The truth about nutritionists

[ciphergoth]

San Francisco appears to be rather fun! Back tomorrow.

For those who enjoyed the NYT "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" article, here's the wonderful Ben Goldacre of Bad Science writing about why 'nutritionism' isn't just nonsense, it's right-wing nonsense.

Comments

[indigo-violet.livejournal.com]

Have you been to any bars in the Castro district? CJ made a new friend (the waiter) and got his drink for free while I, er, had to pay for mine.

I don't buy your assertion

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Huh. I don't really think he made much of an argument for nutritionism being right wing nonsense. Clearly, studying nutrition is very useful; else how would we have learned how to fight off beri beri, how to reduce retardation by adding iodine to salt, and a host of other, useful (I sincerely believe) things about diet? Actually, I even read an article about how some international non-profits were working with salt producers to add iodine in parts of the former Soviet Union. So nutritionists are really doing a lot of good, I think. And as for designing spaces that encourage more exercise (and better health), I think you'll find it's "the people" who need to push for and get those things, not the media. As you well know, the media covers stories "the public" finds interesting, so getting our fellow folk interested in these stories is probably more useful than figuring out who to blame for the lack of interest in articles on why do poor people eat more poorly than the rich (this may or may not even be true depending what society you're looking at). I just didn't see evidence for "right wing nonsense" as the cause of "nutritionism" in his article. (Me, I'd be just as much willing to blame TV and laziness for it as anything else: if people wanted to cook instead of eat as quickly as they can, and go for walks instead of sit in front of the tube, we'd all be a lot healthier. Except for me, of course, as I am free of the demon tube and can walk to work.)

That said, I did have a lovely home-made beef barley soup (mostly vegetables and barley) for lunch along with an apple/mango salad. Yum!