Get Your Facts Straight
Have you ever heard that eating carbs after 6pm will make you gain weight; muscle can turn to fat; brown eggs are healthier than white ones; skipping meals can help you lose weight; coffee is bad for you; breakfast is the most important meal of the day…?
There is no shortage of “nutritional advice” out there and the majority of it is conflicting and confusing. Magazines, books, the internet, what you hear from friends or colleagues; sometimes you hear the same thing so many times, you feel as though it must be true and maybe you even find yourself passing on the same information as fact.
Who’s to blame?
An unbelievable amount of money is spent on health and diet products every year. Diet books, meal plans, 100 calorie pre-packaged snack foods, supplements, protein powders, juicers. It’s normal to be attracted to anything that promises a ‘quick fix’. Even people who would usually consider themselves to be pretty rational are often taken in and seduced by the marketing tricks that these companies employ.
The success of the diet industry is based upon taking advantage of societies desire for health and fitness information.
Why are people falling for their claims?
A lot of what they are saying is true, which they will use to sell their product; the problem is the majority of what they say is not true. Even celebrities and sports people who are endorsing products are adding to the confusion. Maybe they are really using/eating the products they are helping to sell, but I suspect they are not. What they are doing is receiving large sums of money by putting their name behind them.
The message is similar in all cases. Being healthy or losing weight doesn’t have to be hard – all you have to do is to take our pill, eat our food or buy our book.
Selling is only half the story. The other half is creating the mistrust in the first place by vindicating specific foods, labelling them as bad or good so they can come to the rescue with their ‘miracle idea’.
Just out of interest try to Google: ‘Broccoli is good for you’. You will find no shortage of articles to support this. Then try the same search with: ‘Broccoli is bad for you’ and you will be surprised to find a fair number of articles that will give you some ‘science-based facts’ to support this too.
Confused? I’m not surprised.
The food and diet industry thrives on confusion. By presenting their own products as quick fixes you feel you sometimes have no choice but to buy into whatever it is they are selling. Even worse, we are sometimes led away from and convinced to ignore the more scientific, research based advice out there in favour of these myths that are being passed around.
It’s not just companies that are doing this; individuals are creating massive followings and creating their own niches too, making money from your fear and lack of knowledge.
The Diet Industry is only partly to blame
Who is writing the trade agreements and providing the Nutritional guidelines/recommendations? Surprisingly, not necessarily the food scientists. These people are heavily influenced by food industries, agricultural companies and other businesses with massive amounts to gain in making sure you are eating the food they are promoting. Just like money can buy influence in politics, it can buy influence in dietary guidelines and advertising. Can the Food Pyramid therefore be an objective summary of the available research? I don’t think so.
Even books have been written on the subject, many even citing that the grain based recommendations would cause a rise in obesity and diabetes. Guess what? It did. But if the message discouraged processed foods, where would that leave some of these multi million companies? Cereal is allowed to be labelled as healthy because its fortified with vitamins! It’s crazy.
Everything should be viewed with scepticism, especially if there is money to be made. ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ – have you ever heard that? I’m sure you have. Do you know who the study was conducted and funded by? Have a guess…
What about hard, scientific evidence?
We have established that money makes the world go round, so surely science based facts must be the information we base our nutritional decisions on. Not quite. Here’s another reason why we get so confused.
Everyday, scientists are learning more and more about the world we live in and how the human body interacts and responds to certain stimulus, food being one of them. Nutrition is a very complex subject.
Nutritional research is notoriously unpredictable and many of the studies published have been carried out on rodents. Food and supplement companies are funding studies until a positive result enables it to be published. Also, although there is some consensus of opinion with regards to some theories, everybody is different.
Are we part of the problem too?
Our psychology has been well studied by food and advertising companies. Our buying habits are predictable. Shops know how to manipulate our senses, they know the buzz words to get us to buy.
So what can we do?
Be ready for some conflicting advice.
Ask yourself: ’where does the claim/info come from; how do they know this; could they be wrong; can you find another source to state the same claim?
Be critical, be curious and open minded. Be willing to change your mind as new evidence arises.
Even the ‘everything in moderation’ quote you hear all the time is justification for eating and buying things you really know you shouldn’t.
At the end of the day there is so much confusion because there is too much to be gained from keeping us from knowing the truth.
My basic principles of healthy eating would be:
Eat numerous servings of vegetables every day and a few fruits
Eat as little sugar as possible
Prioritise ‘real food’
Cook your own food as much as possible
Remember, what works for you may not work for someone else – nutrition is not a one size fits all topic.