Nutritional advice: take with a grain of salt

If you’re looking to get fit, lose weight or just eat better and feel healthier, there’s no shortage of places to look for advice.

In fact, it’s everywhere you turn — in your supermarket’s magazine stand, on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and in popup ads and websites.

Try the low-carb diet.

Give up carbs.

Sculpt those abs.

Lose belly fat without dieting. Turmeric is nature’s miracle.

The surprising benefits of seaweed. Have all the protein you want.

Eat only plant-based foods.

The Keto diet. The Paleo diet. The Mediterranean diet. The raw food diet. Whole30. The Ayurvedic diet. The macrobiotic diet.

Promises and claims abound as we strive to live our healthiest life.

Looking for a silver bullet? Try this nutrition regime and your life will be fabulous.

But how often do you stop to think about just who is making the recommendation? Are they qualified? And do they have an ulterior motive?

After conducting a recent survey of the 100 best-selling nutritional books in Canada, a team of medical and community health students at Dalhousie University — led by associate professor Leah Cahill — are advising buyer beware.

Consumers need to do their homework to ensure the advice is coming from someone with formal training in health care and/or nutrition, and based on solid scientific evidence.

And if the author is not only offering pointers about diet and health but is selling shakes and energy bars or pushing programs to complement their book’s message, well that’s a red flag, too.

The Dalhousie team discovered that 51.4 per cent of the bestselling nutritional books in Canada were written by people without any sort of relevant professional accreditation. One-third gave no scientific evidence to back their claims.

A whopping 80 per cent of the authors were also peddling wares related to their message — from services to supplements — which is a financial conflict of interest.

“This can be dangerous,” Cahill warns. “For example, if someone is undergoing cancer treatment, they’re on medications that could interact with dietary supplements. We really need somebody who really knows about the medications that patients could be on, and knows the nutrient-drug interaction, and knows what’s safe and what’s not safe.”

That’s not to say there aren’t good books out there giving excellent advice.

The Dalhousie team offers three suggestions for choosing wisely:

Ensure the author is authentically qualified to advise on nutrition and diet, and beware of bogus professional titles.

Books co-written by a physician and a patient — if the topic is eating well or exercising during cancer or some other illness — often offer sound information based on real life experience.

Look for books endorsed by credible organizations such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation or the Canadian Cancer Society, and check the footnotes to ensure the message is grounded in scientific research.

Good advice is out there — just look a little harder.

You’ll feel better for it.