11/29/2025
THIS! PLEASE READ
This week, I received a worrisome message from a fellow follower.
She was extremely worried and confused after seeing a very convincing video online.
So I watched the video she sent me.
A self proclaimed expert, who appeared knowledgeable and poised, was making confident claims that for the health of our children and ourselves, we should stay as far away as possible from vegetables.
In fact, according to her, vegetables were trying to kill us via the defence toxins they contained.
She clearly never heard of “hormesis”.
And maybe you’ve never heard of this term either.
And that’s OK.
That’s why we are meant to trust experts. It’s normal they know more than us in the field they’ve been studying.
I don’t tell pilots how to fly their planes.
But since everyone eats, we all have an opinion about what consists of a healthy diet.
And it is ok to listen to your own body.
Although there is endless confusion online about what constitutes a healthy diet, this confusion exists almost entirely on social media.
Inside of the scientific community, the picture is remarkably consistent.
That community is built from hundreds of research and medical organizations around the world, representing thousands of experts who dedicate their careers to nutrition science.
Yet many people still choose to believe their favorite online influencer, even when those claims contradict decades of robust evidence.
In 2021 and 2022, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine conducted a meta-epidemiological scientific review to evaluate different global dietary guidelines and compare them to the ACLM dietary position statement.
This was an immensely daunting task.
For almost two years, researchers examined overall dietary patterns, major food groups, and key nutrients.
They reviewed seventy-eight clinical guidelines published between 2010 and 2021.
Of these, eighty-three percent came from major medical societies, meaning they were developed by hundreds, and sometimes thousands of scientists working together toward consensus.
Twelve percent came from governmental organizations and departments.
The remaining five percent came from large stakeholder associations.
What the scientists wanted to know was simple: what do all these guidelines agree on?
The conclusions were not surprising. No front page news here.
And unfortunately these study findings aren’t the ones that go viral.
All of these major bodies encouraged higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and pulses, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish because of their protective effects on health.
Likewise, these clinical guidelines consistently recommended reducing ultra-processed foods, red and processed meats, refined grains, and fatty cuts of meat including organ meats.
These are not supposed to be controversial statements.
They reflect the collective weight of modern nutrition science.
Yet influencers continue to gain millions of followers by promoting the opposite.
I do understand why.
Saying that sulforaphane in broccoli helps protect against cancer is not front-page news anymore.
Balanced nutrition rarely produces the shock needed to trigger algorithms.
Instead, sensational claims rise to the top, regardless of accuracy.
Scientific research follows a hierarchy of evidence. The highest quality peer-reviewed studies give us consistent answers.
No matter where you look, you see the same relationship.
As the proportion of calories you consume from nutrient-dense whole plant foods increases, your health parameters improve and your risk of chronic disease decreases.
This is reality. This is science. And these are real lives we are trying to protect.
If someone online is telling you that fruits and vegetables are toxic, that plant foods are trying to harm you, or that lectins and phytonutrients are poisonous, then unfortunately you have been misled.
I’m sure they sold a lot of books though.
And they likely have a link to the supplement page that will fix all of your issues.
There is no conspiracy.
The consensus across decades of clinical trials, cohort studies, mechanistic research, and global dietary guidelines is clear.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and herbs and spices consistently improve every major marker of health. They lower inflammation, reduce chronic disease risk, support a healthy microbiome, and contribute to a longer and healthier life.
Period.
What you choose to do with this information is up to you.
My hope is that people approach online content wearing their critical thinking cap.
There are no miracle cures, but there are sustainable habits that dramatically lower your risk of chronic disease: a healthy diet, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, strong social connections, and avoiding harmful substances.
None of this is controversial.
It is the same science that built the planes we fly, the cars we drive, the phones we use, and every modern technology that enriches our daily lives.
Please careful out there.
Please help me share this information so it reaches more people than the ultra-exaggerated claims that flood our social media feeds.
It takes infinitely more energy to debunk and deconstruct misinformation than it takes to create it.
Our kids are being brainwashed.
I have teenage patients with eating disorders directly caused by fear mongering online about nutrition.
This is not right, this isn’t fair. And those spewing this nonsense will never be held accountable.
I would lose my medical license if I’d make claims like that to patients.
This nonsense has to stop. But it won’t.
💚 Dr. Jules
Cara KC, Goldman DM, Kollman BK, Amato SS, Tull MD, Karlsen MC.
Commonalities among dietary recommendations from 2010-2021 clinical practice guidelines: A meta-epidemiological study from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
Adv Nutr. 2023. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.advnut.2023.03.007