Mountains of anecdotal and experimental evidence indicate that “conventional wisdom” about health and nutrition is incorrect in many cases. A new study examines the hugely flawed research that much of this “conventional wisdom” draws conclusions from.
It’s one of the biggest questions men ask when they finally figure out how to acheive and maintain perfect health and flawless physique – why is so much of the information out there just plain wrong?
Not My Plate. Get it? Hilarious, I know.
In most cases, no one is intentionally lying to you. Often, poor research leads to results that can be interpreted a number of ways, and the interpretation that Those With Money find most favorable will get the most publicity, and eventually make it into government recommendations. Once it’s a government recommendation, your doctor better recommend it as well, or face losing their career.
That’s a helluva mustache. Looks like a third eyebrow.
But the immense power that food lobbies exert on a flawed system is a discussion for another time.
Today, let’s look at that flawed research, with the help of a new study out of the University of South Carolina.
This new study looks at the accuracy of the data collected over the last 40 years for the humongous research project NHANES. What is the NHANES?
The NHANES is the most comprehensive compilation of data on the health of children and adults in the United States. The survey combines interviews of self-reported food and beverage consumption over 24 hours and physical examinations to assess the health and nutritional status of the US population. Conducted by the CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the NHANES is the primary source of data used by researchers studying the impact of nutrition and diet on health.
Yea, it’s kind of a big deal. If it were a person, it would own many leather-bound books and its apartment would smell of rich mahogany. Let’s take a look at some of the conclusions drawn from the NHANES over the years:
- Saturated fat causes heart attack
- Eating cholesterol causes heart attack
- Eating eggs decreases heart disease risk
- Multivitamins decrease lifespan
- Calcium supplements increase bone strength
- Calcium supplements cause heart attack
- Replacing animal fat with vegetable oil decreases heart disease risk
- Whole-grain is healthier than white bread
- Obesity decreases lifespan
- Overweight increases lifespan
The list goes on. A ridiculous amount of what we now call “stuff everyone knows” originated from the NHANES.
And as this new study found, the NHANES is horribly flawed.
Across the 39-year history of the NHANES [28,993 men and 34,369 women, 20 to 74 years old, from NHANES I (1971 – 1974) through NHANES (2009 – 2010)] , EI data on the majority of respondents (67.3% of women and 58.7% of men) were not physiologically plausible.
Over 60% of the data are flawed. Keep in mind that because most of those conclusions above were drawn from all of the data, more than 60% of those conclusions are flawed.
Most of what “everyone knows” about fitness, health, and nutrition is WRONG.
So what are we supposed to do?
To really be sure of the right way to live, you have to pore over mountains of research with a skilled eye, carefully accepting only those studies that are conducted rigorously. Even more, you have to combine that research with a robust logical framework that helps you make decisions where the research is murky. As we’ve seen, this subject contains many murky areas.
That logical framework is the main overarching subject of The MasculON Fitness and Health Course. The book included in this course will cover not only the what and how, but also the WHY of healthy and fit lifestyle. The knowledge laid out will give you the power to make accurate estimates of the health and fitness implications of any choice – even if no research exists on that area at all.
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