Stop Listening to Crazy People That Tell You What to Eat
I am obsessed with health and learning about the human body.
It’s fascinating.
And…
It’s frustrating.
Learning about how exercise contributes to longevity, how what we put in our bodies is intertwined with our genetic code or the complexities of the human mind, blows my mind.
There is a lot of information on all of these topics, but none “louder” than in the food and nutrition space. Fear is rampant. Nutrition misinformation is on the rise. Misrepresentation of the research is ubiquitous. People sharing their “cure” to all of your bodily problems, everywhere.
If you’re like me, then you’ve found the world of health and nutrition infuriating and over-complicated.
And if you’re like me, you’ve had enough. (Well, kind of. I’m still going to sift through the wreckage to find useful information and share it with you.)
“Noisy” With Nutrition Misinformation
I’ve come to this conclusion: most (all) people have no idea what they are talking about—not even the doctors, dietitians, and nutritionists.
Whoa, there, Scott! What the hell are you saying?! Not even doctors!!!
Hold on, let me explain.
Doctors, medical professionals, surgeons, nutritionists, and dietitians know way, way more than you and I. They know the human body and the scientific literature in far more detail and accuracy than us “normies”. They deal with patients on a regular basis stacking up cases and experiences that others (myself included) cannot even touch. And you should 1000% always work with, and listen to, your doctor, medical professional, surgeon, nutritionist, dietician, primary care physician or whoever else knows you, your body, and your complex history.
But that doesn’t mean they know everything. They don’t.
A lot of the mechanisms of the human body and its complexities are still relatively unknown. “Uncertainty” is the word, as noted by Surgeon, Atul Gawande in his book Complications.
With all that we know nowadays about people and diseases and how to diagnose and treat them, it can be hard to see this, hard to grasp how deeply uncertainty runs. As a doctor, you come to find, however, that the struggle in caring for people is more often with what you do not know than what you do. Medicine’s ground state is uncertainty. And wisdom — for both patients and doctors — is defined by how one copes with it.
Gawande goes on to further explain the reality of the situation:
There is, however, a central truth in medicine that complicates this tidy vision of misdeeds and misdoers: all doctors make terrible mistakes…It was estimated that, nationwide, upward of forty-four thousand patients die each year at least partly as a result of errors in care.
That is slightly terrifying.
But also, not surprising.
We are human. Humans error.
Nutrition Misinformation: Who Should You Listen to?
This is not an article to scare you and certainly NOT an attack against doctors and medicine. Not. At. All.
In fact, it is quite the opposite.
It is to show you that even doctors and surgeons don’t know everything and that means that some random people on social media telling you to eat only meat, avoid tomatoes, seed oils are killing you, “chemicals” in your food are toxic or some other scary-sounding nonsense (and not providing a mountain of scientific literature to back up their claims), have no fucking clue what they are talking about.
Well, not entirely at least.
This is simply an article to open up the truth that not everyone knows everything. Especially when it comes to food and nutrition. To assume that they do would be folly—it leads to faulty judgment, thinking in absolutes, and even worse, blindly following.
If someone is saying they know exactly what you need to eat or avoid eating and that they have the “answer”, run.
This includes questioning me. Questioning what people are saying. Or yelling at you to do. Or, most commonly, selling you something.
Not everyone selling something is “bad”. Not at all. But if they are selling you a fiber supplement for $50 a month or some bogus supplement when all you need to do is just eat more fruits and vegetables, well then, I’m not so sure.
Nutrition Misinformation About Sugar
Is sugar killing you? No.
Is too much sugar leading to excess calories which is leading to weight gain and weight gain is leading to complications later in life? Likely.
Is too much sugar contributing to obesity and type-2 diabetes? Probably.
Diabetes and high sugar levels kill up to 3.5 million people annually, while air pollution kills about 7 million people. So why do we fear terrorism more than sugar, and why do governments lose elections because of sporadic terror attacks but not because of chronic air pollution?” Excerpt From: Yuval Noah Harari. “21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
Yuval Noah Harari. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Is blood glucose important?
A 2011 study looking at twenty thousand people, mostly without type 2 diabetes, found that their risk of mortality increased monotonically with their average blood glucose levels (measured via HbA1c). The higher their blood glucose, the greater their risk of death — even in the nondiabetic range of blood glucose. Another study in 2019 looked at the degree of variation in subjects’ blood glucose levels and found that the people in the highest quartile of glucose variability had a 2.67 times greater risk of mortality than those in the lowest (most stable) quartile. From these studies, it seems quite clear that we want to lower average blood glucose and reduce the amount of variability from day to day and hour to hour.
