The world is full of gurus. Everyone has “the answer” and everyone else is “wrong”. Very few places have as much so-called “absolute truth” as the health and wellness industry. It’s so hard to wade past the junk, sort through which studies are legit and which ones aren’t and find out what’s truth.
The truth, as far as nutrition and health is concerned, is that we have to remember that people are individuals, and that any research done on a human being usually has to take so many other things into account that it’s hard to find a place where the results are “pure”. Most of what we have in nutrition and fitness are people’s best guesses based on the research they were able to do. This doesn’t mean it’s necessarily wrong, it just means it’s unfinished.
It’s also very tempting to jump into the “guru” pot when you find something that works well for you. If you have a sure-fire remedy for your own colds, you can be tempted to think it will cure everyone’s colds all the time. Perhaps, but perhaps not.
People hate uncertainty. We’d rather believe in a lie than wait in the dark for more evidence. Unfortunately, that has led us to becoming a society that calls “possible results” facts; we follow charismatic people that sound intelligent without doing the due diligence to check the facts Certainly, I know I fall into this – both in my speaking as the “guru” when I find something that really works for me, and also in my gullible following of people whose charisma sometimes clouds the issues at hand. It’s something I’m trying to overcome.
If you’re in the same boat, you might find the following article interesting: David Freedman, ‘Wrong’ Author, on Why to Not Trust Experts - Yahoo! News.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this. Why not post them in the comment section below?
Darlene Hull
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