The Cult of Nutritionism Suffers a Setback
Lee on Dec 21 2008 at 11:00 pm | Filed under: Health Care, science
(photo: gualtiero)
In a fine blow to the pseudoscientific cult of nutritionism, an intensive study conducted by the National Institutes of Health applied the same laboratory standards to vitamin supplements as are routinely applied to pharmaceuticals. Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that the supplements exerted no preventive benefit against cancer, heart disease, or any other illnesses. Dr. Edgar R. Miller, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, puts it nicely:
“These things are ineffective, and in high doses they can cause harm. People are unhappy with their diets, they’re stressed out, and they think it will help. It’s just wishful thinking.”
(Los Angeles Times)
As Damian Thompson argues in Counterknowledge (his magnificent polemic against the rise of quackery and conspiracy theories in contemporary society), the alternative in ‘alternative medicine’ is to science and modernity, and has entirely predictable results.
In that broader context, I was particularly pleased to see this bit of research by Karen Kaplan, for her Los Angeles Times’ report:
“In retrospect, maybe the expectations were a little bit unrealistic,” said [Jeffrey] Blumberg, whose research has been funded in part by supplement makers.
(Los Angeles Times)
As a note, Jeffrey Blumberg is a prominent pharmacist turned nutritionist ideologue at the Department of Agriculture, who among other things has argued that green tea could prevent cancer.
It is of course a commonly held conspiracy theory by the advocates of alternative medicine, that scientists and physicians who question the merits of their quack treatments are secretly corrupted by the pharmaceutical industry, to push the allegedly dubious benefits of drugs and technology, and suppress findings showing the life-saving benefits of natural vitamin supplements. It’s nice to see the shoe on the other foot in the press for a change.
Like all conspiracy theories the market for these non-treatments is sustained by a combination of simple consumer gullibility, and the allure of elect exclusivity in possessing ’secret knowledge’. But there can be no apology for the professional advocates of it. For them this is an atavism of nineteenth century snake oil sales. They are conscious frauds, exploiting gaps in research where consumer demand exists, to sell placebos to the public. The difference is that unlike the cancer-curing bottle of sugar water of yesteryear, vitamin supplements appear to be causing actual medical harm to people’s health.
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