A few more things about dietetics

In a previous post I questioned that dietetics is a science, because it seems to follow quite often what can be considered alternatives of fashion, and I gave some examples. In this article I’m going to add a few more, along with a general consideration.

• The expiration date of yogurts. A few years ago, there were several books published and speeches made, asserting that yogurt should never be eaten just one day after its expiration date. Of course, no expired food should ever be used to help poor people. However, any quality expert knows that expiration dates always include a safety margin that can sometimes be quite long (days, weeks, or even months). Therefore, some kinds of very recently expired food are probably within that safety margin and can be eaten without problems. Not to mention the fact that there are products (such as yogurts) that don’t need an expiration date, as their substance is not spoiled, even though it may lose nutritional or flavor properties. This is why lately, in this type of products, there is no longer talk of an expiration date, but of a preferred consumption date.

Medical Dietetics, Science or Fashion?

Food containing magnesium

The advices given by medical dieticians about healthy food oscillate continuously as time goes by. They rather look like the alternatives of fashion, than the discoveries of science. Here are a few examples:

•         In the fifties and sixties it was fashionable to disparage the consumption of olive oil and recommend the use of seed oils, supposed to be healthier. Heart patients were advised to consume various seed oils, while olive oil was not even mentioned. Sometimes it was asserted that the consumption of olive oil increases cholesterol in blood. This policy caused significant damage to Spain, one of the main olive oil exporters, as stated in a newspaper article published in 1968:

The economic problems of the olive grove are motivated, to a great extent, by the change in the taste of the consumers, who sometime ago were forced to use different seed oils, and now, when we are trying to bring them back to a higher consumption of olive oil, they don’t want to do it in the proportion advisable for this market of the Spanish fruit, as it is rather more expensive.