Do you find the world of nutrition and diet confusing or frustrating? Do you struggle with determining the healthiest diet for yourself?
There have been many moments where the world of nutrition has made my head start to spin. You have the government, most doctors, and dietitians recommending the food pyramid. You have scientists and the dietary camps arguing back and forth, all making seemingly good points. But who is right? Vegans/Vegetarians? Keto? Paleo? Carnivores? Every diet in between?
Perhaps this head-spinning madness is due to nutrition research being subject to heavy bias and manipulation, and the difficult (maybe impossible) challenge of extrapolating a health outcome to someone's diet, when health is very multi-factorial. Even when recommendations are based on the bulk of the available evidence, and even supported by various institutions, that doesn't always discount counter evidence or mean there is no issues with the bulk of the evidence. It also doesn't mean it will actually apply to any given individual. A lack of evidence might also mean there has been a lack of interest or gain from doing the research, so evidence may yet to be uncovered, or research may never even be done.
Here are some potential challenges with extrapollating conclusions from nutrition research, and some issues with nutrition recommendations based on them:
Many of our nutrition recommendations are based on large scale observational studies.