WIN Wyoming and WIN the Rockies

Thought Bullets
for
May 2004 

Nutrition Guidance - Why is it always changing? And why can’t we agree?

A few years ago, I went to a workshop on campus designed to assist instructors in helping students develop an "inquiring mind." The presenter was convinced forcing students to regurgitate information on a written test was not the answer. I agree. During one of the small group discussions for the workshop, I was paired with a professor from the engineering college. I made some mention that he must have fascinating topics to teach. He surprised me when he said the basic concepts of his engineering course had not changed in 30 years, and frankly, he was becoming bored. I responded with a comment that little in nutrition had stayed the same over the last 30 years. He gave me a wake-up call when he commented on how exciting it must be to practice in a field of study where the science was still emerging, and where new discoveries were being made every year. I have to admit, I had never viewed nutrition in quite that light before. Over the last few years, I’ve often reflected on that brief discussion and tried to renew my enthusiasm for this field of study we call nutrition. Instead of becoming frustrated with ever changing nutrition guidelines, I keep reminding myself how fun it is not to be bored! For this month’s thought bullets, I’ve tried to capture some ideas why nutrition guidance seems to be ever changing, and why there often seems to be conflicting points of view.

• Reporting of science findings is plagued by the fact that reporters must take a tremendous amount of very complex data and boil it down to its most basic and easy-to-understand components. After that is accomplished, the reporter must then blow up the facts to make an interesting story. The end result is that the scientists who did the study often don’t recognize their own work when they see it in the newspaper or on a TV news broadcast. When a 15-year study is condensed to a 15-second sound bite, a lot is lost in the translation.¹
  
• Complex nutrition concepts are difficult to communicate with people not trained in nutrition terminology. The Institute of Medicine recently released a study estimating 90 million Americans have "limited health literacy." Patients fear embarrassment of doctors thinking they’re dumb, so they often don’t ask questions. Examples of problems with limited health literacy account for why a mother poured an oral antibiotic into her child’s infected ear because the label did not say to swallow the liquid. Another man thought his doctor considered him hyper (not able to sit still) because he received a diagnosis of hypertension (high blood pressure).²
  
• Betty’s side note: When nutrition experts try to condense complex ideas such as trans fatty acids into simple to understand terms, they don’t always agree how to do it. Sometimes either accuracy or understandability must be compromised, and the experts don’t always agree on which to compromise. This dilemma explains some of the controversies over nutrition guidelines.
  
• People want science to be definitive, but by its very nature, science is an evolving process.³
  
• Competing interests often collide when it comes to nutrition advice. Consumers demand simple, decisive advice. Journalists don’t like shades of gray so often report findings in terms of black and white. Researchers often over-promote the importance of their own work.³
  
• In today’s world, the pace of disseminating research findings is now at a faster rate than ever known by the scientific community. In the past, peer-reviewed findings would take months and sometimes even years to be published. Electronic scientific journals can now publish peer-reviewed findings immediately. As a result, nutrition advice and other health-related advice is now changing at a faster rate than ever before. ³
  
• Final side note from Betty: It’s easy to get lost in the complexity of nutrition. Several years ago, I decided to personally concentrate on a very few basic nutrition principles like eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, eat smaller portion sizes, avoid rushed and chaotic eating, drink more low-fat milk, and eat less high sugared foods. I won’t make millions of dollars selling my eating plan to others and I’m not always successful, but amazingly, as I read more and more about the new discoveries in nutrition, I haven’t had to make changes to my strategy.

Sources:
¹ Causey M.  Media skews image of Feds.   Federal Employees News Digest 2004;53(36).