The Hidden Beliefs Behind Everything You've Been Told About Health · Orthodox Health · Radar

Diet Wars and Hidden Presuppositions2:39 – 14:48

Michael ChristianHost

2:39

Who taught you what healthy actually means? Because we've spent quite a bit of time on this show exploring what constitutes a healthy diet.

Michael ChristianHost

2:46

And long-time listeners will remember our carnivores versus vegan episode, and of course, our sacred diets arc, where we spent several weeks exploring how different religious movements, philosophical assumptions, and even outright occult practices helped shape the way that people think about food and health.

Michael ChristianHost

3:00

We went from Seventh-day Adventists and John Harvey Kellogg to the Mormons, to the Temperance Movement, Eastern Spirituality, the New Age, and eventually the Blue Zones.

Michael ChristianHost

3:08

And one of the recurring themes was that a lot of what people consider to be purely scientific dietary advice has a much more complicated history than people

JohnHost

3:16

realize.

JohnHost

3:17

Right.

JohnHost

3:17

And we weren't just talking about people having different opinions about what they should eat.

JohnHost

3:23

We were looking at how food becomes a moral issue, how dietary practices become part of someone's identity.

JohnHost

3:30

and how those beliefs can take on an almost religious character.

Michael ChristianHost

3:34

Right.

Michael ChristianHost

3:35

And today, I want to get underneath those arguments and examine something more fundamental.

Michael ChristianHost

3:39

How do we know what we know about health? And who gets to decide what counts as legitimate evidence? And what happens when our assumptions about the human body become so deeply embedded in medical practice that we stop recognizing them as assumptions? Because here's a simple example.

Michael ChristianHost

3:54

Take a nice juicy ribeye steak.

Michael ChristianHost

3:56

If you ask a carnivore, that steak might be the closest thing to a nutritional miracle.

Michael ChristianHost

4:00

And ask an ethical vegan, and you've practically committed a mortal sin.

Michael ChristianHost

4:04

And depending on which dietary guidelines your doctor is following, you might be getting a lecture about saturated fat and cardiovascular disease.

Michael ChristianHost

4:10

And so

JohnHost

4:11

the same steak is either saving your life, shortening your life, or making you a terrible person.

Michael ChristianHost

4:19

Exactly.

Michael ChristianHost

4:19

And all three people might be absolutely convinced they're right.

Michael ChristianHost

4:22

But here's the interesting part.

Michael ChristianHost

4:24

They're not necessarily answering the same question.

Michael ChristianHost

4:26

One's making an argument about nutrient density and human physiology.

Michael ChristianHost

4:29

Another is making a moral argument about our relationship with animals.

Michael ChristianHost

4:32

And the third is looking at population level associations and disease risk.