Nutritional Science: I was on my mandatory north getaway to cut off from the world when, on the third day, some hours before boarding the departure bus, I developed a sudden headache and recurrent vomiting episodes. I knew what I got, and I knew what would cure it. So, I asked the hotel management to bring me a Gravinate injection and a cup of tea. Gravitate, as my vomiting was alarming the entire hotel, and tea, because I am aware that tea has consistently alleviated my severe ailments of any kind. Now, people will come to me — unsurprisingly, they always have — for tea as a remedy for gastrointestinal issues. However, only my stomach and I know how many times tea has proven its loyalty to me.
Nutritional science has been confusing people since people learnt that there is science behind their food. One day, you wake up to see that some herb-infused water has cured cancer, and the next day, those same herbs cause jaundice in a group of people on the internet. Multivitamins are essential for women of menstruating age, but excessive vitamin intake has become a concern. Keto diet will help you lose weight, although, on the corner of the other street, whispers of keto flu are going around. South Asian mothers are famous for telling their children, ‘machli khane k baad doodh nahi peete, faleri ho jaye gi,’ which they sweetly but mistakenly believed referred to an autoimmune disease called vitiligo, unrelated to food.
Ignorance of food sciences, running rampant, is partly on us and partly on the system that was meant to work out the facts of nutritional studies. Nutrition research is lightly funded, which means that the sample size on which research is conducted is smaller; hence, the results are not concrete and applicable to larger sets of people. So, if the results for the people in the sample size say that drinking milk brings more harm than benefits, we still cannot stop Tom, Dick and Harry from buying themselves a glass. The study designs, too, are largely inaccurate and obsolete.
Social media has come and taken away not only our attention spans but also our critical thinking. Every other influencer has a doctorate in their diet. So, if @ihatemondays tells us that matcha is the new green tea, we shall trust her facts with her Labubu/Stanley/Rhodes lip-gloss phone case lifestyle. Many times, an influencer is just promoting a brand of food in the guise of claiming all its nutritional benefits without prior self-research.
Biased journalism has created confusion amongst its audience; ‘Ozempic is the next liposuction’ gets more views than ‘How Ozempic works on controlling diabetes with side effects of weight loss’ because the latter is less polarised and more aligned to scientific accuracy.
The most devastating consequence of this is the overall distrust in nutritional scientists. So, the extensive research-backed nutrition facts are getting disregarded, and the majority of random opinions on the internet are being considered. That is why research on food nutrition to educate people is perpetually becoming a lost cause. People are getting frustrated because they don’t want to hear several contradicting opinions on their breakfast, which has been the same since the time they learnt how to make breakfast for themselves. This is also why many people, even some doctors, have become unbothered about what is entering their mouths; as long as it satiates their hunger and tastes delicious, it’s all they need.
On the other side, though, certain brands are monetising this distrust and confusion among their audience by strategically advertising their quick-fix products. I remember the recent rave of the ‘Biodance Collagen Sheet Mask’ that was on the reels of almost every influencer. However, unlike many others, I was not quick to fall for the hype, so I researched collagen and its absorption into the skin. As a result, I discovered that collagen cannot be absorbed from the sheet mask because its molecular size is too large. The healthcare industry is filled with quick fixes and shortcut diets, but for each of my readers, the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. So, eat your collagen.
Food has always been the centre of our dining rooms; it motivates many of us to wake up in the morning for another cup of coffee, and it represents the final decision of our day: should we eat out or dine in? When it’s that fundamental, I think it’s worth our attention too. Food sciences shouldn’t be an enigma to us, but a passion with which we try to unravel its truths, relying on the right sources to answer our questions and even then, taking each answer with a grain of salt (pun intended).