Doctors and diet books
I have a pretty good rule to follow here:
If someone is championing (and profiting) of one certain diet approach… your health is never going to be their priority. Their wallet is.
This rule might sound over-simplistic, but it has never let me down yet!
Take Dr Michael Mosley in the UK as an example. Because of his Dr. title… people will trust his opinion. He promotes an 800 calorie a day diet that incorporates intermittent fasting. Clearly one over-restrictive diet clearly wasn’t enough, so he had to merge two of them.
However, he’s no longer a registered doctor and hasn’t practiced medicine in decades. Also BEAT, a UK eating disorder charity, has called out his television shows in the past highlighting just how dangerous they are. When eating disorder charities are questioning your advice and asking you to reconsider… surely something isn't quite right, hey?
Doctors will often misrepresent or over-emphasise certain research papers to peddle books, and they make *a lot* of money by doing so. Doctor Oz is another doctor in the US that has made thousands of outlandish claims and has a new 'secret' or 'miracle cure' to sell us every week!
People don’t know where to turn and who can blame them? When doctors we are supposed to trust are blurring the lines between health promotion and over-restriction, no wonder people are confused
I get approached by many supplement companies and diet brands to do adverts on social media. Some of the supplement companies are the ones that I use personally and really like. I will always say “no”.
I strongly believe that a good and trustworthy practitioner (doctor/trainer/nutritionist etc.) needs to remain completely impartial. People need to know they can trust the advice they’re being given.
Am I getting this advice because it will help them? Or because this person of authority can profit from it? We should never have to be worrying about this.
There is no ‘best’ approach. We are all individuals and need to be treated like so. If you’re looking to someone for advice and they’re married to one particular approach (especially if they’re profiting from it), it’s a serious red flag and I’d recommend looking for advice elsewhere.
