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IHB: Truth or Fiction: A 50:50 Chance


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Originally posted by Dr. Davis on 2025-01-09 on the Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog (⇩cite). | PCM forum 🛈Index of Infinite Health Blog articles PCM,IHB,Dr. Davis,health,healthcare,big,sugar,carbohydrates,pop,DGA,MyPlate,USDA,Harvard,David,Sinclair,NMN


Truth or Fiction: A 50:50 Chance

Photo: 5¢ Coca Cola 5 mural with fatigue claim

In my weekly two-way video meetings in my InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com website, I often say to attendees that half of our job around here is to educate on the truth, and the other half is to counter what is mostly blatant misinformation, misinterpretation, sometimes outright misrepresentation or lies. The challenge is to tell the difference. While our era is often labeled the “Information Age,” it could just as easily be called the “Misinformation Age.” While the volume and rapidity with which information now flows to us is rapid, it can easily be overwhelming and, for people eager to profit in some way, misinformation is frequently used to their advantage, even if it hurts you and others. Just look what is going on with click-bait in media: attention-grabbing headlines, sometimes true, often not, but meant to capture your attention. If only it was as simple as relying on books as either fiction or non-fiction but, of course, it’s far more complicated than that, especially today.

Sadly, the source of the information is not necessarily reassuring. Look at the disaster called the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the program sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, delivered to the public through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This program has been an unmitigated disaster of misinformation. Some of it is due to ignorance, such as mistaking observational dietary questionnaires as real evidence. Evidence is woefully outdated, substantially biased by the heavy-handed input of the food and agribusiness industries. The blunders in the Dietary Guidelines are not subtle, but huge, crippling errors that have major adverse impacts on health. People are now resorting to Artificial Intelligence for answers but, as I have recently discussed, the people who manage such systems, such as ChatGPT, for whatever reason have chosen to use sources such as the USDA, CDC, the Cleveland Clinic or Mayo Clinic, therefore regurgitating what is nothing more than outdated, proprietary, conventional advice, not incorporating the newest scientific evidence. The problem is not AI; the problems is the information chosen by humans to be fed into the software.

Even sources in integrative and functional medicine can be unreliable and flawed, as the bar for evidence is often low or non-existent, yielding strategies that serve the public’s desire for novelty. Witness, for instance, the recent hubbub over longevity, with claims that nicotinamide adenine mononucleotide (NMN) will not just extend life to 140 years, but also eliminate cancer, heart disease, dementia, even if you ignore nutrition, the effects of nutrients like vitamin D, and the impact of the microbiome—that is, if we are to believe pronouncements of Dr. David Sinclair, the same David Sinclair whose claims and “research” surrounding the age-reversing effects of resveratrol proved unreliable at best, fraudulent at worst. More recently, GlaxoSmithKline invested over $700 million in Sinclair’s projects, only to find that none of his “research” could be corroborated. The handful of clinical studies assessing the effects of NMN have been conflicting, with the most recent trial showing no effect on multiple metabolic measures or muscular strength. How you can squeeze bold claims of longevity and elimination of cancer, heart disease, and dementia is anyone’s guess, but it strikes me as outright fabrication or wild exaggeration. And, in the case of Dr. David Sinclair, such bold, unfounded claims have earned him considerable sums of money.

Remember how, just a few years ago, given the early conflicting science on the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation, that some critics made claims that fish oil was harmful and caused health issues due to oxidation? Of course, this led to the same people marketing what they claimed was an oil that was superior, even though there was no evidence to back up this claim. Numerous bloggers and others in social media jumped on this bandwagon, urging everyone to stop their conventional fish oil. Since then, about half a dozen well-conducted large human clinical trials have been reported that confirm: not only do omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, they also facilitate regression (“‘reversal”) of coronary atherosclerotic plaque, especially fatty and fibrous components, while yielding benefits in other areas of health such as preservation of cognitive health and reduced risk for autoimmune conditions.

Of course, the majority of advertising for the food industry is blatantly deceptive by necessity. No company is going to run costly ads for encourage consumption of organic eggs or dandelion greens. But they will spend billions every year to encourage consumption of soft drinks and ultra-processed chips, cookies, and breakfast cereals. Cheerios is advertised as “heart healthy”; Coca Cola and Pepsi are included in a “healthy balanced lifestyle,” according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics; Count Chocula, Berry Kix, and Pop Tarts have been declared as healthy foods by the American Heart Association. Deceptive practices in food advertising have become so horrible that, if there is an ad for a food, that is reason to avoid it. Just choose the foods that don’t come with advertising claims: avocados, nuts, meats, eggs, etc., real whole foods that don’t require a cartoon character or sports figure to persuade you to eat it.

You can appreciate that we are all flooded with misinformation. It is an ongoing and continual effort to separate fact from fiction. But I don’t think that the situation has gotten worse, as humans have always been inclined to exaggerate, misinterpret to suit their own agenda, or to mislead—it’s just happening faster, given the pace of our Information Age. If you are not interested in examining original scientific sources (and even they need to be scrutinized—witness the recent Stanford Twin Study. Despite coming from a fine institution, the study has multiple methodological flaws and offers unjustifiable conclusions, despite being “peer-reviewed,” etc.), yet held up as “proving” that a vegan diet is healthier, even being made into a Netflix documentary to further spread the misinformation.

So a few practical suggestions to help protect you from the daily flood of misinformation coming your way:

  • Ignore click-bait
     
  • Question the qualifications of the person offering the idea. It does not mean that everyone needs a doctorate degree but should at least have a track record of providing credible information.
     
  • Be extra careful when the intent is clearly to sell you something.
     
  • Sadly, ignore most “official” sources of information. Be selective: If the CDC is warning you about Listeria contamination of eggs, that is worth heeding. But the USDA telling you that eating beef causes heart disease well, that’s patent nonsense. So be selective and use judgement.
     
  • Although it seems that we are all zig-zagging through information/misinformation, be confident that, over time, we shall crowd-source our way towards better understanding. It may not be until the year 2070 when the USDA finally understands what constitutes a healthy diet, or the American Heart Association quietly retracts its disastrous product endorsements, but you and I can achieve wisdom in the here-and-now.

The original IHB post is currently found on the: ⎆Infinite Health Blog, but accessing it there can require an unnecessary separate blog membership. The copy of it above is complete, and has been re-curated and enhanced for the Inner Circle membership.

D.D. Infinite Health icon


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