A guy goes to an appointment with his doctor. He has scrambled eggs in his hair, a banana squished onto his cheek, and a carrot sticking out of his pants. “Doc, what’s wrong with me?” To which the doctor replies, “You’re not eating right.”
My hobby this season is researching and writing a book on how to eat. With contradictory nutrition findings coming out continually, I’m confused about what I’m supposed to eat and what to avoid. My goals are great taste and good health.
Currently I’m doing a meta-analysis of diet books. Most diet books lard up with diet mythology, reference to a location (South Beach comes to mind), bad science, and other crap that obscure the message. I aim to write to the point. No superfluous words.
I’ll be visiting the Famer’s Market often. You can buy real food there, unlike the super-refined imitation food on the center aisles of your supermarket .
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Hi Jay,
One of the most significant causes of all the confusion about what we should and shouldn’t eat is the mis-information constantly being churned out by the media. That’s what comes from journalists trying to interpret scientific studies, i suppose.
If you’ve not checked it out already, I’d recommend Ben Goldacre’s site as a treasure trove on information about nutrition and other bad science rebuttals: http://www.badscience.net/
Will you be publishing your findings?
Another cause of confusion is the lobbying efforts of the food companies. I’m currently reading Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, and Health, Revised and Expanded Edition.
From a review on Amazon:
Nutrition expert Marion Nestle’s “Food Politics” explains how the formula for a healthy diet hasn’t changed. She advises that one should eat more plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables and whole grains) and less meat, dairy and sweets. But this message collides with the interests of the food-industrial complex, which makes the bulk of its profits by selling relatively expensive processed foods. The book examines how corporations have successfully fought the health message by using a number of overt and covert tactics to further their objectives at the public’s expense.
In fact, this business success story has resulted in a generation of Americans who are significantly overweight compared with their predecessors. Nestle shows that public relations and government lobbying result in obfuscation and mixed messages about the relative values of certain foods; this generally confuses Americans and makes it difficult to get the “eat less” message. Interestingly, she reveals that the amount of sweets and snack foods consumed are in almost exact proportion to the advertising dollars spent promoting these foods, suggesting that limits on advertising junk food to children might be a reasonable first step in addressing this problem.
Some of my findings will undoubtedly appear online.
Hi Jay,
I was fascinated to read about your meta-analysis, and wondered if you had considered a discussion with your doctor about this. If so, how did this influence your personal research agenda, and, if not, why not? See http://lisaneal.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/if-people-dont-listen-to-their-doctors-who-do-they-listen-to/ because I have been thinking about the role of expertise and would appreciate your insights based on your experiences – since you shared them!
Best wishes,
Lisa
Hi Jay: Just make sure your meta-analysis (surely you were kidding) of diet books doesn’t drive you to overeat out of boredom and frustration!
I think learning how to eat better comes with a little time and readings of various resources. Here is one I read today after I read your posting. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/eating-your-way-to-lower-cholesterol/
This article talks about lowering cholesterol through changes in eating habits (it reads better than my description sounds).
Also, go spend a month in the Italian countryside. I understand those people really know how to eat for great taste and good health.
Keep us posted on your odyssey.
i don’t eat right and my friends say i’ll get fat?