My view is that it is important to be open-minded about all ideas; if someone achieves success using a Patak's product, let he or she share tjheir success so that others can try to emulate it if they wish. Patak's products are not evil, they are simply commercial versions of pastes (etc) that every Indian housewife would have made for herself in the past; preservatives are not evil, they are a useful adjunct in our modern lifestyle, and if a product can have a shelf life of (say) six months with preservative, or six days without, and still taste the same, then let us not rule it out simply because it contains "chemicals". Everything that we eat/drink/respire contains chemicals, and we ourselves are made of chemicals; it can, I suggest, be useful to remind ourselves of that from time to time. Read the late Jack Pridham's
Chemophilia for an refreshing perspective on this from a very well informed and respected academic.
** Phil.