Alright, so I didn’t lose any fat today. Nor did I lose any weight. In fact, I’m the exact same weight right now as I was this morning.
The important thing is that I was able to write that statement. Nobody stopped me, flagged me, or challenged me. Despite what many people believe, magazines and websites are NOT reviewed for their accuracy.
There isn’t a group of scientists evaluating the latest copy of “Musclemen Monthly” or “Fit Moms International” to make sure that their diet or exercise advice is up to date and factually correct.
This is why I like research. High level clinical research goes through a peer review process before it is allowed to be published. Meaning scientists review each other’s work for accuracy before its allowed to be printed.
But here’s the kicker. The abstract of a paper (that little 200-300 word summary of the research that is available free on-line at places like pubmed.com) is typically NOT peer reviewed.
This is why it bothers me to no end when I see people use abstracts in magazines and on-line forums to support their outlandish claims.
Unless you are trained to review research, you should not be writing about research. This goes for magazines, forums, blogs.
Allowing information from abstracts that have not been reviewed for accuracy to appear in magazines and websites that are also not reviewed for accuracy, just adds to all of the nutrition confusion that is so prevalent today.
Read everything critically. If its sounds wrong, it probably is.
