This article was originally posted on The Huffington Post.
My name is Pixie, and I am a biochemistry graduate and a food blogger. As both a scientist and an active member of the wellness community, I find myself in an extremely controversial position.
I confess I too once used the word “detox” as liberally as others in the wellness scene, and if you search hard enough you’ll most likely find it hidden away in an old blog post of mine. I too fell victim to all these marketing scams and ideas that “natural” is the only way to go, but no longer. I have educated myself, and this seems to make me controversial.
I believe that vaccinations are effective, GMOs are not harmful, you do not need to eat alkaline foods because your body is “acidic” (and they certainly can’t cure cancer), and raw foods aren’t good for you because they contain active enzymes. I believe these, because they are proven facts. Vaccines have been proven to work in endless studies, GMOs have been around and been consumed for decades without negative effects, if your body really was acidic you’d be dead or in hospital, no amount of alkaline foods is going to change the pH of your blood due to the extremely effective buffer system that’s keeping you alive, and the enzymes in plants are completely useless to you (they’re designed for plants – duh) and are instantly digested by your stomach acids anyway.
I am sick of reading blog posts and comments by influential so-called “wellness warriors” about how their way is the only way to be healthy, and I am sick of this mistrust of doctors. The amount of sensationalised articles about doctors making mistakes and prescription drugs causing detrimental rather than beneficial effects has given people a distorted view of the medical community. As my friend Natasha so beautifully put it: “yes, doctors make mistakes (they are human after all) and can’t always help, but that doesn’t make them evil”. Too many influential bloggers and members of the wellness scene are sharing their opinions on products and diets with the world, unaware that their followers often take their word as solid fact. I witnessed this first hand when I gave a talk entitled “The Science of Food” last year in London, and the health food shop downstairs sold out of the product I recommended for days. Unlike my colleagues, however, my recommendations were based on the scientific studies and reviews from credible peer-reviewed sources.
Recently I read the most wonderful article entitled “why you trust the internet more than your doctor”. It gave voice to so many of the frustrations I’ve been experiencing myself. And I totally get it: being normal is no longer cool, being alternative is the way to go, and sadly that extends to medicine as well. Forget the fact that your unvaccinated children are a danger to others, forget that by telling someone to go off their meds and go the “natural” way you might be endangering their life. It doesn’t matter, cause you’re cool, you’re alternative.
You can see why this might upset a lot of the wellness scene. Which is why, despite having done a lot of research and having strong feelings on the subject, I’ve never written about it until now. But I think it’s important that these thoughts come from someone from inside the community; I can’t be dismissed as a “shill” for Big Pharma because I have a vested interest in both science and food. I want the wellness industry to thrive, just not at the expense of science.
So let’s get personal, I’m sure by now you’re probably wondering what I eat and drink on a daily basis. I’m a firm believer that when it comes to diet and exercise, a combination of science-based medicine and self-experimentation is the best way forward, and naturally like all Instagrammers and food bloggers I have a story to tell: When I was 19 I was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia, thanks to a series of blood tests in response to those of my father. For the non-scientists out there, this basically means I have genetically high cholesterol (thanks dad). I was studying for my degree in biochemistry at the time, which featured a module on food metabolism, and that kick-started a long thought process. Having access to all the latest scientific journal articles was certainly helpful, and led me to make some changes to my diet. Follow up blood tests showed my cholesterol levels to be healthy, only just mind you, but still healthy. So no statins for me – yay! Not that I have any issues with statins, and no doubt later on in life I will end up needing them, but if I can be healthy without them for now, I will.
I now eat a whole foods plantbased vegan diet, with no refined fructose. Yes I realise that sentence make me sound pretentious and self-righteous, but I’m not suggesting that my diet is the answer, nor do I follow this religiously 100% of the time. It works for me, and I am happy and healthy. Naturally, in interviews I’ve done the key message that’s come across has always been “doctors were wrong! I cured myself using food!”, and while that may be true to an extent, I believe my doctor actually did just the right thing. He didn’t put me on statins straight away; he gave me the time I needed to make beneficial changes to my lifestyle, and then congratulated me on my success. Diet and exercise as a cure isn’t “alternative”, it’s been standard mainstream medical practice for a long time.
My goal is to combine science-based medicine with the concept of “food as medicine”, and avoid this “us vs. them” mentality. I believe there are things doctors can learn from the wellness scene, and many more that the wellness scene can learn from doctors. Perhaps this view is the most controversial of all.
This article is absolutely spot on! For the longest time I was so terrified of pursuing my dreams of becoming a scientist or pharmacist because of my passion for health and fitness. Instead of giving up one I want to combine the two, but coming from these values I can’t do so without backlash. I think your thoughts are very valuable to those who still trust science but want to be in tune with their ow individual bodies at the same time. It shows to prove that we NEED medicine and science.
