nutrition and pseudoscience

quantumpion

You often read advice regarding nutrition and diets on these forums and elsewhere. I just want to share my thoughts on these subjects. I believe nearly all of the information that is out there is pseudo-science nonsense. All the claims out there about organic food, whole foods, no-carb diets, paleo diets, and all the rest. None of it is backed, as far as I can tell, by any real understanding of biology or even rudimentary scientific scrutiny.

There are scientific studies around all over the place showing correlations between this or that. I remind you that correlation does not imply causation, and it takes far more rigor to prove effects with any certainty then the types of studies are limited to. Because biology and nature is so complicated, it can take decades of dedicated research to understand the relationships between our bodies and the environment. And often times, these studies are biased in one direction or another for various reasons and are often found out, much after the fact, to be completely wrong! Take for example margarine, or eggs, or red wine, just to name a few. All at one point or another was at first considered good for you, then bad for you, then good for you again, and so on.

Here is another particular example. It is popular nowadays to bash the use of high fructose corn syrup. It is often described as being artificial and therefore bad for you. Not even getting started here on what makes something artificial versus natural, or why something that is artificial is worse for you, the simple truth is this. HFCS is chemically identical to ordinary honey, just without the few extra chemicals in honey which give it its color and flavor. The only difference is that HFCS is created from plants in stainless steel vats using precisely controlled industrial processes, where as honey is made in an insect's digestive tract. Personally, I find the former far more appetizing.

Anyway, for anyone who is interested, here are two videos which better explain my thoughts on these matters. I highly encourage you watch them in your spare time.

Richard Feynman on nutrition and knowledge: http://youtu.be/VPunpjeFaiQ

Ben Goldacre: Battling bad science: http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science.html

missym357

I agree with you that in general, popular nutrition-related topics are chock full of pseudoscience. Nutrition is a fascinating subject, but not quite as sensational as popular culture makes it out to be. It is easy to fall prey to faddish pop-science information and the internet is ripe for that sort of thing. It is also much more exciting to believe in a magic bullet than it is to simply make good choices and follow moderation. I go round and round about the hfcs hoopla with my mother and I'm afraid she will never get it.

I love ted talks, btw!

PaleoPath4Lyfe

I typed out my reply and then decided I will not waste my time or energy. SMH.............