Thread by @stevemagness

A rant on Bro Science and the rise of the Keto diet, butter in your coffee, infrared lights, polyphasic sleep, fasting, vitamin cocktails, and all of the fads...

A lot of it's useless. But why do smart people fall for it and why are they SO passionate about it? A Thread...

If you look around, the same people who are enraptured by the keto diet, also tend to fast, dabble in sleep experiments, meditate, have elaborate ice bath and sauna routines.
And if you argue against any of them, you are met with a cult like zeal. Why do people feel so strongly?

A few phenomenons play a role:
-Dunning Kruger Effect- where we know a little and think we are experts.
-We overvalue our personal experience
-The importance of Story Telling
-A need for Control and Belonging

With exercise, fitness, and health, there's a problem that makes them susceptible to bro science.

They are simple enough to do and understand at the basic level, that we fool ourselves into thinking we are experts. That even though we have zero background in it, we know it all.

This doesn't occur in physics or most hard sciences because even at it's basic level, it's really hard to grasp.

But nutrition and exercise science. We know enough to fool ourselves.

The result- Every guru thinks they can give diet and exercise advice.

Personal Experience:
Let me ask you this, If I told you that I ran faster than 99.9% of you, had a resting heart rate of 32 and impeccable health by running 15 miles per day, would you say that everyone should go run 15 miles every day?

No...But that's what we do with diet!!

Look, lots of things work for individuals. Some may lead you to lose a lot of weight (and that's great!!) Some may lead you to "feel" better. Fantastic!

But that doesn't mean it works for everyone.

AND it could even be BAD for you, EVEN THOUGH it "works!

Think about Jim Ryun, former World Record Holder, running 40x400m repeats. He survived, ran faster than any human ever, at the time.

But for 99.9% of people that would be dumb! For Ryun, it likely hurt him in long run.

Sometimes you can get good outcomes DESPITE what you are doing. Yes, I realize that is hard to grasp. But talent and a strong responder to a part of what you are doing are very strong pulls sometimes.

So if you lost a ton of weight off eating only sticks of butter dipped in lard, great. Good for you. But that doesn't mean it's a great diet. Or even good for you.

Story Telling:
It's easy to make bioplausible explanations for a bunch of things.

In diets, this happens all of the time. We create a nice narrative around insulin or some hormone and it makes intuitive sense! We did this with depression, genetics, etc.

Narratives make things appealing. As humans we grasp on to stories.

The problem is, as we know in the drug research world, those narratives often fall apart. Why? The human body is incredibly complex and GREAT at compensating and having multiple levels of control.

A Need for Control and Belonging
Why do we see diet trends, and exercise and health fads take off in the Silicon Valley types?

A need for control and belonging. Diet in particular has deep evolutionary roots. It's something that is obviously ingrained in us for survival

When we CHOOSE a dietary trend or a routine. It gives us a sense of comfort and control. We are in charge of what we do and what we put in our body.

That is a deep need engrained in who we are as humans. Often, when we can't control much of our life, we default to what we can!

So for those who live in a chaotic modern world, is it any wonder that we grasp on to diets and routines that give us a sense of us having control of how we feel.

A need to belong:
Religions work for a variety of reasons, but mainly because they provide certainty (answers) in an uncertain world AND they provide a sense of belonging and community.

The same holds true for diets and health fads.

Crossfit gives you a sense of belonging. It gives you an identity. Same with a Keto diet or Atkins or whatever it is. As soon as you state that you do that thing, it gives you an instant connection with others!

It creates an In-Group vs. Out-Group scenario.

Which we know from evolutionary work, is incredibly important. We need a sense of belonging, and we need to identify who is with our tribe, and who is against us.

It also explains why if I criticize anything, the most replies come after I talk about Crossfit or some diet.

We need to protect our group, our tribe, our identity.

It's part of being human. We're tribal creatures, and we've slowly replaced our familial or neighborly tribe with tribes based on identifiers like diet, religion, or exercise group.

When we tie ourselves to some group, an interesting phenomenon happens. Our ability to be thoughtful and critical goes out the window.

Instead, we get defensive and protective. Incapable of evaluating criticism.

(The same thing happens with political party affiliation...)

Professor of Religion,@alanlevinovitz sums it up:
"when it came to diet and health, people were prone to irrationality and they were susceptible to promises that in other contexts perhaps they’d be more critical [of],

Look some of these fads can be good. Some work in very specific situations, but that doesn't mean they work for everybody.

But most are fads. And they can be harmful because they prevent people from accepting things that do work! Look at the damage of the anti-vaccine crusade

What do we do? Simple.

Work HARD to not fall in love with some diet, exercise or other fad.

This is what I have to do as a coach. I can't give everyone lots of running or my favorite workout. I have to realize everyone is different. That things I thought worked, don't.

I can't define myself as an "interval training guy" or a "high mileage coach." I need to apply variations of everything, depending on the person.

And I need to stop doing things that don't work. And not take it personally.

Diet, exercise and health interventions give us a sense of control that we hold our destiny. It's no wonder that we get so attached to them. Humans hate uncertainty.

Proclaiming a diet as the cure, comforts the harsh reality of life and death that all of us face.