Jade Teta ND, CSCS
I have often said that nutrition facts are sometimes just like politics and religion. It has become the third topic you don’t want to discuss at your next family get together or social gathering.
Today being the day after the election, and the fact that everyone is talking about how the two sides are going to get along and get things done, I could not help think about the state of the health and fitness industry. In so many ways I think we are dealing with the exact same issues.
I remember hearing some of my liberal friends a few years after 9/11 whispering about conspiracy theories that the Bush administration was behind the attacks and that all conservatives were bigoted stupid people. I remember thinking how utterly ridiculous that notion was. Today I am reading from my friends on the right how in 4 years America will be a third world country, it will all be the president’s fault and of course how stupid and naive all the people who voted for him are.
Sound familiar? Several times a month this same rhetoric shows up in comments on this blog and posts on our Facebook page. And we are not alone. I have seen this stuff all over the place.
A post on protein will be met with, “how stupid are you, don’t you know the most definitive nutrition experiment ever done, plus all the research ever conducted anywhere says protein will kill you!!” Or another one on a mention of alternative sweeteners will be met with “I am no longer following you, anyone who does not realize that Splenda is a deadly poison in all who eat it is extremely misinformed”. Or what about a Facebook post recommending people eat more fruit? This post was met with comments along the lines of, “You are completely ignorant, fructose is a known carcinogen and has been proven to be 10 times more toxic than regular sugar.”
Notice the theme? One person asserting another is stupid, ignorant or uninformed. And of course the inference is that the person making the statement is more educated, privy to all the correct information, or stands for the noblest cause. And this is not always a negative thing or a conscious thing either. I distinctly remember a business coach I worked with briefly saying earnestly and with caring……….”if people would just educate themselves. They are just so uneducated.” I remember thinking “by whose standards?” My brother Keoni and I have 3 BS degrees, 3 MS degrees and 2 doctorate degrees between us. But depending on whom you ask, we are educated geniuses or witch-doctoring idiots.
The arguments and vitriol you hear in politics are the same disdainful rhetoric often spewed in nutrition and natural health.
You might be wondering where the hell am I going with this post? My point is simply to draw attention to this curious human trait. It is so easy and expedient to claim our way is THE way. After all, we know what we know and we know what we don’t know. And it is a trait of human psychology to constantly overestimate our expertise and value relative to others (called the illusory superiority effect).
Real understanding lies in all the things we don’t realize we don’t know. We can quote all the books we have read, all of our personal experience, all of the clinical case studies that have informed us and all the research articles we have poured over. But the bottom line is there is ALWAYS more information we have never seen or been exposed to.
Having seen my own bias in action (I was once a fairly militant vegetarian), I am now more aware of it in others and less tolerant of this behavior in myself. I am by no means perfect, and Metabolic Effect does not have all the answers by a long shot, but here are a few things I think have served me and ME in continuing to educate ourselves and refine our understanding. And most importantly avoid the ridiculous rhetoric in nutrition that does nothing but keep us all small and less informed.
Who knows, perhaps these same practices can help us elevate our political discussions as well.
- Read both sides not one side. At Metabolic Effect we read all sides of an argument. We read the research and popular media material on all diets. We read about paleo, vegan/vegetarianism, fasting and all the rest. We realized long ago, that the truth is always in the middle somewhere and avoiding exposure to the ideas you don’t agree with assures you remain in the dark.
- There are three types of expertise (role model, researcher and results-getter). Personal experience is useful for you, clinical experience is useful for many (not all) and science is useful but not perfect. Here at Metabolic Effect we do personal experimentation (I recently went on a 1 month McDonald’s diet, which I will detail sometime soon), read a ton of research and work with a ton of people. We can’t know everything, but we are acutely aware of the weaknesses inherent in a singular focus on only one of these elements. We are always careful to weigh all three, never relying solely on one.
- Listen and ask rather than show and tell. To seek what you don’t know you don’t yet know, you have to shut-up and listen. So, spend as much, if not more time, listening to other ideas and asking questions. When you are telling others what you know and showing them the “right way”, you are blind to other insights and knowledge and other “right ways”.
- The real truth lies in knowing there is not one truth but many truths. If you insist there is only one way, you become completely blind to other ways. When I was a vegetarian I felt so bad. I refused to believe my meat-eating counterparts could possibly be healthier. I also wrongly assumed because my vegetarian buddies were so healthy I must be too. I had to figure out the hard way that all of these things could be true. Both eating meat and not eating meat could make you healthy and happy. Once I realized that, I had to find my truth.
- Intellectual compromise is the path to enlightenment. By enlightenment I don’t mean some “woo-woo, go-chant-on-a-hill” idea. I mean wisdom (knowledge plus experience). There is no greater blinding force to finding your truth than ridged idealism. When it comes to nutrition and health, opening up to the idea that there are other, perhaps even better, ways generates a powerful catalyst for positive change including in health, fitness and fat loss. This is true for you and those you seek to help change.“There is no such thing as one way in health, fitness and fat loss. When you hear dogmatic, non-flexible views about body change that make no room for your unique metabolic processes, psychological tendencies and personal preferences, be VERY skeptical. That is not how the process works. Rigid idealism is a sign of ignorance and/or arrogance, both of which block the path to change. Remember, it is all about you!“
