Nutrition?

I had an excellent education in nutrition, unlike many doctors. I also had an excellent education in biochemistry and physiology. As an undergraduate, one of my professors assigned us the task of finding "at least one error in basic molecular biology on every page" of what was then the latest fad diet book (Atkins).
It was a slam dunk.
Perhaps it is because it is so important, or because it is associated with so many positive things, or just because it tastes "so good" (thank you, Mrs. White), but we are obsessed with food. There is more crap science out there about nutrition than almost any other scientific subject. Very early in my public school tenure I had to attend a "Best Practices" (??) session on nutrition given by District health (?) teachers. They gave out so much wrong information that I had to leave the session in order to keep from making a scene.
I am convinced they learned their nutrition on the internet.
The result is that Americans are malnourished. Overweight, underexercised, obsessed with "fat burning foods" and perpetuating lies about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and related food products, and totally misinformed about vitamins and minerals, Americans are what they eat.
Very bad news.
As health professionals and responsible consumers we owe it to ourselves and our patients to be scientifically literate about nutrition. I will be teaching that class and that will be my standard: scientific validity. In the meantime, look for one basic error in metabolism in every article you see about food.
It will be a slam dunk.