Finding the truth on the internet - or - What should we be eating?
**Disclaimer: I promise I will get more organized with my thoughts over time 😁
I love the Internet. I keep in touch with my friends and colleagues, I find new ideas for my creative outlets, I research things for my job, I dream up new careers, new hobbies, and anything else you can think of using the Internet.
As some of you know, I’m a pretty smart girl. I have a PhD in biology. I love to learn and therefore I’ve tackled completely new fields within biology every five years or so since I was young. And by young I mean in my young 20s so uh long time ago. I’ve gone from development and genetics, to the neuroscience of drug abuse, to the translation of genetic code into cellular behaviors, to cancer, to cell biology, to pre-clinical drug testing, to small molecule screening, to primary cell culture, to BioProcessing. Over the course of all of this learning and constantly reinventing my skill set, I found that I have a bit of a knack for picking up a new field quickly. I’ll pull down hundreds of papers, read them listen to them being read to me while I drive take notes write summaries sometimes even review articles for publication to get myself up to speed as quickly as possible.
Why am I telling you all of this? This blog is not my resume. I’m telling you all of this because it puts into context my next statement:
I have read hundreds of scientific studies, listened to many books written by supposedly credentialed authors, listens to books by regular Joe’s that lost a ton of weight and therefore feel that they have it all figured out, read zillions of blogs on the topic, consulted with nutritionists, dietitians, endocrinologists, and primary care physicians. In the end, they all say the same thing: eat less than you burn. Sounds simple. Sounds easy. Until you start reading about nutrition on the Internet.
There is a zealot for every single type of dietary modification you can dream up. We should all eat like cavemen, we should all eat a plant-based diet, we should not consume any wheat products, we should not eat carbs, we should only eat what fits in this box, we should only eat branded milkshakes, we should eat only what fits on this plate, we should never eat dessert, we shouldn’t eat after X O'Clock, we shouldn’t eat after dinner, we should eat exactly what they eat in the Mediterranean, we should not eat processed foods, we should not eat genetically modified organisms, we should eat so little carbs that we force our body into starvation state, we should not eat for 18 hour stretches, we should not consume nightshades, we should not consume legumes, we should drink red wine every day, we should drink less coffee, we should drink as much water in ounces as our body weight in pounds, we should only eat whole foods, we should not consume chemicals, our food should have no more than four ingredients, we should eat a raw diet, we should only consume juice, our bodies or somehow dirty and therefore should be cleansed, we should avoid toxins, we are woefully devoid of enough vitamins, we should eat nothing but cabbage soup. I really could go on longer but I think I’ve made my point.
I have read and subscribed to them All. I’ve even tried a lot of them. I like cabbage soup. I’ve almost fainted at college because I had nothing but two protein shakes for an entire day amounting to less than 500 cal. This post is actually not about my struggle with my weight which has been going on since I suddenly realized that I was too fat. I phrase that very carefully because when I was in high school I was pretty average, but when I got some freedom in college I eat everything in sight and became quite large. But I didn’t really care and actually I don’t even know that I noticed much. It wasn’t until I got in my mid 20s I started paying attention to the world around me a bit more instead of doing nothing but studying smoking cigarettes and driving around Niagara Falls with my friends that I realize that perhaps I was unacceptably fat. And God for bid you are a fat bride. But again, that’s another story for another blog post on another day. Trust me I will definitely cover the double whammy of being a woman in stem that is overweight.
This post is about how the Internet can actually be dangerous. And how annoying that is for people that actually know a little bit of science. I’ll try not to call out particular incredibly misleading Internet personalities *AHEM* food babe *AHEM* but suffice it to say that their pseudoscience and almost evangelistic believe in certain ideologies that have never been proven to be true can actually do more harm than good.
This is one of the reasons why I wanted to start this blog. I invite you to ask in the comment section about a topic you’ve been wondering about. As a common Internet reader that may not have decades of experience in the sciences, what do you wonder about? I’ll give you an example. Let’s tackle gluten. The gluten-free craze is a thing. It seems to be here to stay. The problem with it is that it was introduced to the general public with a fear-based marketing campaign by authors, bloggers, and other personalities that are very savvy at marketing, but not super savvy about making sure that their opinions and statements are based in actual fact. What results is a huge body of bullshit being published to the Internet, easily accessible by those of us that don’t know the difference between pseudoscience and real science.
