What does the T-Nation house think about Dr. Joseph Mercola? He is supposedly one of the more popular physicians of his type.
A large part of my nutritional research comes from this website and his.
His site:
http://mercola.com/
What Wiki says:
What the hell is osteopathy:
My mom is in love with Mercola, and sent me to his site (The allotown thing). The information is pretty good and he doesnt seem to shill bullshit products. His top couple of products are Whey and Fish Oil.
He is trying to make a living like everybody else. I can think of MANY worse people to listen to, his info is very top notch from what I have seen.
We need more doctors like him.
We interviewed him years ago:
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=231dr2
On the surface, a lot of his ideas are on target. Once you get deeper into his beliefs, he gets a little goofy.
[quote]Chris Shugart wrote:
We interviewed him years ago:
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=231dr2
On the surface, a lot of his ideas are on target. Once you get deeper into his beliefs, he gets a little goofy.
[/quote]
yeah, my mum is also into him (and lots of witch doctors, not saying he is one…) and it seems as if once these people get an idea in there head they’ll run it. if there is no evidence to back it up, no matter, just make a crazy theory. not sure if he is one of the main culprits of this, i don’t listen to my mother on this stuff.
[quote]Chris Shugart wrote:
We interviewed him years ago:
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=231dr2
On the surface, a lot of his ideas are on target. Once you get deeper into his beliefs, he gets a little goofy.
[/quote]
This might be true. His main tenets are very solid: Avoid grains and refined sugars. Get more omega-3’s. Eat food that is not filled with chemicals. He also seems to be in favor of a higher protein intake for weight training individuals.
I’m not so sure about the finger tapping and stuff like that. But who knows? Maybe we are the ignorant ones.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
I’m not so sure about the finger tapping and stuff like that. But who knows? Maybe we are the ignorant ones.[/quote]
Actually, I’ve tried that finger tapping a couple times, and it feels great. Like accupressure to the face. But if it does help with emotional issues, it might just be that focusing on the tapping makes one forget their problems…
Where Mercola gets real kooky though, is in banishing all grains, even whole or sprouted grains. He’s one of those that says, “If some have allergies severe enough to cause problems, all must have allergies to a minor degree” and so deems gluten evil. But apparantly milk and eggs are ok? Oh, but he wants you to eat them raw. Though not for the allergy reason. Inconsistent.
Then he’s too into this “metabolic typing” for food choice, and of course wants to sell you a “metabolic typing” test that tells you just what foods to eat and which to avoid. Bet you it recommends for everyone to buy the products he sells on his site. Yeah, buy Mercola’s hyper-expensive coconut oil, because it’s 1% better than what you can buy in the local health food store. Or buy his krill oil(!) instead of Flameout…
Actually, a lot of people on other BB sites criticize T-Nation as being a shill for Biotest products. Maybe there’s some truth in that, but I’m the most senstive person to advertising that I know, not even owning a TV to become desensitized. And this is my #1 forum and bb article resource. Mercola’s site I just simply cannot stand. He’s the biggest, most obvious promoter since Joe Weider. Blech.
Actualy, shilling is a second voice. In a pitch there is a pitcher and a shill. The shill either backs up a claim with a fake testamonial, or fires off some loaded questions to advance the pitch. They can also step in to distract anybody that might heckle or try to trip up the pitcher.
I don’t see much shilling with Mercola, just quackery. He takes a grain of truth and turns it in to a silo of bullshit.
[quote]Kailash wrote:
Actually, a lot of people on other BB sites criticize T-Nation as being a shill for Biotest products. [/quote]
T-Nation is not a shill for Biotest. Biotest owns T-Nation.
My mom had me read the Krill oil thing and then I showed her Flameout… NO comparison. Krill oil barely has anything on the cheap fish oil that comes in the huge tubs for 20 bucks.
I am a big fan of dr. mercola and follow 75% of his recs. I do eat rice but I soak it in apple cider vinegar for a few hours before cooking it. I digest it much better this way.
Furthermore, I practice the tapping known as EFT(emotional freedom technique). This has helpe me tremendously deal with negative emotions and is even helping me with my stuttering.
Mark Baldwin
Like all top notch snake oil salesmaen he mixes fact and fiction and it is tough to tell where the transition is.
His basic recommendations appear good, but you can get them anywhere. Some of his other stuff is pretty far out.
[quote]marktb wrote:
I am a big fan of dr. mercola and follow 75% of his recs. I do eat rice but I soak it in apple cider vinegar for a few hours before cooking it. I digest it much better this way.
Furthermore, I practice the tapping known as EFT(emotional freedom technique). This has helpe me tremendously deal with negative emotions and is even helping me with my stuttering.
Mark Baldwin[/quote]
We have found the shill!
I have to agree with Zap. He’s iffy. Some stuff is good and some is out there.
I do look at his stuff occasionally. I think there is some good stuff and bad stuff. Some of the things he suggests are good practices but not necessarily for the reasons he mentions. Nor do i necessarily agree that large health benefits could be gained through some of it.
I wouldnt completely ignore it, but its nice stuff to have an occasional look at.
For a thinking person with an existing foundation of knowledge he is a valuable resource. For the easily persuaded and or those just learning about health and nutrition you could do worse, but he is over the top sometimes and could unduly freak out certain types of folks.
I use his site and gain much useful information, but I don’t base my family’s health on every syllable that falls from his lips.