How Can Facts Compete With Fads?

A couple of years ago beet juice was all the rage. Promoters sold a powder to dissolve in water.  They called it a circulation super-food. They backed up their claim with a pile of testimonials but scant scientific evidence; except that beets are vegetables, and vegetables are healthy. Does that make any vegetable a super food?

Well, step aside beet juice. It’s time for celery to take a turn.

How do we know celery juice is the latest super food? – Testimonials, of course! Says one article, “Celery juice is everywhere. So much so, that the two New York Whole Foods locations I’ve gone to in the past two weeks have been out of celery” as people buy it in bulk to take it home and run it through the blender.

These are not ordinary testimonials. Apparently the fad start when the Medical Medium (MM not to be confused in any way with MD) told his thousands of on-line followers that celery juice was “one of the most powerful and healing juices we can drink.” Since then it has been “rising in popularity within the health and wellness world” with tens of thousands of personal endorsements on Instagram. Among them are celebrity/influencers including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kim Kardashian and Debra Messing.

When I looked up articles about celery juice, though, most that I found said that those claims are false. This one begins with a headline, “Celery Juice ‘Benefits’ Are Total B.S., According to Nutrition Science.” The claims of it reducing chronic inflammation are grossly exaggerated. It doesn’t necessarily help with weight loss, because juicing any vegetable “will yield a higher concentration of sugar.” Any mention of detox should automatically be a red flag for anyone with an ounce of nutritional common sense.

Another website mocks the whole idea of the detox claim saying, “this entire celery juice trend is the epitome of bullshit pseudoscience.” It’s all about being a member of the super cool crowd that crowed about kale until celery juice was declared the new kid in town. It’s more about a need to belong, than a desire to be healthier.

Another reason people are drawn to juice fads is the convenience. The answer to not having time for fruit and vegetables is to grab a bottle or tumbler of the liquid equivalent, but it’s not really equal. The process of juicing compromises some of the nutritional value because it loses the beneficial fiber you find in raw veggies.

And Americans don’t get enough fiber.

This BBC article argues, “people who eat more dietary fiber are actually feeding their gut microbiome,” and “fiber leads to greater satiety, less insulin secretion, and more short-chain fatty acids, which all amounts to one thing: less body weight.”

Studies show that “those who had the highest intake of fiber or total fiber actually had an almost 80 percent greater likelihood of living a long and healthy life over a 10-year follow-up, [and] were less likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dementia, depression, and functional disability.” 

This fiber, that BBC calls a lifesaving food, is easily available. “You find it in fruit and vegetables, some breakfast cereals, breads and pasta that use whole-grains, pulses such as beans, lentils and chickpeas, as well as nuts and seeds.” That’s whole fruits and vegetables, not the ones that have been run through a blender.

Once again, that’s the truth about another so-called super food. But how does the truth compete with celebrities, influencers and self-declared wellness experts with thousands of Instagram followers but no formal training in nutrition or science? All these fad diets are based on testimonials and endorsements that appeal to the emotions without any scientific basis with the sole intent of selling to gullible people their books, products and other secrets of good health.