The last few weeks have seen us get a record amount of discussion going over email, facebook and in person with you guys.
Which is great – we love to hear from you and to be able to offer any help and direction we can.
One conversation I’ve had a few times recently is about the value of ‘anecdotal evidence’.
You know when something appears to be the case from your (or somebody else’s) experience, but the research doesn’t necessarily back this up.
I’ve had a few people recently question the benefit of reducing or removing certain food groups we consider to be unhealthy when there’s a lot of research that shows this doesn’t need to be done.
Some have questioned our recommendation to eat organically where possible, as the official line is that it makes little or no difference.
And some have questioned some of our supplement recommendations as they have read somewhere that its not needed.
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Now, questioning is cool.
If there’s anything you guys are unsure about, we want you to ask so we can explain our thoughts and why we recommend what we do.
And I’ll be honest, much of what we recommend comes from our experience (and that of other’s who’s opinion we trust) of what we’ve found to actually work well in real life.
In most areas of health, nutrition and weight loss there are all sorts of different bits of research that seem to ‘prove’ that something is the case.
You know, low intensity exercise is the best, porridge is great for breakfast, calories in vs. calories out is great for weight loss, etc.
Chances are we’ll have waded through pretty much any bit of research you can find on most things in this field.
We might have chosen to take it on board or we might have chosen to discount it due to not being able to trust the integrity of the research or its reporting (remember the study from last year that claimed red meat was bad for you, but the core data actually showed that, up to a point, it was good for you?) or as we just don’t believe it from our own experience.
What we recommend is ultimately what we have found has worked over thousands and thousands of sessions with hundreds of different people from all walks of life.
If the research backs it up, that’s great.
If it doesn’t and we’ve found what the research recommends to be less effective, we’re happy to discount it.
Whilst I’m all for scientific data, its always worth remembering the “absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence” – no proof doesn’t mean something is the case.
Only last week I had one of my 1:1 clients reporting that since she started taking a Magnesium supplement on my recommendation, the post pregnancy head aches she regularly had have stopped completely.
I’ll take that over the various bits of research that question the benefits of magnesium supplementation.
As a side note, she is a research scientist and I often find people in this field (I’ve worked with several due to Astra Zeneca being in Macc) are most open to things that don’t seem to have a scientific backing as they understand the whole “absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence” and regularly encounter things that don’t seem to match up to the existing evidence base.
And I’ll take the 100% of the 100s of people we’ve worked with who find our exercise and nutrition recommendations work miles better then the Government’s ’30 minutes walking or low intensity cardio’ and ‘low fat, low calorie’ guidelines.
So, if there’s something we’ve said, at any point, that you’re not sure about or seems to contradict something else you’ve heard, please ask us (by commenting below, or in our facebook group or emailing me on jon@myrise.co.uk).
We want you guys to know why we do what we do as we’re sure that when you do, doing it becomes a whole lot easier 🙂
Much love,
Jon “Believe my own eyes” Hall