Thank you so much I’m so glad to hear it 🙂 it’s incredible how much backlash there is when the two can work so well in harmony. We definitely need medicine and science – now more than ever!
Here here! I too am frustrated by comments among friends and family that echo your blog above. I work across the NHS, Adult Social Services and the Community and I get to see and hear a lot of opinions and consequences of people’s actions. Yes, Doctors do get it wrong, but misinformation from media and whatever the in diet is, can really get on my nerves! If you are unwell and need medication to help you, take it!!! It’s not a conspiracy. Changing your diet can be beneficial but wait and see and talk to your GP. Me?… I’m wanting to eat more healthy, maybe undo some damage done over the years, keep active and hopefully live well into my old age with love GeekyFreek
Exactly, there’s no conspiracy, just a lot of very hard working individuals (such as yourself!) who are doing their best and are only human after all. I think people often forget that doctors aren’t superhuman. I’m sure you will live well into old age with your attitude 🙂
Oh Pixie – yes. Yes! So glad to have a wise voice about this whole thing (the ‘thing’ being erm.. life?). You join Anna Jones in my list of people who can shoot pretty food pictures, write nice recipes, and also say chilled out & sensible stuff. Thanks!
This is so important. This is so essential. This is the best post on this subject I’ve ever seen! Sharing.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it 🙂
Hi Pixie,
So nice to hear about your diet changes in depth and your views on the “wellness” scene. I agree with you to a certain extent – it’s not necessary to be living 100% plant-based, raw, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free… and whatever else. Nor is it necessary to have six-pack abs and exercise every single day. But I do think it’s necessary to highlight the slight problem I had when reading your story.
While GMOs aren’t harmful to the human body, they are indeed harmful to the environemtn (e.g. killing bees, other pollinators, and cross-pollinating with non-GMOs), and the farmers who end up being reliant on the manufactured seeds. On top of that, large pharmaceutical companies do not give us the chance to promote alternative, more natural medicines than their patented ones. I think with all choices in life, a conscious and well-informed decision will always make for the best bet, but without the full education and knowledge being circulated due to private interests of the media, and lobbying in governments, it’s hard to get the “underdog’s” voice out. That, for me, is why alternative health options, stories, and individuals heading up the wellness scene may seem controversial to start with, and when presented with raw scientific facts may even seem crazy, but every person is different, and wellness in general is a much better thing to be promoting than fast-food, mindless eating, and general reliance on curing health problems than preventing them.
So, in a lot of ways, I do totally agree with you and your combination of scientific knowledge with food experience, but there are certain factors that need to be addressed still, such as organic being much better for the environment, but not so much more nutritious than any other produce.
Besma
Hi Besma,
Thanks for your comment; it’s always interesting to hear what others have to say 🙂
You say GMOs are harmful to the environment; do you have citations to back up this claim? A large meta-analysis that evaluated 1,783 research papers, reviews, relevant opinions, and reports published between 2002 and 2012 (here), found “little to no evidence” that GM crops have a negative environmental impact on their surroundings. That’s a lot of studies, and a very reputable journal. This is pretty much the highest level of scientific evidence.
Farmers are already reliant on seeds regardless of whether they are GMOs or not as a great deal of produce are now seedless. Pharmaceutical companies study “natural” medicines and analyse them to see what exactly causes the desired effects – aspirin from willow bark is a good example of this. Without patents pharmaceutical companies would struggle to offset the high costs of the extensive clinic trails they run, which are all for our benefit. I don’t see how they’re stopping quacks like Dr Oz from promoting more “natural” medicine, or preventing health food stores from selling endless vitamins and supplements? If only they would stop them!
The media can take a badly written scientific paper and convert it into a large feature that gets shared around the world. With the power of social media nowadays I don’t think that’s really a valid point to make, no one is stopping you. In fact the real problem is that too many people are writing and sharing things online without fact checking, and therefore it’s becoming harder to be able to make a well-informed decision from a simple Google search – most of what you read online is totally wrong! The problem with the “underdog” that is alternative medicine is that there is often no evidence to suggest it works despite many studies (acupuncture is a great example of this), and can be responsible for turning people away from life-saving conventional medicine (e.g. Gerson therapy). Why would I want “alternative medicine” that doesn’t work and might kill me?
Sure every person is different, and that’s why we do clinical trials, and that’s why there is no miracle diet, and more than one type of painkiller etc. The medical community doesn’t support “fast-food, mindless eating” any more than alternative medicine does. Diet is not a cure most of the time, but it contributes to managing disease, and as such is part of medical training. Yes, doctors are promoting wellness. Once a person sees a GP for a problem there’s no point in telling them “oh you should have done x and y 5 years ago then you wouldn’t be in this situation now”, that’s not helpful. And we have things like vaccines and screen tests for preventing disease too.
There will always be more factors to be addressed, as both the human body and the world we live in are wonderfully complex things, which is why I stated that both the medical community and the “wellness” community both have things to learn from each other.