app while in the grocery store and see how the carbs come out. I am often surprised (though less so as I go along).

I’m reminded by the graphic above that I need to work zucchini into more meals (i’ve used it a couple of times but it’s not something that’s a default for me to get).

Also curious about potential keto harms that you are concerned about.

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Re: keto diet generally, I started making keto mexican bowls with cauliflower rice or “tacos” with cauliflower thins – the thins aren’t great at the taco job due to their poor structural integrity, but sometimes you really want tacos. If you’re okay with cauliflower rice they’re actually decent keto meals, since you can make them heavy on meat, cheese, and avocado. The salsa can be a bit carby, and some carbs can sneak in through the seasoning for the meat (!) depending on what you use and how much, but overall it’s fine.

A large salad is very frequently a major meal for me now (typically lunch or dinner). I’ll generally have at least a coupe of the following things: sliced avocado, cheese (fresh mozzarella or gouda), home made dressing, some kind of protein (I’ve used tuna, smoked salmon, chicken, ground beef, italian sausages), plus the standard lettuce, cucumber, some tomatoes, possibly kalmata olives.

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Data loss sounds annoying. Wouldn’t even consider a non-bluetooth one if I was gonna buy one.

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More regarding diet: I’m trying to work in 16/8 intermittent fasting but that’s gonna be some effort I think, since I’ve been on a “eat however much you want whenever you want within keto parameters” diet for some time.

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e.g., there is this journal article about keto diets inducing cardiac fibrosis in rats: Ketogenic diets inhibit mitochondrial biogenesis and induce cardiac fibrosis | Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy

It’s notable that the issue there is apparently reduced mitochondrial biogenesis, which could have other negative effects.

I don’t think there is much research on the safety of long-term keto diets. I see them as a bit similar to vegan diets: They are both heavily restrictive of which foods you can eat (or, at least the way people practice keto, it is). I am not really sure if they are species appropriate diets. They both go against a lot of traditions and also people’s intuitive tastes. (Not just the tastes they develop after years of eating processed foods, but the tastes that very young children and babies have.) Also both diets can lead to people eating only a limited variety of foods, which can cause nutritional deficiencies.

So, in general, I would want to see more evidence that keto is actually good for you as a long term diet. I know there is evidence that it can help with some specific conditions (e.g. epilepsy). But just like the vegan stuff, I don’t think there is much evidence about it as a long term diet. And there are a lot of popular blogs, articles, mainstream nutritional advice, etc, about it being harmful. So because it seems to go against intuition, have some known or potential dangers, and be overall extreme, it’s not the first thing I would want to try. I would rather try less extreme things first. And if I were going to try it, I would want to look up more info about the risks & benefits, which I still haven’t actually done.

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Continuing the discussion from Visible and Hidden Problems:

I liked this article. I thought the iceberg analogy was good. I made a short summary of this article in Supernotes

Visible And Hidden Problems

Some problems are easy to see and some are harder.

  • E.g. not having money is a problem that’s easy to see. Not having money because you were mostly unemployed due to disliking jobs is easy to see. Why you dislike jobs can be harder to see and have various causes (e.g. laziness).
  • One can go around focusing on the most visible problems but that leaves the more hidden problems untouched while getting rid of the part of the problem that you could actually see (like cutting off the tip of an iceberg while leaving the rest untouched).
  • Instead of solving problems one by one, one should instead look for related problems & try to understand root causes. If one can solve ten problems at once, that’s better and will probably solve some other problems you didn’t even see.
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You make reasonable points. I don’t have any criticisms, and as I think I have indicated before, I jumped into the diet largely out of desperation and stuck with it because it helped with a major problem.

There have been some annoyances with the keto diet for me. These might be worth mentioning in considering it objectively from the perspective of trying to analyze the pros and cons (instead of just clinging to it because it seemed to help me in some way).

  • When first starting it, I had issues with being thirsty all the time, which is apparently common. That faded after a couple of weeks.

  • On an ongoing basis I’ve had some uhh gastrointestinal distress that is commonly associated with keto. I looked into it and have actually already implemented changes related to potential triggers (cut out caffeine, cut out artificial sweeteners, cut out magnesium supplements) but it’s persisted. I’m running out of things to try on that point within the context of the keto diet.

  • There’s also just the general issue of navigating the dietary restrictions. I actually miss certain foods – like pizza, cookies and ice cream – less than I would have thought, but it’s kind of annoying to be unable to have a banana.

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Yeah, I understand. There are a lot of different things it could be doing to help, and it may be possible to get the same benefits without following all the strict Keto rules.

If you are going to try something else, I think a CGM would definitely be helpful - I have read a bunch of stuff about what glycemic index of different foods, what foods are considered better/worse for blood sugar, etc, and it is personal enough that the CGM has been really helpful. And especially since earlier you said diabetes & blood sugar were one of your concerns.

