Comments on: Blind men and an elephant http://www.foodinfo.org.nz/blind-men-and-an-elephant/ Food and nutrition blog Fri, 20 Jun 2014 04:05:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 By: Janice Bremer http://www.foodinfo.org.nz/blind-men-and-an-elephant/comment-page-1/#comment-1413 Janice Bremer Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:54:28 +0000 http://www.foodinfo.org.nz/?p=411#comment-1413 We do know what we need to eat. The comprehensive inclusion of evidence-based, health-protective or therapeutic components within dietary patterns leaves only a small margin for inclusion of foods and ingredients we do not need to eat. Nevertheless, any debate produces evidence: of 45 social networking responses to the reported list of foods ‘we don’t need’ found on the TV One web-site, 11 appeared to agree with the advice, 6 suggested the research was already known and not needed, 12 raised further discussion around ‘moderation’ but without disagreement, 3 introduced other topics, and 13 appeared to disapprove of the advice.

I suggest that messages will be clear when confined only to the evidence that applies to the population studied, the research question asked and the strength of the evidence. Such messages require repeating as many times as is necessary to counter any ‘popular wisdom’ that might evolve from unqualified and repetitive, personal viewpoints commentated via social, advertising or media networking. Evidence-based dietary advice is not elusive, but since all humans eat, I defy anyone to always eat without a ‘white hat’.

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3. Truswell AS. Some problems with Cochrane reviews of diet and chronic disease. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005;59 Suppl 1:S150-4; discussion S195-6.
4. Rosenfeld RM, Shiffman R. Clinical practice guideline development manual: A quality-driven approach for translating evidence into action. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2009; 140(6 Suppl 1): S1–43.

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