Instead of presenting a gluten-free lifestyle in a rational logical and fact-based way, popular bloggers and authors presented their opinions with enticing language that was meant to incite fear, and or the promise of weight loss. So instead of presenting facts such as what is gluten, where does it come from, where does it not come from, what does it do inside the body, how does it affect certain people differently than others, and how to determine whether or not you are one of these chosen few that are adversely affected by it, they presented the issue first with an emphasis on how it can cure you of your elements. Elements such as being fat, being tired, and being ugly.
I invite you to check out a post that I wrote quite a few years ago on gluten that I have pasted into this blog so that I could refer to it. It’s not plagiarizing if it’s my own work.
I love the internet.
I love the Internet. I keep in touch with my friends and colleagues, I find new ideas for my creative outlets, I research things for my job, I dream up new careers, new hobbies, and anything else you can think of using the Internet.
As some of you know, I’m a pretty smart girl. I have a PhD in biology. I love to learn and therefore I’ve tackled completely new fields within biology every five years or so since I was young. And by young I mean in my young 20s so uh long time ago. I’ve gone from development and genetics, to the neuroscience of drug abuse, to the translation of genetic code into cellular behaviors, to cancer, to cell biology, to pre-clinical drug testing, to small molecule screening, to primary cell culture, to BioProcessing. Over the course of all of this learning and constantly reinventing my skill set, I found that I have a bit of a knack for picking up a new field quickly. I’ll pull down hundreds of papers, read them listen to them being read to me while I drive take notes write summaries sometimes even review articles for publication to get myself up to speed as quickly as possible.
Why am I telling you all of this? This blog is not my resume. I’m telling you all of this because it puts into context my next statement:
I cannot figure out proper nutrition for a standard adult human being.
I have read hundreds of scientific studies, listened to many books written by supposedly credentialed authors, listens to books by regular Joe’s that lost a ton of weight and therefore feel that they have it all figured out, read zillions of blogs on the topic, consulted with nutritionists, dietitians, endocrinologists, and primary care physicians. In the end, they all say the same thing: eat less than you burn. Sounds simple. Sounds easy. Until you start reading about nutrition on the Internet.
There is a zealot out there for every possible nutritional theory
There is a zealot for every single type of dietary modification you can dream up. We should all eat like cavemen, we should all eat a plant-based diet, we should not consume any wheat products, we should not eat carbs, we should only eat what fits in this box, we should only eat branded milkshakes, we should eat only what fits on this plate, we should never eat dessert, we shouldn’t eat after X O'Clock, we shouldn’t eat after dinner, we should eat exactly what they eat in the Mediterranean, we should not eat processed foods, we should not eat genetically modified organisms, we should eat so little carbs that we force our body into starvation state, we should not eat for 18 hour stretches, we should not consume nightshades, we should not consume legumes, we should drink red wine every day, we should drink less coffee, we should drink as much water in ounces as our body weight in pounds, we should only eat whole foods, we should not consume chemicals, our food should have no more than four ingredients, we should eat a raw diet, we should only consume juice, our bodies or somehow dirty and therefore should be cleansed, we should avoid toxins, we are woefully devoid of enough vitamins, we should eat nothing but cabbage soup. I really could go on longer but I think I’ve made my point.
I have read and subscribed to them All. I’ve even tried a lot of them. I like cabbage soup. I’ve almost fainted at college because I had nothing but two protein shakes for an entire day amounting to less than 500 cal. This post is actually not about my struggle with my weight which has been going on since I suddenly realized that I was too fat. I phrase that very carefully because when I was in high school I was pretty average, but when I got some freedom in college I eat everything in sight and became quite large. But I didn’t really care and actually I don’t even know that I noticed much. It wasn’t until I got in my mid 20s I started paying attention to the world around me a bit more instead of doing nothing but studying smoking cigarettes and driving around Niagara Falls with my friends that I realize that perhaps I was unacceptably fat. And God for bid you are a fat bride. But again, that’s another story for another blog post on another day. Trust me I will definitely cover the double whammy of being a woman in stem that is overweight.
This post is about how the internet can be incredibly misleading
This post is about how the Internet can actually be dangerous. And how annoying that is for people that actually know a little bit of science. I’ll try not to call out particular incredibly misleading Internet personalities *AHEM* food babe *AHEM* but suffice it to say that their pseudoscience and almost evangelistic believe in certain ideologies that have never been proven to be true can actually do more harm than good.
