I am starting a series of posts that will cover how the science of nutrition has become radically divided and controversial. I will use Dr. Richard Feinman's book "Nutrition in Crisis: Flawed Studies, Misleading Advice and the Real Science of Human Metabolism" as a guide and as a book review.
Feinman starts his book with simple advice; the fact that his advice contradicts much of what we've been told about nutrition is the longer content of the book. But let us start with the advice that he calls The Three Basic Rules:
Rule 1. If you're OK, you're OK. If you don't have a weight problem and you're basically healthy you are probably not eating toxic foods everyday. There is no need to go Keto or look for special foods. If you want to learn more about nutrition, that's great, but there is no need to become obsessed with food.
Rule 2. If you want to lose weight, don't eat. If you have to eat, don't eat carbs. Intermittent fasting or even some longer fasts work quite well for both losing weight and for other health issues. (For example, fasting has helped my hay fever and other allergies.)
Rule 3. If you have diabetes or metabolic syndrome, don't eat carbohydrates. Because the majority of adults are insulin resistant, it's common sense that we should stop eating carbohydrates and bring our blood sugar down. On the other hand, if diabetes and metabolic syndrome are diseases of carbohydrate intolerance, it is reasonable to assume that adding carbs, even from plant sources such as potatoes and rice should be avoided.
Feinman make the point that we need to be scientific about our health issues. With the internet we can look up research that has studied these problems. We need to become better at knowing what is real science from pseudoscience. This takes some work, but this will help us all collectively take action to solve these problems.
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