Death by Rules

Ever seen those articles pop up on your facebook feed? “10 foods that cause depression”. “New superfoods will drop the fat!”. “Eating Bacon signals alien invasion”. Ok maybe not the last one, but the first two are genuine headlines. Snappy titles like that are often referred to as ‘click-bait’. One liners that loosely correlate to the article, but are actually a means to an end to get you to visit the page. Upon completing the article, you realise, actually it’s not addresses the title at all. But sometimes these ‘new research’ claims do present the ‘facts’. And that’s what this post is all about. You see, these articles, coupled with recent comments from our family Dentist made me aware of just how ridiculous some of the ‘health’ guidance we recieve truly is…

I was shocked when our 1.5 year old came back from the dentist with instructions for her fruit and drink intake. Now my baby girl loves her drinks. Water, Milk, Fruit Juice, Squash and caffeine-free Pepsi for a treat every-now-and-again (or whenever she steals my cup). Even though my personal taste lies heavily with the lovely concentrated juice drinks, we’ve been sure to give her only the best ‘real fruit juice and spring water’ refreshments when it comes to fruits. She also loves to eat her fruits too. Such a contrast to me, I’m really proud of her. My wife has to strap me to the dinner table and force-feed me fruit salads. Back to the point, the dentist told my wife off for giving her fruit and juice. Now perhaps this would be a fair comment if my girls’ teeth were shot-to-bits. But they weren’t. They were brighter white than any of ours put together (and than the dentist, I would wager). 100% healthy. But somehow, my wife came away feeling guilty about feeding our girl fruit. Fruit. Not chocolate. Not chips or sweets. 5-a-day-fruit.

Now, I get it. There are citric acids blah blah blah. But that’s why we brush our teeth twice a day. Go to the doctors, and they will critique us for not getting enough vitamins into the kids. Proof that no-one really knows what they’re talking about here. And that’s just about fruit. Something the government has spent millions in advertising to tell us we need 5 of, every day. Fruit is just the tip of the iceberg here. Toys, outings and pretty much any other life choice is in question and will, at some point come under scrutiny by the Internet massive.

So, it’s simply come down to this. Believe or not to believe. And the encouragement of scepticism isn’t necessarily a good thing here, but when it comes to the latest trend for eating or raising my children – I’ll be giving all these new far-fetched theories a pass. Perhaps a quick read. An acknowledgement followed by a belly laugh and a good jesting. I won’t be taking it seriously. Because if I believed it all, I would have to live under a rock and not eat anything (I’d end up looking like Mo Farrah! Ooooooo yes, I went there). I’m not going die a sad man because I lived in fear of the ridiculous new ‘scientific discoveries’.

“Lego causes cancer” one ‘study’ finds, while another says it helps you loose weight. Or that wine is the same as exercise. Don’t believe me? Check out this video at the end of this post! At the risk of repeating said video, there is a clear sense of absolute rubbish out there on the Internet masquerading as actual fact. So let’s be clear. Before you fall victim, as we all do, the that “coffee will cure poverty” article, lets just all agree that it’s going to be entertainment and nothing more. Because it sure as anything isn’t going to be useful.

Watch with caution, bad language throughout, but it makes an excellent point.