A New Model of Diet and Nutrition

Below is a copy of my article published in the May 2019 issue of Pampering Times:

Phil Nuttridge – Biophysicist, Statistician, Manual Therapist and Pilates Instructor – begins an occasional series of articles for Pampering Times looking at the new science of nutrition.  These articles will draw from his research and investigation into what the modern science of food and diet is telling us and how it is confronting head-on many of the old concepts and over-turning much of what we used to believe.  Be prepared to be challenged!  More information can be found on Phil’s website cuttingcarbs.co.uk or by following him on Instagram:  CuttingCarbsUK.

Eating is easy. We all do it and we would all get into a pickle if we stopped. The hard parts are knowing what to eat, when to eat and how to eat.  There is advice everywhere, some supposedly supported by science, some not so.  Choose a dietary path and there is bound to be someone saying it is good for you and yet someone else saying it is not.  Turn on any social media feed or open any newspaper and there will be some article with a headline “Latest study shows….”; today a particular food is good for you tomorrow it is bad for you.

In this series of articles I hope to throw share some of the wisdom I have gleaned from many months of research and investigation. I will explain how some very flaky science in the 60s and 70s has led us down a cul-de-sac of dietary advice that in all likelihood has led to the epidemic of chronic non-communicable illnesses we see in the 21st century. Dogmatists are trying to drag us further down this dead end; pragmatists are advocating the status quo muttering platitudes such as ‘everything in moderation’. But there is a new breed of evangelist gaining an ever-louder voice trying to get us off this cul-de-sac and lead us in a new better direction. I would like to think I am one of those evangelists, piggy-backing on the work of others, adding volume to those voices. I hope that by the end of these articles, there will be a few more evangelists spreading the word of this new science of food and nutrition. 

But let’s start with a quiz. We all love a quiz.  To see where you are on the dogmatist-pragmatist-evangelist spectrum, please take a few moments to answer the following questions with a simple ‘true’ or ‘false’.  We can add up your score at the end.

Question 1:  Low fat dairy foods are better for you than full fat versions?

Question 2:  Vegetable oil is better for you than butter?

Question 3:  You should avoid egg yolks because they raise your cholesterol and cause heart attacks?

Question 4:  Eating red meat is unhealthy and causes cancer?

Question 5:  Orange juice and oatmeal are good ways to start the day?

Question 6:  The best way to lose weight is to eat a low-fat diet?

Question 7:  Sushi is a health food?

Question 8:  You should eat at least five servings of fruit every day?

Question 9:  An apple a day keeps the doctor away?

Question 10:  Fresh fruit is more nutritious than frozen fruit?

Question 11:  Substituting margarine for butter is a healthier choice?

Question 12:  Eating whole grain wheat-based flour is better for you than eating de-husked (‘white’) flour?

Question 13:  Beans are a good source of protein and healthier than eating meat?

Question 14:  Nuts are fattening and should be eaten only sparingly to avoid weight gain?

Question 15:  Microwave cooking is unhealthy and destroys all the nutrients in food?

So now let’s work-out your score.  It is actually quite easy: Award yourself one point for every question you answered ‘false’, but then DEDUCT one point for every question you answered ‘true’.  Now, what’s your score?  Be honest, don’t cheat!

If you got the full 15 then welcome aboard, you are already there – you could perhaps even help me write some of the upcoming articles!  Less than fifteen, then we have a journey ahead of us.  Zero or even a minus score, then we have a long journey ahead.  

Read the questions again and I assure you that in the modern understanding of nutrition all of the above statements are false. There are certainly some that will be more contentious than others and some that might even be quite a shock to you.  Over upcoming articles I will be tackling each of these areas and presenting to you the latest evidence and research that will help us out of the dietary cul-de-sac we find ourselves in.

In my next article I shall be looking at Fatphobia.  I shall be summarising some of the history of how we got to believe that ‘fat is bad’ and how that set us on the dietary dead-end leading to obesity, Type II diabetes and many of the chronic illnesses of the 21st century. 

To read the next article in the series click here