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Podcast 240: The Louder the Blogger, the Wronger the Blogger.

DBFP_3D_smallby Sean Croxton

I had no idea what I was talking about.

It was the first video I’d ever made on YouTube, way back in 2007 — all about the mathematic model of fat loss. Burn more calories than you take in and you’ll lose fat. Take in more calories than you burn and you’ll pack on the pounds.

I even brought props. To drive home my point, I held up a rubbery, yellowish model of a pound of fat. Then for comparison, I held up a pound of muscle. If my memory serves me, I went on to explain how adding a pound of muscle will help you burn an extra 50 calories per day.

Be sure to hit the weights, oh YouTube people. Those calories really do add up!

I clicked the “upload” button and a few hours later returned to my account to find hundreds of comments and “thumbs up” from people around the world who seemed to enjoy the way I explained things.

That was the day that my life completely changed. As a rather shy, socially-anxious personal trainer at the time, I was instantly hooked on my newfound ability to connect with people all the way on the other side of the globe through video.

At the same time, I had no idea that the information I was so righteously espousing to my subscribers was totally and completely wrong.

The mathematical model of fat loss was a myth. And there was absolutely no scientific evidence proving that a pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day. None.

I wasn’t teaching, I was repeating — literally parroting what some “authority” (most likely one of my college professors) had so confidently parroted to me.

And on it went, like a bad game of telephone. My early YouTube videos were shared and embedded all about cyberspace. What’s more, very seldom was the content ever challenged, as if the confidence and conviction I spoke with was tantamount to trust and credibility. It’s not.

Don’t believe everything you hear and read, especially when it’s coming from some guy wearing a backwards Yankees cap, talking into a janky microphone connected to the world’s most garbage webcam.

Be selective and think for yourself. I mean, it’s your health at stake here. Just because the ear-splitting vegan guy wants you to eat 30 bananas a day doesn’t mean you should do it. The same goes for the paleo blogger, the Weston A. Price girl, the raw foodie, even the JERF guy.

In her ridiculously awesome book Death by Food Pyramid, Denise Minger writes…

“Anyone who’s certain they’re right about everything in nutrition is almost definitely wrong.”

Word.

Last week on Underground Wellness Radio, Denise revealed what she found when she combed through the scientific research looking for evidence supporting public food policy. Her conclusions will make you think twice before putting “authorities” in charge of your health.

Listen up, she knows what she’s talking about.

Here are my notes!

3:03 – From raw food vegan to real food nerd.

6:15 – Does industry influence food policy?

8:30 – How the government mangled the original food guide.

13:25 – The power of repetition: why so few question food and health guidelines.

15:30 – The people who are speaking the loudest are usually wrong.

19:54 – How to determine whether a potential authority is quality or “quack”.

22:52 – Diploma mills: how a dead cat can get a health certification!

26:28 – How to translate “science-ese”.

30:35 – How an old elephant proverb applies to nutrition research.

35:33 – What no one ever tells you about the Mediterranean diet.

38:28 – What a “high-fat” lab rat diet really consists of!

40:21 – Why nutritional outcomes vary due to individuality and genetics.

46:50 – Is there one perfect diet for everything?

48:40 – “We’re doing meat wrong.”

52:31 – The Denise Minger Dietary Guidelines. (In a nutshell…)

Listen to the entire episode below and be sure to go out and buy Death by Food Pyramid.

More Health Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Sean Croxton on BlogTalkRadio

Adios,

Sean
Author, The Dark Side of Fat Loss
Dark Side of Fat Loss

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