27 October 2025

The other day, in Baltimore, a high school student was handcuffed and held at gunpoint when the campus AI security mistakenly identified his bag of Doritos as a firearm. The news item led me to wonder:

• Should we trust artificial intelligence to tell us what’s dangerous?
• How dangerous is a bag of Doritos?
• Which is more dangerous, guns or junk food? and
• How do we, as a society, respond to errors or mistakes?

The first question is obviously a matter of opinion. Those who create AI (and their investors) will obviously tell you that its benefits strongly outweigh any risks. I’m no expert on the subject so I will keep my opinions to myself in this case. But I certainly think it’s a question worth pondering. After all, we are all funding the AI explosion - not only through our everday use of it (of which we are often unaware) but also via our electricity bills - so we should have some say in how it’s used.

On the topic of how dangerous is a bag of Doritos, I have a bit more expertise. You’ll probably already know that I don’t like to demonize any one food. And I also recognize that an individual’s eating habits are the result of many factors - taste, cost, availability, culture, upbringing and more. A single bag of Doritos will not ruin your health; a dietary pattern consisting mainly of ultra-processed food-like substances similar to Doritos will limit your odds of a long and healthy life.

According to the FDA (2022), approximate one million people die in the US each year due to diet-related chronic disease. That makes poor diet the leading cause of mortality, with a significant percentage of disease and death (from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke) largely preventable through lifestyle modification. That’s the good news. We can do something about it!

I don’t mean each person can take the certain perfect steps that will guarantee perfect health. Of course not! On a population level, however, we can create an environment that supports health and encourages individuals to make the choices that will increase their likelihood of achieving a healthy lifespan.

According to 2023 data, 547K people died of heart disease in the US that year, 476K from cancer, 75K from diabetes, and only 46K from gun violence. This is not to minimize the importance of that last number - every unnecessary death is too many and that’s a really big number. Those who ask you to choose either/or may not have your best interests at heart (in fact, binary arguments and all-or-none thinking are often the tools of those who profit from the status quo). It can be yes AND.

Still…one could argue that our food system is potentially even more important than gun control, in terms of lives saved. It’s just a lot more complicated to fix. Supermarkets currently stock over 30,000 food products - how is a harried and cash-strapped consumer expected to make good choices? We have the technology (science, food, traditional ecological knowledge) to improve our health. Isn’t it worth it to - at a minimum - get started? Alas, it seems like we may be heading in the wrong direction these days.

Transforming the food system

If you have the time and the means, you can: cook more of your own food, support local regenerative farmers, limit your reliance on ultra processed food, advocate for a more just food system (one that upholds access for everyone). If you’re struggling, you can: reach out to local food banks and pantries when needed, learn more about healthy eating on a budget (I’m happy to help), vote for legislators who support a healthy food system.

Lastly, I want to talk about mistakes. Obviously, it’s ridiculous to ask AI to own up to its mistakes, but I think we need to take accountability as humans. I’m a huge fan of failure, because we don’t learn much from our successes. Whether we’re talking about AI surveillance, healthcare systems or personal food choice - finding out that something didn’t work is good information. It tells us how to improve. Take the perspective to see the opportunity in the mistake, move from blame to curiosity and find the solution made apparent only by the challenge.

You know I’m all about improving your health and the planet…one green bite at a time!