What values, beliefs, and views are stated or implied in Reynold Spector’s article “Science and Pseudoscience in Adult Nutrition Research and...

A variety of values, beliefs, and views are stated or
implied in Reynold Spector’s article “Science and Pseudoscience in Adult Nutrition
Research and Practice,” including the
following:

• Nutritionists have an obligation to
  be as rigorously scientific as possible.


• Many
  publications dealing with nutrition are not rigorously
  scientific.


• The only reliable way of discovering truth in
  the sciences is to use the scientific
  method.


• Nutritionists often make unsupported
  claims.


• The human body itself often does very well at
  keeping its nutritional needs balanced without much need for nutritional supplements,
  especially megadoses of vitamins.


• Diets designed to
  reduce weight have not been shown to be especially
  effective.


• Many of the current participants in the field
  of nutrition (such as academics and the editors of journals) benefit in various ways
  from the often lax standards in the field.


• Many people
  who depend upon sound nutritional knowledge (such as consumers, patients, and doctors)
  are often harmed by the unsupported claims made my many
  nutritionists.


• People in the field of nutrition have an
  ethical obligation to follow the scientific method.


• In
  short,

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as Socrates pointed out, the big question is: How
should one live one’s life? To decide, one needs good data! In terms of nutritional
advice:

1. Demand scientific
   studies.


2. Follow the FDA criterion: only follow
   nutritional advice if proven to be safe and
   effective.


3. View the nutritional advice of “experts,” like
   those who prepared the agriculture department’s original food pyramid1 and the newer
   food pyramids,6 with a hypercritical eye. Their track record is
   poor.