Jan 20, 2020
The “health industry” is a business of money, contends Bill Sukala, a Registered Dietitian Nutrition and Clinical Exercise Physiologist in Australia. He has three decades of experience as a consumer health advocate in standing against the latest trends in health and food. Listen in to this episode to help yourself not be swayed by the tide of public opinion and the latest health claim.
Advertising confuses people and creates anxieties around food and health. Bill brings a voice of reason and is concerned that the “gatekeeper of information has been chloroformed.” His B.S. detector raises red flags about bad information, misinformation and quackery in food and health claims.
Key points
- Using “why?” as a fear filter in food and nutrition claims.
- Looking at health and food marketing claims through the lens of science; there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
- Remember we can’t live on one single food alone; messages about how a kind of food is “good” or “bad” is confusing. People are getting too focused on one viewpoint and it’s creating factions.
- Quality of information and the way it is presented is creating food anxiety. Food and exercise shouldn’t be good or bad, but dividing people builds tribes and eliminates middle ground
- Evaluating health claims and where those claims are coming from; advertising manipulates your emotions and therefore, bullies you. People aren’t aware of how much food advertising confuses them and creates food anxieties.
- The business is making money and health is the storefront to draw people in. The diet world has so many factions. Nutrition has become a religion where people don’t care about your facts or evidence.
- The B.S. detector is meant to give people more of a critical eye to protect themselves. It captures a lot of red flags of bad information, misinformation, or quackery and helps people not be so trusting of health marketing claims.
- The difference between science, statistical significance, and clinical significance. Marketing claims are often lifted out of context.
- Tips to overcome food bullying: 1) Ignore the trolls, don’t be swayed by the tide of public opinion 2) Protect yourself from misinformation on social media, evaluate claims critically 3) Don’t get sucked into the cult-ism of nutrition.
Fabulous quotes
“The food and health marketing industry is out-of-control.”
“Superfood is not a real thing – it’s a marketing term.”
“You can have red meat, even if you’re a cardiac patient.”
“Polarization is central to making sales and building followers.”
“The business is money. The storefront is health.”
“Nutrition is becoming a religion.”
“Scientific illiteracy is a massive problem. People can be hoodwinked easily by health claims.”
“Nutrition is a science, but is not all that sexy.”
“If I could give every person just the right of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health" - Hippocrates
Links
- @Bill Sukala
- drbillsukala.com
- The B.S. Detector
- Food Bullying: How to Avoid Buying BS by Michele Payn
- Embrace your Heart with Eliz Greene