You Can't Trust Everything You Hear

Especially when it comes to your health

There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to health. Especially nutrition. What is always so amazing to me is how easily misconceptions are spread from person to person and adopted as absolute truth by the new ears the information falls upon.

There are so many examples in our current diet culture. Meat is bad. Plants are good. Your brain needs carbs. Keto is bad for women. Calories are all that matter for weight loss. And one of the big ones I highlighted this week on social media, salt causes high blood pressure. There is no shortage of nutrition claims that have no or at the most, very weak scientific backing.

The way these misconceptions get spread is rather appalling. A blog with no scientific credentials takes an industry-funded abstract and shares it as if it’s gospel and the readers of that blog read it like it is. A health influencer on social media echoes something they heard from another social media influencer without looking into the statement’s validity or even questioning it. A doctor who has spent 0.27% (yes that’s a real number) of their medical schooling on nutrition shares nutrition advice that has been outdated for decades and you follow that information because who the heck else are you to trust? Your co-worker in the breakroom tells you about this new fad diet they have been following for all of 12 hours and how it has changed their life so you decide maybe it’s time for you to give it a shot too. We are constantly being bombarded with bad nutrition information and oftentimes we very easily accept it as truth.

What makes this phenomenon even more challenging is that it is human nature to place more weight on the first piece of information you receive on a topic. Especially if it is from a source that you perceive as trustworthy. This makes it incredibly hard to have your mind changed on that topic no matter how wrong the information is. One doctor tells you that cholesterol from eggs is going to give you a heart attack and there’s a slim chance anyone is going to convince you it’s okay to eat eggs again.

The answer for combatting this issue isn’t cut and dry. There are so many intentional and unintentional reasons and incentives that force poor nutrition information to be spread that stopping it seems nearly impossible. What you can do is equip yourself with some skills and resources to make you less susceptible to nutrition misinformation and better able to sniff out what is true and what is false.

There are many ways to do this and the best is dependent on how deep you want to go. You can be like me and be so obsessed with nutrition that you study biochemistry, dive into the research, and do your best to learn the body of science in its entirety. Or you can take a less in-depth and more normal person route of reading books and consuming content from trusted scientists and health educators who are skilled in reading research, cite their sources, are transparent about their conflicts of interest, and have a low incentive to dupe you.

At the very least, you can question the information you hear. Especially when it comes from a less-than-trusted source and especially if it sounds a little fishy. If your spidey senses are tingling when you hear that eating eggs is the same as smoking cigarettes, your instinct is probably correct.

Thanks for reading,

Chris Irvin

P.S. In the debunking sodium science post I shared earlier in this article, I highlight one of my favorite supplements LMNT. You guys know I am a big electrolyte guy and have even formulated my own electrolyte product and I still take LMNT because of its unique high sodium formula that gives it its own unique place in my diet. Sodium is important to replenish on a low-carb diet and I’m a sweater so I have to double up on sodium which LMNT makes easy (and pretty dang delicious). If you’re in the market for electrolytes (and most people need to be) LMNT is a great option. Especially if you’re exercising a lot! My favorite flavor is citrus but if you click the link below you can get a sample pack with your order so you can find out which flavor you like best!