I’d be lying if I didn’t say that nutrition-based food claims make me more than a little uncomfortable.
It seems that for every “scientific” paper that proves the benefits of consuming a certain type of food or nutrient, there are still others disputing it. In a way it’s no different than the claims made by the multi-billion dollar diet industry bent on pushing yet another new faddy regimen. Every few months new research surfaces to show that some thing (that until recently had been a workaday foodstuff) has been catapulted out of obscurity and into the limelight. At times it makes me wonder if all of these studies are in some way connected to each food’s saavy marketing board…
In the last few decades, we’ve had studies revering margarine and vilifying butter. Years later, butter faced a (luke-warm) reprieve, if only due to the fact that research arose stating that margarine had gross things like trans fats in it. Then there was the jump on the olive oil bandwagon, backed up by research into the healthful Mediterranean diet. And on, and on, ad naseum.
Which then prompted a string of books about why one culture’s diet was better than another, including French Women Don’t Get Fat, (a book a well-meaning friend once brought me to stave off boredom while I was sick) that among other things advocates living off a watery leek broth when you’ve overindulged (real healthy… snerk!) Or the (more than a little smug) rebuttal Japanese Women Don’t Get Old Or Fat, which I bought for the express purpose of seeing what exactly they would claim was better in their “lifestyle” book than the French one, but 3 years later, I’ve yet to get past page 2.
The revolving door of nutritional recommendations doesn’t stop there, either.
