Health and Illiteracy.

Why are health food websites so badly written? I was curious to discover the health benefits of cashews (because I’m a bit addicted to them, at least the raw, unsalted variety.) I opened the first five returns on Google, and closed them all down again because they were so badly written.

The problem with most of them is that they’re a little short of being fully literate. Sentences aren’t constructed properly, clauses aren’t connected properly, articles and prepositions are missing, and so on… But sometimes they’re just illogical. An example:

Cashews are the number one crop in the world (after almonds.)

So they’re not the number one crop in the world, then. Almonds are. So why say it?

This all leads me to wonder what it says about the people who write health food websites, the people who read them, and – worst of all – those who have an especial fondness for cashew nuts. That’s the one that worries me.