Nutrition Experts Whom I Trust

The fol­low­ing are peo­ple who have a good sci­en­tif­ic rep­u­ta­tion and are knowl­edge­able about human nutri­tion. They may dis­agree with each oth­er on a few small points, but they are basi­cal­ly in agree­ment that the appro­pri­ate diet for opti­miz­ing human health is low in fat and based exclu­sive­ly or almost exclu­sive­ly on unre­fined plant foods:

• T. Col­in Camp­bell, PhD
• John A. McDougall, MD
• Cald­well Essel­styn, MD
• Neal Barnard, MD
• Joel Fuhrman, MD
• Dean Ornish, MD
• Nathan Pri­tikin

Celebrities Whom I Don’t Trust

Today, many peo­ple with no train­ing in nutri­tion or dietet­ics have become famous for teach­ings about nutri­tion. Some of them are giv­ing bad advice about diet and health. I do not want to name these peo­ple by name, for two rea­sons. One is that I don’t want to feed the nar­cis­sists. I do not want to give peo­ple atten­tion that they do not deserve. (I explain all about nar­cis­sism in my book Don’t Feed the Nar­cis­sists!)  The oth­er is that peo­ple who make their liv­ing by giv­ing bad advice tend to be thin-skinned and vin­dic­tive. For­tu­nate­ly, their careers tend to fol­low the same pat­terns as the phonies who went before them. By read­ing about the careers of peo­ple from the 20th cen­tu­ry and ear­li­er, you will learn how to spot the phonies. The fol­low­ing is a list of peo­ple who gained fame and some­times for­tune by giv­ing bad advice about health and nutri­tion:

• Adelle Davis
• Car­leton Fred­er­icks
• Robert C. Atkins, MD
• William Bant­i­ng