Often times people deliver inaccurate information to the masses. Unfortunately, it is so easy to post articles to the internet now-a-days that has no real factual information in it, yet approximately 92.5% of people who read this information (fake statistic, see what I did there?) buy into it and possibly incorporate it into their daily lives. Even I fell victim to this a few weeks ago when I read a post on Facebook about Chipotle offering a delivery service. After a long day of work and the gym I just wanted to go home and not fight a line at Chipotle, so I decided to give them a call and order delivery. It ended up being a prank on Chipotle and they said they had been receiving calls about it all day. Bummer.
This kind of thing is especially true in the health and fitness world. I can’t tell you how many times people have come to me saying they are on a new fad diet or trying to get fit quick without eating clean and working out. Examples: “I’m on a no carb diet” (Terrible, GOOD carbs are essential in your diet- I will go into more detail in a future blog ), “I use this Itworks wrap and it melts all my fat away” (No scientific evidence, any anecdotal evidence is probably from working out more, eating less, and drinking more water), “Carbs are so bad for you” (Carbs are not bad for you), “I’m taking these raspberry ketone pills to make myself burn fat” (Very weak scientific evidence to support, again any anecdotal evidence probably from working out more and eating less- will go into more detail in a future blog), “This shake weight is going to give me bigger gains than regular dumbbells”, “I got these new Shape Up shoes to get fit”, the list is endless. I have even heard false information being given from Dr. Oz and other doctors around the valley about health and fitness. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Dr. Oz actually cite one study. The truth is, many of them do not have an educational background in fitness or nutrition. I’m not saying that none of them do, I know some doctors that really know their fitness stuff. Just be careful when using information regarding your health and fitness. Do your own research.
The take away I want everyone to get from this post is: Don’t believe everything you hear. Even if someone cites a study, they could have interpreted it incorrectly. I think it’s best to always follow up with your own research and to question everything.
As my first post, my promise to you is that I will have cited research in every post I write about fitness and nutrition. I encourage you to follow up and read the articles yourself. I usually save the articles I read as a .pdf file, so if you would like to read more about the study feel free to shoot me an e-mail and if I have it I can send it to you.
SCIENCE OVER EVERYTHING (#SOE)