In response to my Chick-Fil-A post, my friend (who is a lawyer) wrote me via email. It was a lengthy response, but I thought I’d quote this particular comment:
Regarding MSG specifically, I don’t find your underlying position or view particularly credible. Given the amount of material, both for and against MSG, it isn’t possible, let alone practical, for me to buy into any strong positions regarding the topic. (But if you are right, I’m ready to be the Plaintiff attorney that brings down the MSG industry and makes a bundle doing so…)
I got to thinking, health is all about trust.
Take any position on health you like… and there’s signficant “evidence” to support both sides of the argument. There are seemingly no clear answers, no definitive research that can absolutely confirm what is healthy.
Of course, this problem exists in all areas of life. There are always two (or more) positions in every possible argument, and each side has its evidence to support its claims.
So how do we possibly decide what is “healthy” and what is not? How do we know whether something like MSG is harmful… or neutral… or possibly beneficial?
I believe it comes down to whom you trust.
For instance, I tend to trust researchers and healers who hold the same world view that I do. I believe the modern medical practice of treating symptoms has very little benefit. And I believe those independent thinkers who are searching for cures, and embrace the “esoteric” health practices of alternative health, are much closer to the truth than any doctor.
When it comes to health, Henry David Thoreau’s famous quote is especially appropriate: “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
Replace the word “evil” with “disease” and you get the idea.
So now you know what colors my thinking. What colors yours?
As I mentioned earlier, one reader clearly indicated he had more trust in government than alternative health writers. That’s his bias. (I wonder if he’s read Orwell’s 1984?)
I’d like you to think about that for a while. When you identify whom you trust, you’ll discover why you believe certain points of view about health. You’ll discover why you advocate one thing as “healthy” and another thing as “unhealthy.”
You never know… my perspectives on health may be totally flawed. Perhaps the doctors, food manufacturers, and government really have the inside scoop on health. Then again, maybe not.
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I used to trust conventional wisdom and allopathic medicine. What changed my mind? Well, quite simply, it wasn’t working. My husband had his gallbladder removed at the tender young age of 23, and actually almost died from that whole ordeal. Then we had kids and stumbled across some stuff that made me start to realize that health is largely connected to nutrition.
Sadly, I know now that my husband’s illness could completely have been prevented had we not been eating the way we were at the time. It was a hard lesson but it was learned. And now I have children who are rarely sick. When I look around and everybody else’s kids are *always* coming down with something… does that make me want to adopt my old worldview again? No. :)
I wonder how fit, healthy and well those people who declare their trust doctors and drugs feel. Even if they say they feel great, I wonder if that’s simply because they have no idea what it’s like to feel better.
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