Free Republic

A 60-year-old man was hospitalized with severe psychiatric symptoms — plus some physical ones too, including intense thirst and coordination issues — after asking ChatGPT for tips on how to improve his diet. What he thought was a healthy swap ended in a toxic reaction so severe that doctors put him on an involuntary psychiatric hold. After reading about the adverse health effects of table salt — which has the chemical name sodium chloride — the unidentified man consulted ChatGPT and was told that it could be swapped with sodium bromide. Sodium bromide looks similar to table salt, but it’s...

Iodized salt helps prevent iodine-deficiency disorders, including goiters and certain birth defects. Yet it's unclear how this seasoning interacts with chloramine-treated drinking water if some of the disinfectant is left behind. Now, researchers have demonstrated that cooking pasta in such water with iodized table salt could produce potentially harmful byproducts. But they also report four simple ways that people can reduce or avoid these unwanted compounds. In most countries, drinking water is treated with chlorine or chloramine. But small amounts of these disinfectants can end up in water used for cooking. Previous experiments showed that when wheat flour was heated...