Peter Attia, MD. Outlive
Do you want to wear a Continuous Glucose Monitor as a healthy, non-diabetic person trying to function daily as a normal human? I have no fucking clue. I don’t.
BDNF: “Miracle Grow” for Your Brain
Is sugar linked to a reduction of the very important brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which could be leading to depression?1
Probably.2
BDNF is important for normal brain function, and high sugar diets (along with high fat diets and lack of essential fatty acids) decrease BDNF. In fact, low amounts of BDNF actually leads to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and even diabetes. This means that high sugar in the blood leads to low BDNF, and then low BDNF leads to worsening of blood sugar control, which leads to high blood sugar, which leads to worse blood sugar control.3
The Opposite of Nutrition Misinformation
Are seed oils causing inflammation and killing you? NO.4 THEY.5 AREN’T.6
In fact, they might be even good for you.7
But who the fuck really knows for sure?
Olive Oil? Yummy, yummy.
Tea? Yes, please!
Coffee? You betcha!
Nuts? Don’t be immature. Oh, you mean those nuts? I eat them daily, and seeds, like chia and flax.
Are you getting enough Omega-3? Seems like a good idea.8
What about processed foods? Are they all bad for you? No. Cheese is processed. Are you going to stop eating delicious cheese? I’m not.
Sugary drinks? Not ideal.
Food Coloring Bans?
Four colour additives approved in the US are not permitted in the EU: the three synthetic colours, namely Orange B, Citrus Red №2 and FD&C Green №3 (Fast Green FCF) and toasted partially defatted cooked cottonseed flour. In turn, 16 colour additives authorised in the EU are not allowed in the US.9
What about MSG and Excitotoxins?10 Or read Excitotoxins by Russell Blaylock. I wasn’t entirely convinced after reading it.
Will fasting make you live longer? That depends.11 Before we start thinking about not eating for longevity, do you even exercise daily? Or sleep 7-9 hours every night?
Can caloric restriction make you live longer?12 Well, I’ll tell you what, if you are eating like a little piggy all the time, then, it might help you. If you are already healthy, why the hell would you start restricting your healthy calories?
Should you only eat meat? Nope, bad idea.13 Bad.14 Idea.15 Or maybe it isn’t.
But, what do I know?16
The Shoulds and Shouldn’ts
Should you do a “detox” or “cleanse”? Don’t be ridiculous.
Should you take supplements? Let me ask you this: Do you need the supplement or are you just taking it because you came across some information that said it will help you “reduce inflammation”, “lose weight”, or “live forever”? Have you done your due diligence and talked to your doctor, or researched the supplement company and its policies — checked to see if it is “GMP”, “NSF”, or other third-party-source tested?17 If you haven’t, why the hell would you put some unregulated pill into your mouth and then worry about having a piece of cake once in a while?
If you eat a certain “unhealthy” food once in a while, are you going to die? No.
Should you be more concerned with regular (daily) exercise, sleeping 7–9 hours, reducing or removing alcohol, having healthy relationships, a career you enjoy, having minimal stress as well as the skill to manage stress, smiling more, stopping overthinking food so much, loving a little more, being kinder, and on and on and on? Yes, to all of the above.
The point is this: our health is WAY more complicated than a single ingredient, even a single food, or some “magic” supplement. Or even a certain diet. In fact, it is way more than just what you eat. And much of it depends on your unique biochemistry.
Why Is Nutrition Misinformation Happening?
Listen, here’s the problem and I’ll be honest: 1) We all have an opinion on the things we do. We all eat, therefore, we all have an opinion on food, 2) There is nothing “truer” in the world than our subjective experience, so whatever foods “work” for us, we believe must be fact, 3) Ideas are easily spread through the internet, and most concerning, 4) We have access to all of the information that has ever existed, ever. And it’s right at our fingertips.
The first three reasons are self-explanatory, but why is having all that information so concerning? Because it is too much information for us to know everything, so we have to trust. And we trust in those who know what they are talking about. But no one knows anything with certainty. So we latch on to the most promising and convincing-seeming argument and confident person.
And people are very convincing when they share their subjective experience with food and what they believe.
I saw an actual certified nutritionist on social media the other day say, with 100% confidence, not to eat peanut butter because it has hydrogenated oil in it, and that hydrogenated oil is a trans-fat. That’s not correct at all.
And people saying, with certainty, that seed oils are causing inflammation. Well, that isn’t true either.
Animal Trials Used for Nutrition Misinformation
Even doctors, like Steven Gundrey’s Plant Paradox and his claim on “lectins” destroying all of our guts. But when you look into it, it’s a claim backed by debatable science and animal trials.18
And really, is anyone honestly questioning the benefits of fruits and vegetables?19
The same goes for Resveratrol and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN). Again, only animal models. (And don’t even get me started on the supplements these people might have a hand in.)
