From the Hip #7 - Science and Nutrition

I believe that in this day and age, we tend to "over-science" nutrition. 

Now, before you run to grab your pitchforks, let me explain what I mean. The field of nutrition absolutely needs and benefits from scientific investigation and inquiry. Even though nutrition science is still seemingly in its early stages of growth and often subject to contradictory and see-sawing evidence (I have expressed some thoughts on this before), the scientific advances in nutrition thus far have helped humanity considerably. We are able to more efficiently, effectively, and confidently manipulate diet to improve performance, change body composition, live longer, fight disease, etc. Our lives have benefited and, I believe, will continue to benefit tremendously from scientific investigation in this field. Science is good. I love science. Please put your pitchforks away. 

However, nutrition is more than just science. Or really, I should say, the relationship between humans and our food is more than just nutrition science as we approach it. When I assert that we "over-science" nutrition, I mean that we treat nutrition strictly as a mechanical energy exchange system—a straightforward process of consumption, conversion, assimilation, biosynthesis, and excretion. We treat nutrition much like we treat fuel for our cars. People (mostly people on internet message boards looking to sound punchy and smart) love to quote the first law of thermodynamics as if it's all we need to know about nutrition. Yes, at its core, food is fuel. But our relationship with food and how it affects us is much, much more than basic thermodynamics. It's more than macronutrients and micronutrients and calories. It's more than metabolism and hormones and antioxidants. Because eating is also a fundamentally personal and emotional experience. We focus on the scientifically measurable elements of nutrition, but ignore the other half of the equation. We forget that food is more than just fuel coming out of a hose and into our engine. We forget that human nutritional habits are largely defined and influenced by ritual and emotions and spirituality. 

To your car, fuel is fuel. To you and to me, food is a tradition, a memory, a pleasure, a lifestyle, a point of pride or guilt, and all of this affects how our food affects us. Two nutritionally identical meals won't necessarily yield identical results. And this is why it's a problem when we "over-science" nutrition: we give nutritional advice and prescription to treat the machine, but ignore that the machine is a complex human. This can be frustrating, because it means that often there will not be a "right answer," or that the "right answer" might not work out as neatly of planned. But that's the nature of dealing in the human sciences. Damn these big ol' prefrontal cortexes for making us so complex.

So should we ignore the science of nutrition? Should we abandon it? Absolutely not. However, we ought to consider nutritional science and what we can glean from it in the larger context of being human. 

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Strong of heart, strong of mind, strong of swole.