Eating the slippery eel gives rise to slippery thoughts, and the incorporation of parts of the body of other creatures stimulates one's own analogous ones, that is to say, brain with egg promotes the intelligence of the eater, just as bull testicles and cockscomb help his manhood: the two dozen "myths" everything to do with our nutrition, which Tim Spector puts to the test, has nothing to do with such irrational ideas, they are rather common heresies at the level of medical knowledge of our time - supposedly.
Half of his exposures are yesterday's news.
It's long been known that myths like "alcohol is bad in any amount" are untrue, artificially sweetened 'sugar-free' 'diet' foods and drinks are safe and help you lose weight, coffee is harmful" or "Veganism is the healthiest diet of all".
The other half concerns recommendations and warnings that are still circulating as doctrine, but which, according to the professor of genetic epidemiology at London's King's College and expert in personalized medicine, are untenable due to poor research designs and misinterpreted data.
For example: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, “Fish is always a healthy choice” and “We should all eat less salt”.
But here too: nothing that could not already be read in Udo Pollmer and Susanne Warmuth's "Lexicon of popular nutritional errors" published in 2000, subtitle: "Misunderstandings, misinterpretations and half-truths from alcohol to sugar".
Only the intestinal microbiome - extensively appreciated in the discussion of the "Myth: Food only affects physical health, not mental health" - was not yet an issue at that time.
Like Spector, Pollmer and Warmuth saw the basic error of numerous nutritionally supported consumer tips in misinterpreted study results, mostly causal connections constructed from statistical correlations.
And like Spector, they saw the failure of blanket dietary recommendations as trying to
to lump all of humanity together.
Alone: "The one 'healthy diet' for everyone is an illusion." So nothing new?
Well, the child now has a name: personalized, individualized nutrition.
Pollmer and Warmuth pleaded for composure in the face of the temptations of the food industry and the recommendations and warnings launched by honorable institutions from the World Health Organization down.
True to the motto "Today's confirmed findings are tomorrow's big mistakes", one tip from them was to pay attention to what is good for you and what is good for you when eating.
That is exactly the tenor of Spector's book, and that is exactly what the title of the English-language original refers to, in contrast to the blatant title of the German edition: "Spoon-Fed.
Why Almost Everything We've Been Told About Food Is Wrong".
In a figurative sense, "to spoon-feed somebody" means something like: to chew something, to funnel something into someone, to patronize someone.
Does all this lead to culinary homelessness?
Don't worry, unlike Pollmer and Warmuth, Spector chats in the chapter "Conclusion", subtitle "So you eat right", out of the box, and he also does not hesitate to deliver a deliberately vague, "simple, clear message that will probably never will become obsolete”, to announce: “Eat a varied diet, mainly vegetarian and if possible without additives.” This message is of course only reproduced here without any guarantee.
Tim Spector: "The Truth About Our Food". Why almost everything we're told about nutrition is wrong.
Translated from the English by Petra Huber and Sara Riffel.
Dumont Verlag, Cologne 2022. 350 pages, hardcover, €25.