Are animal trials or some small human trials convincing enough for you? I don’t know. Maybe they are.
For me, they aren’t. And a lot of that stems from the same pattern that I notice: animal trials, a lot of really confident noise created, supplement selling involved in some way, promises of the hope of living longer or some “cure-all”, creating fear in people, and then…crickets.
That’s what I’m noticing: how little we actually know and fear.
Fear about eating this or eating that. Fear of cooking this way or that. Don’t cook with this pan or that one. Or if you don’t take this supplement you’ll be deficient. Or this causes cancer. And this causes cancer. And this leads to cancer, too. Cancer, inflammation, dying. Everything we eat causes these things, apparently. Everything but the diet being supported or the supplement being sold.
Enough is enough.
What You Should Eat Is Simple
If someone told you the truth and didn’t give you a bunch of BS nutrition misinformation, they would tell you they really aren’t sure what the hell is going on, then nobody would listen.
But that’s the truth. Nobody really knows what exactly you need to eat and how you are so different from the next person: your genes, your history, your biological nuances. And it feels so complicated.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Nutrition is relatively simple, actually. It boils down to a few basic rules: don’t eat too many calories, or too few; consume sufficient protein and essential fats; obtain the vitamins and minerals you need; and avoid pathogens like E. coli and toxins like mercury or lead. Beyond that, we know relatively little with complete certainty. Read that sentence again, please.
Peter Attia, MD. Outlive
Here is the perfect example of why I stopped reading or listening to people who weren’t 1) Highly qualified to speak on the topic they were talking about (although not having credentials should not discount the person entirely), or 2) Providing clear and accurate scientific evidence, as well as representing that evidence correctly, to support their claim.
A few years ago, the popular blogger “Food Babe” went after Azodicarbonamide, and after reading her posts, I believed her, too. She even had companies like Subway remove it from their breads. But then I came across this source which debunks several of the myths around the “chemicals” that she and other people have claimed are killing us.
Azodicarbonamide: This is another bread flour additive. According to the Buzzfeed article, “Used to bleach both flour and FOAMED PLASTIC (yoga mats and the soles of sneakers), azodicarbonamide has been known to induce asthma”.
Let’s clear this one up quickly: azodicarbonamide is indeed used in bread dough, and allowed up the 45 parts per million. It is not stable to heat, though, and it falls apart quickly to another compound, biurea, on baking. It not used to “bleach foamed plastic”, though. Actually, in higher concentrations, it’s used to foam foamed plastics. I realize that this doesn’t sound much better, but the conditions inside hot plastic, you will be glad to hear, are quite different from those inside warm bread dough. In that environment, azodicarbonamide doesn’t react to make birurea — it turns into several gaseous products, which are what blow up the bubbles of the foam. This is not its purpose in bread dough — that’s carbon dioxide from the yeast (or baking powder) that’s doing the inflating there, and 45 parts per million would not inflate much of anything. How about the asthma, though? If you look at the toxicology of azodicarbonamide, you find that “Azodicarbonamide is of low acute toxicity, but repeated or prolonged contact may cause asthma and skin sensitization.” That, one should note, is for the pure chemical, not 45 parts per million in uncooked flour (much less zero parts per million in the final product). If you’re handling drums of the stuff at the plastics plant, you should be wearing protective gear. If you’re eating a roll, no.
One of the differences between Food Babe’s claims and the article I found: the article was written by an actual chemist who understands chemistry.20
And that’s the divide I’ve noticed: those who believe in the science. And those who don’t.
Food is incredibly complex. It consists of thousands of chemical compounds that play out in millions of possible combinations all while interacting with human physiology in mysterious and unknown ways.
We don’t know much about food and nutrition.
And when it comes to that…
I’m going with the science.
Every time.
What will you do?
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032718315040?via%3Dihub ↩︎
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05649-7 ↩︎
- https://spinewave.co.nz/sugar-sugar-and-the-candy-brain/ ↩︎
- https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/021115p24.shtml ↩︎
- https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/77167/ ↩︎
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652302782X?via%3Dihub ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30019767/ ↩︎
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-021-02655-4 ↩︎
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2016.1274431 ↩︎
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2020.1733016 ↩︎
- http://europepmc.org/article/med/24434759 ↩︎
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2851235/ ↩︎
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121943/ ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33789278/ ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32428300/ ↩︎
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5837313/ ↩︎
- https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/dta.1940 ↩︎
- https://legionathletics.com/plant-paradox/ ↩︎
- https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.048996 ↩︎
- https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/eight-toxic-foods-little-chemical-education ↩︎
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