About

So many of our ideas about nutrition, health and disease are taken for granted. We believe they are true simply because everyone else believes they are true; they have become part of the cultural depository of information that is accepted without examination. They are, in short, articles of faith.

Yet throughout history many of the beliefs considered to be self-evident in a given historical period turned out to be completely false. At one time it was commonly believed, for example, that the sun revolved around the earth and that the world was flat. Anyone who challenged these ideas was branded a lunatic or heretic.

In medicine we have seen much the same pattern. As recently as the 1980s it was universally understood that gastric ulcers were caused by stress. When an Australian physician named Dr. Warren presented his theory that ulcers were in fact caused by a bacterium called h. pylori, he was ridiculed by his colleagues and ostracized from the medical community. For the next several years he labored unsuccessfully to convince his peers of the validity of his theory. Finally, growing increasingly desperate, Dr. Warren decided to swallow a vial of h. pylori in a dramatic effort to make his point. Sure enough, Dr. Warren developed a gastric ulcer after swallowing the bacteria, and was able to cure his ulcer by taking an antibiotic. Today, h. pylori is widely accepted as a primary cause of ulcers, and Dr. Warren won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2005 for his achievement.

Unfortunately, there are still many other popular myths that have retained their foothold in mainstream medicine and popular culture despite the substantial amount of scientific evidence disproving them. Perhaps the most egregious example of this is the idea that cholesterol and saturated fat cause heart disease. But there are many others, and unfortunately these myths are not at all harmless. In fact they are contributing directly to epidemics in conditions like diabetes, heart disease, insulin resistance, obesity, Alzheimer’s, autism and depression in children and adults alike.

THE HEALTHY SKEPTIC is dedicated to debunking these popular myths and replacing them with facts supported both by the latest scientific studies and thousands of years of traditional knowledge. It is my hope that the information offered here will help you to make educated, informed choices about the health and well-being of yourself and those you care for.

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