One thing to consider is FODMAP foods, which are a major trigger of IBS symptoms & gastro distress in a lot of people. You said above that you eat a lot of broccoli & cauliflower, which are both high FODMAP foods, and commonly cause gastrointestinal issues in people. There ARE lower FODMAP keto and low carb veggies. You would just have to branch out a bit and try new veggies. (And, having eliminated gluten/wheat has already eliminated a major FODMAP food that people find difficult to eliminate.) Dairy is another potential FODMAP food - the lower lactose things (e.g., hard cheeses, butter) might be fine, but milk, yogurt, cottage cheese are all higher FODMAP, unless you are buying lactose free varieties. (And also, some people have an issue with the dairy protein, in which case lactose free won’t help, and hard cheese will still be a problem.)

Yeah, I understand. That’s one of the issues I have with keto. I found that if I eat an orange on its own, my blood sugar will rise. But I had a few blueberries and half an orange after a full meal (with lots of protein, fat, and fiber veggies), and I was totally fine. That is the kind of thing I recommend the CGM for! You can learn your own personal responses.

Glucose Goddess (or Jessie Inchauspé) is where I got the idea to eat carb foods after a meal, and/or to make sure you are eating them along with fiber, protein, and fat. I looked at her book, Glucose Revolution, and I think it has some useful info. But I also have some issues with some of what she says. She says she is basing her tips of research, but I looked at one of the studies she cited and didn’t think it said what she was implying.

The idea of meal ordering (eating the carb part of the meal last) or pre-loading (eating fiber, fat, protein first, before carbs) are both supported by research. I do want to give credit for where I found these ideas, and I do think she has some other ideas in her book that are helpful. But there are things she says that don’t work for everyone. (E.g., she considers beans a fiber food that you can use to start a meal, but many people find beans actually spike their blood sugar.) So I do want to warn about that. Personally, I would recommend trying the ideas with a CGM, so you can see how you respond.

Another resource that might be helpful is the Atkins diet stuff. They have more than one diet, and I’m not actually recommending following one of their diets. But their diets seems more flexible than normal keto diets because they actually allow things like fruit. You just have to count it as part of your carbs. (The early stages of their strictest diet doesn’t allow it, but the later stages do.)

The Atkins 100 plan is 100 carbs a day, and allows all foods. They have a simplified list at the bottom of the page of servings sizes of different carb foods. And they have a list of “foundational veggies”, which are the low carb veggies they recommend you base your diet on. I find those resources useful, but I’m not actually planning on following their diet.

My own plan is to just try to figure out how to keep my blood sugar in a stable range that doesn’t cause symptoms. I would prefer not to count carbs (or anything) if I can help it, and I don’t have any particular carb goal. The Atkins list at least give me an idea of serving sizes I could try of some different carb foods.

One thing I noticed is that their resources seem to encourage a lot of non-nutritive sweeteners and processed foods (which they sell), which I do not agree with. They seem to provide a lot of their diet resources for free, so I guess they are making money off of their branded processed foods?

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Another thing you could consider is IgG food sensitivity testing. There is a lot of controversy around those tests, which you can easily find online. One main thing that is going on is that the people who are against the food sensitivity testing aren’t claiming it doesn’t work, they are saying that there is no evidence that the tests work. And, if you look it up, you will find there is little actual research about it. There is some research that supports their use, but the mainstream just says it’s not very good research for various reasons. But there isn’t a bunch of good, well done research at all on either side of the issue. So I think this is another case of saying “there is no evidence” when no one has bothered to look for evidence.

Also, the actual arguments/reasons that I have seen in the anti-test papers and articles don’t actually make sense to me.

One caveat about IgG tests is that I am only recommend using them to do an elimination diet, where you cut out foods and then reintroduce them later. I am NOT recommending that you get an IgG test and then see that as a laundry list of food you can never eat again. Many people who recommend them DO recommend using them this way.

Another thing to keep in mind if you do an IgG test is that you will only get valid results for foods that you have actually been eating recently. If you quit eating something months ago, then any IgG antibodies you had against it are probably gone now. (This is the same as testing for Celiac - you can only do a valid Celiac test on someone who is still eating gluten.)

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Oh, another thing about IgG tests is that people often have results that change over time. You tend to get positives on foods you eat more of. So if you stop eating all your old positives, and then replace them with NEW foods you weren’t eating much before, then next time you get a test you might have a bunch of new positives.

One thing I have read is that if you are getting a lot of positive tests, then you are having a leaky gut issue where too much of your food is passing into your blood stream without being broken down first, and that is why you are getting all those positives. So if you resolve the root issues that are causing the leaky gut, you will be able to tolerate more of the foods.

