After hearing one person too many live and die by the latest “research”, I present my annual rant on science, medicine and health research…

Science creates new questions, it does not provide answers.

Put another way, when it comes to research and science, question everything.

This is a simple concept that is vital to remember. Science research, particularly in health and nutrition, is very limited at best and extremely messy and irresponsible at worst. No matter what you hear, science does not “prove” anything. Research is great at asking questions and exploring ideas. It is terrible at providing answers. Even when done very well (which is very rare), most research only tells us a sliver of the equation. It is however tremendously valuable at helping us ask new questions and look at new relationships. When we take health research as proof of anything, we are misunderstanding its value.

There are so many variables in the human body and the scientific process you cannot accept research as truth. Doing so will lead you in the wrong direction.

Any piece of science or research you come across should serve one purpose: to fuel the creation of further investigation. Think about what you hear critically and ask yourself, “what does this piece of science really tell us, what does it NOT tell us, and what do we need to look at or question as a result?”

Thinking of science this way can really help navigate the murky and choppy waters of the daily waves of breaking news that claim to have found what we are eating that will either cure you or kill you.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!

P.S. The politics and finances behind “research” and its subsequent value is a whole different issue.

P.S.S. Science that is conducted based on faulty beliefs/research is inherently flawed. Hint: this is a lot of what is being done…

P.S.S.S. Just because it came from Harvard doesn’t make it true.