This is one of the reasons why I wanted to start this blog. I invite you to ask in the comment section about a topic you’ve been wondering about. As a common Internet reader that may not have decades of experience in the sciences, what do you wonder about? I’ll give you an example. Let’s tackle gluten. The gluten-free craze is a thing. It seems to be here to stay. The problem with it is that it was introduced to the general public with a fear-based marketing campaign by authors, bloggers, and other personalities that are very savvy at marketing, but not super savvy about making sure that their opinions and statements are based in actual fact. What results is a huge body of bullshit being published to the Internet, easily accessible by those of us that don’t know the difference between pseudoscience and real science.
Ironically, scientists are generally pretty shitty communicators
Scientists are notoriously shitty about communicating to the general public. We’ve all seen the big bang theory, which I will cover also in a different post because I will be the one Negative Nelly that dislikes the show based on what it does to the image of scientists everywhere and how it romanticizes the abuse that can be caused by emotionally unstable people being put in charge of others. But if you permit me to use it as an example here, it helps me make the point that scientists stereotypically cannot communicate well to those of us who don’t speak the language of science. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The reason why these bloggers, pseudoscientists, and popular personalities have gotten as much of a following as they have, is largely because scientists cannot argue with them in a way that is understandable, and appreciated by the general public.Instead of presenting a gluten-free lifestyle in a rational logical and fact-based way, popular bloggers and authors presented their opinions with enticing language that was meant to incite fear, and or the promise of weight loss. So instead of presenting facts such as what is gluten, where does it come from, where does it not come from, what does it do inside the body, how does it affect certain people differently than others, and how to determine whether or not you are one of these chosen few that are adversely affected by it, they presented the issue first with an emphasis on how it can cure you of your elements. Elements such as being fat, being tired, and being ugly.
I invite you to check out a post that I wrote quite a few years ago on gluten that I have pasted into this blog so that I could refer to it. It’s not plagiarizing if it’s my own work.
Fake news? Fake science?
This paradigm of sensationalizing a nutritional ideology is commonplace. One of the things I am pretty good at giving all of the training and science is recognizing patterns – I would argue most of us could see this pattern and if you haven’t already step back and give it some thought and it will pop right out at you. Every time some new "expert" with a doctorate or medical degree comes out with a book about what you should or should not eat, it is marketed as a way to cure you of what ails you, even if it’s just the ailment of being fat. In an incredibly one size fits all manner, the new expert tells their tale of how they’ve been able to cure 99.9% of their patients of ailment X by simply performing these small radical changes to their diet. This is not science. When there are billions of people in a population, a small sampling of a few hundred is statistically insignificant. Never mind the incredible biases caused by so many factors influencing the population at a medical practice. There will be racial biases amongst the patients: Asian patients tend to seek out Asian physicians, etc. They’ll be biased based on location: is it an inner-city medical practice? Or is it in the middle of rural Oklahoma? It’s in the United States most of the time, and therefore is biased simply because of that fact. Even though the United States is a melting pot, it is not a perfect cross-section of the world's population. Therefore, Dr. X concluding that his approach that works so well for his patients is a one size fits all cure for ailment X, is a completely unsubstantiated conclusion and is at best, pseudoscience. At worst it is purposely misleading because any PhD or MD should know this. It's in statistics 101 which we are all forced to slog through. Every time a new expert opinion hits the marketplace, the Internet loses its mind. Bloggers pop up gaining pop popularity and followers based on their wild success with Dr. X's new “program“. When that success is publicized, everybody wants in. After all, the worst possible ailment is being fat in America. And if eliminating chemicals from my diet will help me lose weight, I’ll do it, right? How many people have tried and failed at a fad diet?The crux of the problem
We all see the problem here, right? It was bound to fail for the general public at large, only a few people will have actual success because they bear the same characteristics as Dr. X's original population. The majority of people will just be left much poorer, possibly fatter, and extremely disappointed. And a small percentage will actually be worse off having radically change their diet based upon the pseudoscience.
So let's stop overmarketing and putting our faith in random people with no science training, OK? Sometimes finding the truth on the internet is damn difficult.
PS - I still don't know what I should or should not be eating.
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