Eggs were unhealthy and then healthy.
Alcohol is healthy but also dangerous!
Butter was bad, now it's GREAT!
WHAT THE HELL SCIENCE!!
Guys, science isn't perfect.
It's not!
I'm not.
We're not.
And sometimes it's really confusing.
Some studies show fat is good for you, and more studies show fat is bad you.
Last week, the British Medical Journal released a study claiming the effects of alcohol were
vastly overstated; and that globally, more than three million deaths are attributed to
alcohol consumption.
Yet, in the same damn week, Oregon State University says drinking wine could help you burn fat!!!
WHAT THE HELL.
Okay, science isn't law, we in science accept more than one idea at the same time, and we
question constantly.
That's hard to do!
It's called cognitive dissonance, or the idea that two opposed ideas can both be held and
understood in the same head and.
IT'S HARD.
There's a reason we end a lot of our stories with the words, "More research is needed,"
because a single study is almost NEVER enough to ascertain actual science.
What the media covers on the other hand… that is completely different.
One notable example of this is butter and cholesterol.
As a kid, I remember being taught that cholesterol is bad.
It's all bad.
In the 60s, the American Heart Association warned cholesterol could be bad for the heart.
Then, a 1977 study by the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs resulted in the
creation of the "Dietary Goals for the United States," and cholesterol was branded as a
baddie.
From there, the government, various associations, and media spread the word: cholesterol was
bad, vitamins were good!
The fourth estate loves sensation and conflict, so people started to avoid butter, eggs, steaks,
bacon and other foods high in cholesterol.
The thing is, the science wasn't settled, it was just popular There's more nuance to
this story, and the scientific community protested the decision.
The American Egg Board made a campaign so people would keep eating eggs, and over the
next 50 years, the science slowly pushed people back from the edge.
Researchers told people again and again over the years that fat doesn't cause health problems
on its own.
High Density Lipoproteins were discovered in the late 1920s, and Low Density Lipoproteins
in the late 70s, but cholesterol itself is created in your liver and helps cells form
protective membranes.
PLUS, it's a building block for vitamin D!
As dietary science progressed, it's been shown that a low-carbohydrate diet is better than
a low-fat diet, but the public's mindset had been set.
Nevermind that an epidemic of heart disease which, in part, prompted this scramble for
answers, was hitting the country, or that the lead researcher only studied populations
in the U.S., Japan, and Europe who were selected because they would confirm the results the
researcher wanted.
The thing is, if you lived through this period, you'd assume science kept flip-flopping!
But that's not the case, instead, the peer-reviewed science was consistent and the media and public
were simply sending mixed messages to each other.
Now, new science has finally resulted in the cholesterol guidelines being removed from
the 2015 government guidelines.
It took a while, because science takes a while!
Longitudinal nutrition studies can take decades to complete, and have to be giant populations
who are heavily scrutinized!
This is opposed to cross-sectional studies, which are a snapshot of a sample, still helpful,
but very different.
It takes time to do good science, but we gotta do it.
With this in mind, I would like to say, we at DNews report what is happening in science
as best as we can, but let's be honest, we might make a video next year which says the
exact opposite thing of a video this year!
Hopefully, we spot that and point out the change, because science isn't set, more research
is always needed.