Experts In Their Field?

Ok guys, I’d like your input. Everyone here basically agrees that most nutritionists are, to put it politely, full of shit. They will tell you that excess protein consumption, usually defined as any amount greater than .5 grams/pound of body weight, will cause a host of maladies like renal failure. They claim that a high carb, low fat diet is the way to go for those of us looking to shed excess fat. They claim that keto diets are downright dangerous, even for short periods of time. The mainstream populace seems to accept the majority of what these folks say, yet even newbies to the BB game quickly see the holes in their teachings. My question is this: Does anyone know of another profession where the accepted “knowledge” is so seriously behind the times? It just seems odd to me that these professionals are spouting info that seems so out of date. Maybe most professions are like this, reluctant to accept and assimilate new info, and nutritionists are the ones I butt heads with most often. It’s also possible that I’m just way off base in my assessment of these folk’s knowledge. Your thoughts?

Good point. Now that I think about it, no, I can’t name another field that’s as bad. But then, think about something else. Whenever you read a newspaper article about something that you know about, doesn’t it strike you as odd that they always get something wrong? Most of the article will be right, but something will be just totally, blatantly wrong. So when I’m reading about something that I don’t know about, it makes me wonder: where’s the mistake?

Maybe this doesn't drectly pertain to the posted topic, but it just goes to show how difficult it is to really "know" something. To quote Rush:

Truth is after all a moving target

Vast disparate pieces that don't fit

How can anybody be enlightened

Truth is after all so poorly lit.

KEWL a topic that makes me go “hmmmmm.” Demo, you said in another post that you also work in a University. Well, you and I both know that campus’ are pretty stacked high of people with degrees walking about with outdated information. The problem with most people is that they become satisfied with the paper marked in bold letters stating “DEGREE”. And they go, embarking on a career based on book studies and that damn paper. And don’t bother finding out for themselves if what was stated in them books is real and factual. Especially if the topic’s subject is the human body. And we all know how amazing the human body is. These people are satisfied and become complacent over what they have learned. Sad. Because you should keep learning - until the day you die.

But I know not ALL people are satisfied with that college degree. And here on T-Mag we have the evidence of that. I too, have always been in awe of the human body and was always willing to use myself as a guinea pig for the lab (the gym) and my little experiments over diet.

But really, the sad fact is the majority of people are sheep and are willing to follow anyone who can provide them with a easy and quick solution. And these "experts" of nutrition are willing to accomodate. Sad. Just sad.

BUT, T-People, we must press on! And impress people with our actions and achievements! Maybe that will change the tide? Well, at least we'll look good.

i have the same thoughts as char-dawg everytime i read something i don’t know about. if the media can be so damn wrong about nutritional info and exercise info why can’t they be wrong on a lot of the other stuff they report on. weitghtlifting and nutrition is the only stuff i know a lot about so i don’t have any way of knowing the accuracy of the other stuff i don’t know a lot about. i’m still hesitant on whether or not to take any nutrition classes in college because i refuse to put something that i know is wrong or not true on an exam.

Really though isn’t nutrition not an exact science. So those so called “nutritionists” who don’t know all that much can always blame something for say the lack of fat loss, muscle gained etc. In other fields such as business or even athletic coaching results are easily measured. I hope I got my message across, more random thoughts than anything.

My thought is - if you don’t like the way something is being answered or the way some (not all) nutritionists answer your questions, go back to school get the same degrees as them and then work for change from within. That is what I do. I am a RD who constently work at upgrading the knowledge of other RDs. I participate in seminars, write scientifically-published medical/nutrition and exercise phys articles all in the name of change. Do the same! Be a part of the solution!

Perhaps the Catholic church?

I’ve got 2 chem instructors who I think used to work in the industry before they started teaching & I like how they point out the stuff that has only academic interest & stuff that is actually useful. I think that’s sort of what you’re talking about. There are PE/Kines & biochem classes at my school too where you learn about exactly what you listed & the tests are really easy but people get killed by brutal graders.

