I recently read a blog that was called Your Diet is a Cult. There were a few things right off the hop that led me to a) face palm and b) want to write about it.
The first was this line “exploring the dangers of excluding an entire food group“ the second was “mainstream science is on one side, saying there is no single ideal diet for humans.”
First things first, food groups are not a real thing. The Food and Drug Administration invented food groups. Different countries define their food groups differently. So this idea of it being dangerous to exclude one of them does not make sense. I could maybe see the validity in an argument against eliminating one type of nutrient from the diet, but not a food group.
Second, there is no such thing as mainstream science. There is science and there are things that are not science. Sometimes, ideas from research become popular (as in fat makes you fat or whole grains are good for you). In the case of siding with the mainstream, my biggest concern is that what is most common in our society is obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. So between being mainstream and not mainstream, I will take option number two.
I would also like to address the idea of science and nutrition. I am sure that there will be people (mainstream science people probably) who will disagree with me, but that is okay. The point is, I do not think nutrition science is a real thing.
There is biochemistry and physiology. Nutrition is how we apply biochemistry and physiology to our food choices. Ultimately, everything that you eat becomes chemical molecules. These molecules are either toxic or are used in your cells for chemical reactions that support life in your body. Your liver does not care what form glucose comes in, candy bar or cereal, it just knows what to do with glucose.
So how do we know if a food is good for us?
We find out what effect the chemical components have on our physiology. If they are vital for function and allow proper expression of our physiology, then they are good. If they are toxic, causing damage and negative impact on our physiology, then they are not good. This is the only way to objectively know, what foods we should or should not be eating.
As a population, we got ourselves into a lot of trouble when we started comparing what different people ate and made blanket statements about what was good for us. Ancel Keys was named the “father of nutrition science” for his hypothesis that fat makes you fat and that high cholesterol causes heart disease. This type of ‘science’ can never determine causation; at best it can present correlation. It is these types of nutrition studies that confuse and mislead millions of people.
It is my sincere hope that everyone who reads this blog will start to see through the faulty claims made by authors, bloggers and even doctors and scientists. I would love to hear your opinion on the state of nutrition science and whether or not this helped you. Please leave your comments below.
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