Who to listen to?
When it comes to nutrition and health, there’s an overwhelmingly massive amount of information out there. The advice, unsolicited or sought for, can be very confusing. There are different ways misinformation forms that I’ve noticed.
There’s the misinformation born from ignorance – from people who completely have no true understanding of a topic yet speak on it anyway. Examples include: “gluten is bad for you”, “avoid GMO products”, and “if you can’t pronounce it, then don’t eat it”. This form of advice completely ignores all science and yet still spreads like wildfire.
There’s the misinformation born from incorrectly understanding research. An example of this is when someone infers one thing causes another rather than there just being a correlation. This happens a lot when media gets involved in reporting research studies. You get article titles such as “Taking the bacon. Just one sausage or 3 bacon rashers a day ‘increases killer heart disease risk by 20%’” – The Sun, 21 July 2021.
And then there’s the misinformation caused by professionals. The world of health has many moving parts – doctors, scientists, lobbyists, government officials, product developers and so many more. It’s understandable that from this mess of people and organisations, there will be times people get things wrong. There will be times people’s/group’s agendas impact how science is conducted, reported, and shared.
When it comes to you, the person reading this, who do you listen to? Well, if you had pain, you’d turn to your doctor. If you were struggling with your vision, you’d go see your optician. If you are struggling with your diet, you should go to a professional in that field too, and that’s either Dietitians or Nutritionists (depending on your issue). Other professionals sometimes do have *some* training in nutrition, but often not nearly an adequate amount to go ahead and start giving advice. My advice is go to the experts.
If you need a Dietitian, you can find all registered and qualified Dietitians on the British Dietetics Association website, and all accredited and certified Nutritionists on the Association for Nutrition website. I’ll leave links below.
British Dietetic Association
Association for Nutritionists