The confusion over nutrition starts with books: a relatively recent analysis of 100 best-selling books on nutrition. I missed this when it came out in March. Here are some illuminating findings. #nutrition#health#wellness#food#diet
They found the 100 books written for the general public, focusing on nutrition, and published between 2008 and 2015 that sold the most copies (sales range: 23,228-730,901 copies).
Half of the authors had no MD, PhD or other graduate degrees. One author was a firefighter. Another was a professional pool player. 3.6% were dietitians and 4.8% were nutritionists.
Weight loss was a common theme, but 31/100 books promised to cure or prevent many diseases (cancer, dementia, heart disease, etc.).
The recommendations were OFTEN CONTRADICTORY between books (no surprise here but worth highlighting).
Disagreements over consumption of carbs and grains; of dairy; of fat content in dairy; of protein consumption; which diet was best; of the best way to replace a meal; and of whether or not calories should be counted.
The authors list disputable/unsubstantiated quotes from some of the books, including the infamous How Not to Die, which claims hibiscus tea works best than leading hypertensive drugs….
“Several of these authors seemed to have become wealthy entrepreneurs.” Hmm… it’s almost as if writing a quack nutrition book is an easy achievement and leads to riches!
It’s John Ioannidis. During COVID, he has revealed himself to be acting on ideology not scientific evidence. However, he has done excellent work in the past and this paper is very straightforward.
I read Chris' book chapter, from which he quotes in his piece, and want to share a few very interesting insights from it. Dare I say, I may have changed my mind on this topic.
"Were all who claimed psychic abilities either deliberate frauds or suffering from some sort of mental illness? This was certainly true of some claimants, but my personal view [...] is that the vast majority are neither fraudulent nor crazy."
"A widely ridiculed paper about jade amulets possibly protecting against COVID-19 makes us wonder what systems are in place to review outlandish claims."
I felt it important to reach out to the lead author. We chatted for over an hour. A few details that didn't make it into the article to follow.
The NIH did not fund this paper. It funded other studies of his that involved rats. When some of these rats got sick, Bility tied that to his hypothesis and wrote the paper.
"We propose that the ferromagnetic-like iron stores in humans are the unifying determinant for COVID-19-induced morbidity and mortality."
Seriously, WTF? What decides if you get severe COVID and die from it is how much iron is in you because of magnetic fields??
"This work seeks to advance the science of public health, as it lays the foundation for the unification of dynamics in the ferromagnetic-like iron-containing human-biosphere and geosphere via the empirical laws and the theoretical frameworks of condensed matter physics."
Dr. Andrew Kaufman made the rounds in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic by claiming the virus did not exist. Now, he tells hundreds of thousands of YouTube users that everything they know about medicine is wrong.
There was so much I didn’t have room to discuss or link to in my article, so here are some extra thoughts and links.
THREAD!
If you’re curious about the scientific link between exosomes and viruses, there’s a pretty cool piece here that I skimmed while looking into this topic: quantamagazine.org/cells-talk-in-…
"But if we are all shouting into our own echo chambers about risky behaviors, shaming may better serve our own reputations than the collective welfare."
"She stressed that she trusted Weiss far more than other experts because he had an open mind & no agenda. When I asked what would increase her trust in medical expertise, she said part of the problem was that 'People think doctors know everything. But you’re just people'."
"She wished they would admit when they were wrong and more readily acknowledge uncertainty. 'I just wish the experts would say, I don’t know'."