There are a lot of people who claim this is what happened to them, and once they cut out, e.g., gluten for a while, they had fewer sensitivities and could eat more foods.

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Oh, also, I kind of hate talking about a lot of this stuff, because it is really dismissed by the mainstream, and seen as super crunchy/hippie/anti-science, etc., and I don’t really feel like arguing with those people.

People put this stuff on the same level as believing in psychics or astrology or something. But the actual “science” they are so vehemently pushing just literally doesn’t exist. They say “there is no evidence that IgG tests work” and they WANT you to believe that is the same as when they say “there is no evidence that psychic abilities exist” or “there is no evidence that Santa Claus exists”.

A lot of people do believe that what they mean is that these things have been studied, and that the studies have found no effect. I used to assume that is what it meant - I assumed that of course we had studied things like sunscreen or food dyes or artificial sweeteners or anti-perspirant. Why else would all these scientists and medical professionals be so insistent that they are safe? All of these things could be studied. And all the scientific & medical professionals are claiming there is no evidence they are harmful, and that the people who are saying they are harmful are just charlatans and snake oil salesmen and scammers and people subscribing to naturalism fallacies. So of course they must have been studied. It would seem like a conspiracy theory to believe anything else.

There are all these people with ongoing, chronic health issues that medical science doesn’t know how to test for, so they keep getting told they are fine and it must be in their head. And then some of these people find that some alternative treatments help them, and the mainstream medical community is just like “there is no evidence that works, this just proves it was in your head all along”, instead of actually studying anything.

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Is Levels a good low-pain-in-the-ass way for someone without an RX to try CGM? Is it worth it to do it every third month or just once? Moderately concerned about the cost. I noticed you can’t use HSA money either since it’s “general wellness” so it’s considered more like a gym membership, sigh.

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Oh man yogurt’s potentially a big issue for me, even more than the veggies perhaps. I use it both as an ingredient (in salad dressings, say), and as a primary food (with berries and/or nuts). And I eat a lot of it.

I do frequently get lactose free varieties of some dairy items (like sour cream and cream cheese), though interestingly, not out of a particular concern about lactose. Green Valley Creamery makes some of the “cleanest” dairy I can buy at the Whole Foods.

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Another similar example is they claim that MSG has been studied and the concerns about it were debunked. But actually, despite the huge amount of attention MSG got, it was never studied well.

I got this example from an anti-gluten book that opened by claiming basically “The unscientific people were so anti-MSG and science proved them wrong, and gluten is just like MSG again.” When I read that I got suspicious and checked whether science actually ever proved MSG safe.

I think even mentioning this risks alienating some people who would be unwilling to debate the matter rationally and would judge me negatively about it. That’s why the book opened with it – because MSG may not have been scientifically studied much but it was effectively propagandized. We now see the same kind of thing with some of the COVID-related claims the government and health authorities make: some things have a lot more propaganda and pressure than actual research.

This is relevant to my ideas about judging experts and making debate trees. It’s already a mainstream idea to make meta claims about which side won the debate. The difference is they do it without being specific about what arguments exist on each side. They do it by weighted factors – how much authority, prestige, evidence, etc., is allegedly on some side. Weighted factors are generally pretty arbitrary. They don’t actually e.g. read through MSG studies and think critically about whether the methods were any good. They think in terms of one side being stronger than another, not in terms of figuring out what the arguments and counter-arguments are. It’s very hard to productively argue with people who think “my side is stronger” instead of actually understanding reasoning for why their side is correct that could be criticized.

That is really bad just on the simple basis that our medical tests are pretty incomplete. People seem to assume that if there was a problem our tests would have found it. The implicit premise there is we know how to test for nearly everything. We don’t. Our ability to to medical measurements of stuff about our body is pretty limited.

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That just seems like an equivocation on “no evidence”.

With regards to the artificial sweeteners specifically, I don’t recall gut bacteria being nearly as much of a concern from a health perspective growing up as it is now. So even if they did some testing for whether X causes cancer or what have you, people can later realize that some other body system is really important and then you have to test all the existing “safe” stuff for negative effects on the new thing too or else you can’t say it’s actually safe. And if you come up with a new sweetener, then you have to test it for everything (and not just handwave about how no evidence indicates it’s bad).

It’s just literally wrong to say there’s no evidence that something works in that scenario. Rigorous scientific studies aren’t the only valid form of evidence! And it’s doubly ridiculous to say there’s no evidence if no or insufficient studies have been performed. It makes sense not to jump to strong conclusions on the basis of even many anecdotes, but it’s unscientific and irrational to close the discussion prematurely as you describe. If there are no rigorous studies but many anecdotes that X helps Y, then the anecdotes are the only directly pertinent evidence on the field at the time.