Cherry picking the science

Our belief systems can be so unshakable that we find ways of carefully selecting pieces of science to support them while ignoring those that contradict them. Well, that’s what opponents of the alternative medicine community like to say. The fact is, the alternative medicine community is getting better and better at reading the relevant science – and it’s now the mainstream medical community’s turn to be put under the pseudoscience spotlight.

Our two lead stories this week pick up on this. We’ve reviewed the American Heart Association’s edict requesting that we swap our saturated fats for polyunsaturated fats – just like we were told to do over 30 years ago with disastrous consequences. You can only get there if you’re a master cherry picker. In our second piece, as leading British health journalist Jerome Burne explains, the same goes for the conventional oncologists who refuse to look at the emerging science on natural products and so-called alternative cancer treatments. Fortunately, moves to redress this scientific imbalance are afoot.

In our weekly news roundup, we pick up on disappointing news from the EU. That includes the European Court’s ridiculous decision to ban the use of dairy terms for non-dairy milk substitutes (should I say, oh dairy me?) and the EFSA’s likely plan to keep glyphosate registered despite it being now classified by the WHO as a probable human carcinogen.

 

In health, naturally

Rob Verkerk, PhD

Founder, executive & scientific director