We live in the information age where information is near-enough free and thanks to social media, this information travels in moments. We were once taught in school that reading is good for you. However, when information is moving so fast, we can lose our visions and productivity by letting such information not just captivate our attention but also lead us down radical outlooks and camps at the cost of our sanity, time, and knowledge.
We lack tools to process information and though several systems to evaluate information are evolving, the big problem here is our tendency to radicalize ourselves for someone else's ideology which may be embedded in flaws and a regressive approach towards human growth.
This is why we need to coin a new term: Processed Junk Information. In the field of food and nutrition, if something is making your life more difficult while yielding diminishing, little or no returns, and setting you up to fail with unsustainable lifestyle choices, then this may be junk information that may not be addressing the root cause of the problem but may primarily be taking advantage of your failure to toss you from one hot pan to another.
A classic example is fasting which has become quite crazy in the health and nutrition sphere. One of the claims used to perpetuate fasting and sell books, products, and services around it is autophagy or replenishing of cells due to fasting. However, the question that doesn't get asked here is, 'How substantial is this process, and has it been measured in humans? What other interventions cause this autophagy and how can we induce this without having to devoid oneself of food?" You might be thinking that these are excellent questions and you'd ask similar questions before buying a car or investing in a business or making any long-term pragmatic choice. Sadly, in nutrition and health communities, the highest compliment given to any lifestyle or food is how unsustainable or revolting something is which leads to constant failure of the ordained solution.
This is the tragedy of our time. The best solution is to recognize junk processed information and sharpen our tools of discernment while realizing that our goal as human beings is to enhance our living and make the world a better place, not to take someone else down, squander our limited time on this planet nor to radicalize ourselves.
Be pragmatic. Here’s a humor-filled picture pertaining to online nutrition.
