10 Things to Look For in Diet Advice

Weight loss is big money.  So is health.  So everywhere you go, especially on the Internet, you're constantly inundated with dietary advice.  Somebody wants you to try the new superfood, herbal supplement, drug, or diet craze, and they promise amazing results.  You'll get smarter, thinner or more energetic.  You'll prevent cancer, the flu and heart disease.  You'll live longer and have clear, wrinkle-free skin.  All thanks to some super-special chemical or ingredient that's just been "proven" to confer these benefits.

I think it's unlikely that our bodies are optimized for an incomprehensible diet that was unknown six months ago, let alone six thousand years.  I believe there is a natural solution to all these problems, and that excellent health is the natural state of man.  But don't let my opinion on the matter sway you either.  Bad advice tends to follow certain patterns.  Good advice generally follows others.  I'm going to try to help you sort through the mess of "information".

  1. Citations
Does the article provide links to actual scientific literature, or just brief quotes from a researcher, which may well have been taken out of context?  You'll notice here that when I start making claims about the effects of low-carb diets, I take great pains to provide references to original source material so you can read for yourself where the ideas are coming from.  The rest is stringing the facts together with clear logic, and if I get that wrong you shouldn't believe me either.

  2. Disclosure
A lot of "science" is funded by companies, governments, etc. with a vested interest in certain conclusions.  That's not to say that scientists will always arrive at the conclusions their sponsors want to hear in hopes of securing future funding - but the temptation is undeniable.  Research scientists depend on this funding for their livelihood, and the pressure is strong to keep the money coming.  A good study or article will make it clear if there are any potential conflicts of interest.  Take a look at this study, where the subtext on the bottom of the first page clearly states: "This study was funded by an unrestricted grant from the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine."  Does that mean the article should be dismissed as hopelessly tainted by its funding?  That's for you to decide, so it's good information to have.

  3. Incentive
This is strongly related to disclosure.  What reason does the author of the advice have to make these claims?  Is he, or the company he works for, selling something?  Is he funded by someone who is?  If the study is government-funded, do the results align with relevant government advice and policy?  If so, you should suspect a bias in favor of government-friendly results.  Or maybe it's not a study - it's a blog, an online newspaper article, or a website returned by a search engine.  In this case incentive might be harder to work out, but that's why there are 10 things to look for!

  4. Explanations
This one is a pet peeve of mine.  Many purveyors of dietary advice are happy to simply make claims.  Not only do they offer no citations, they can't even be bothered to explain why following their advice will produce the claimed effect.  They just give you (for example) a list of foods to eat to "boost your brain power" with no supporting evidence or even logic - just a fluffy introduction, a list, and some fluffy closing remarks.  Please don't give any such junk the time of day.

  5. What's the law?
In the U.S., there's a lot of things drug companies can't say.  For people selling foods and supplements, not so much.  If you hear the words "no side effects!" you know right away it's not a drug, or not classified as one.  The other thing you know right away is that the people selling it have not tested those claims in controlled studies.  Some food companies are happy to make questionable claims with regard to health benefits, so watch out for those too.  The point is, if you know what companies are and aren't allowed to tell you, you're better equipped to spot the marketing lies.

  6. Fine Print
Some companies and individuals are so fly-by-night that they're happy to just vanish as soon as fraud charges are brought up, because they're so cheap to operate.  If you caught some of the websites mentioned here while they were still up, you would have seen some little tiny text at the bottom explaining that contrary to everything else on the site, there's no real person named Karen Evans or Sarah Johnson or whatever - it's a fictional composite whipped up to blog about success stories with whatever they're selling.  Takeaway lesson: if you're going to take somebody's word for something (don't do that), at least know enough about them to know if they exist.

  7. Reputation
Try to distinguish this from fame.  Some very famous advice-spewers have appalling reputations among their peers.  Case in point: you've probably heard of Dr. Oz.  Have you read what some other doctors have to say about him and his advice?  Much of it is not flattering.  But don't take their word for it either.  I picked that link not because Dr. Eades is so unabashedly hostile toward Dr. Oz but because he so meticulously picks apart his advice, and doesn't just attack the man on a personal level.  If you get advice, look for people who disagree and decide for yourself who has the more compelling argument.

  8. Authority
OK, this is easy for me to say as a programmer blogging about physiology and heart disease, but status and authority often send exactly the wrong signals.  Those who have either or both often have it because of a position they have a vested interest in maintaining, or they're afraid to lose it by siding with the underdog or the skeptic, regardless of which side is best supported by the available information.  As soon as you find out that there's a group of people trying desperately to refute something you've always been told, do yourself a favor and see what they're all about.  Often you'll find they're delusional, but when you find such a group that's really onto something, it can change your life.  Those people will seldom have much status, authority, or impressive-sounding affiliations.

  9. The Other Side
Most people who have done honest, thorough research to tell you something you didn't already know, or to try to convince the reader that a commonly held belief is flawed, will produce an honest presentation of the other side of the argument.  They can do this because they're well-informed about those claims and still confident in their own.  They will fairly describe, and then systematically dismantle, the opposing argument.  Beware those who misrepresent the