Well, I’m a girl, but I’ll respond anyway grin


Nutritionists remind me of programmers. What ever was ‘cool and new’ when they graduated college is the be all and end all of knowledge. As a programmer who is dieing to learn new technologies and different ways to do things this frusterates me to no end. I am sure there are a few body builders who are nutritionists, but often times to go against the grain is to end your career… so they stick with the status quo. Gotta pay bills somehow!

Many trainers are also an example of 'out of date professions' My gym has an in-house group of trainers, and they are all trained the same. I have heard them tell clients that barbell rows will permantly damage your shoulders, that changing your program every two weeks is the best way to achieve growth, and machines far out perform freeweights, among other things.

I think any profession that demands constant learning and adaptation is bound to have people who are too lazy to keep up. They are also not willing to admit that perhaps the way they are doing things now may be out of date (i.e. not wrong, but not right either). Ego is what gets in the way unfortunately, and I doubt that will change any time soon.

Engineering…well not really outdated information but more of a bad philosophy. Which is lets do this as cheaply and as fast as possible. Then because they took this approach it takes longer and is more expensive than it should have been because of shitty parts and mistakes due to going to f-en fast. Now if you had taken a reasonable amount of time and spent the right amount of money instead of going cheap ass on it this wouldn’t have happend. Sorry venting on colossal stupidity that gets repeated over and over. Arrrrrrhhhhhhh. Have a nice day. :slight_smile:

Personal trainers??

I’m a teacher, and education seems to have the exact opposite problem. EVERY new, half-baked theory is quickly accepted and taken for gospel. Fortunately I’m now teaching at a school where common sense prevails. School runs 7:30 to 5:00, Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 1:00 Saturdays. The kids work 30% longer, and they score 30% higher.

Doogie - where are you located? That sounds like an interesting school schedule! Is that a public or private school?

No disrespect meant to you Doug, you obviously are doing a very good thing. I was kind of venting, as if I hear one more time that I’m going to “ruin” my kidney’s with excess protein or somehow “shatter” my muscles with creatine I’m heading for the clock tower with a deer rifle. Keep up the good work.

Well, I know this for sure: doogie is obviously NOT in Oregon. :wink:

School that goes 7:30am to 5:00pm and forces its kids to go on Saturdays? Damn, those kids are working longer than their parents. I’m glad my school was never like that.

Yeah yeah, blah blah blah school sucks, blah blah Oregon. LOL. Do you two get off on hijacking threads? Ahem…back to the topic. :slight_smile:

I’m in Donna, Texas (on the Mexico border) at a school called the I.D.E.A. Academy. We are a state funded, public charter school modeled after the KIPP Academies in Houston and New York. We have 240 students total, in grades 4 through 8. In Texas schools are funded primarily with property taxes issued by the local school districts. We are independent of the local school district (which is one of the lowest performing districts in the state), so we receive very little state funding. The flip side of that is that we are free from a lot of the regulatory B.S.

Our students are among the poorest in the state. The majority live in Colonias, which are rural subdivisions with no sewage. Most of my kids live in cinderblock houses that their parents have been building one room at a time. Only one of my 120 students has a parent who graduated college. This is only our second year of operation. This past week we received an award from the state because we had the highest one year gains on the state administered achievement test last year, we had the lowest percentage of students exempted from the test (schools down here tend to label students as special ed so they are exempted from the tests), and we were the highest achieving school among schools with similar demographics.

The kids all have every teacher’s home and cell phone number so they can contact us any time they need homework help or whatever. Some of these kids get picked up at 6 in the morning and dropped off close to 7 at night. The culture of the school is amazing. The kids have really bought into the fact that hard work pays off. They sometimes bitch and moan, but when you show them the door none of them every chooses to leave. In fact, we have a rather large waiting list of kids trying to get in. I could go on and on, but my lunch is about over.

Wow, after doogie’s post I kind of look like an asshole. Sorry about that…hijacking was perfectly acceptable in this case.

With apologies to Demo!

Doogie - have you thought of a pen pal program? My friend has one set up for her 6th grade class at an inner city school. They use the classroom computer, based on class performance, to talk to their pen pals. The idea is to show how hard work pays off, and the rewards you can earn. She asked her friends to be pen pals, and we are all over the place! It kind of shows them that there is a world outside of their often miserable reality.