So, hopefully by now you have an idea of what this blog is about. If not, you might find it helpful to follow my Twitter and Facebook pages to get a jist of the day to day themes.
I want to write this post to somewhat set the tone of the blog and to give an idea of perhaps what the underlying theme will be. On this blog I will occasionally call people idiots, imbeciles, muppets and alike. I'm not doing this to start a fight but merely point out my frustration that on occasions the ineptitude of others makes my work more difficult. If you make my work more difficult by spouting misinformation you are indeed either an idiot, imbecile or a muppet depending on my mood and the severity of your crime. I am sure at points I have been one if not all of these things and if you think so, I am happy to hear why. My goal is not just to criticise, but instead that one day someone more influential than I will see me call them an imbecile, challenge some of the stuff I write in this blog, and then allow me to explain exactly how they were inept and how they can right it!
I want to 'take on' businesses, organizations, ideologies that are wrong and acting in the wrong way. What I don't want to do is name individuals or break specific people down no matter how ill informed or outright crooked these people are. I went to a talk recently and heard this quote
"Martin Luther King Jr – we shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory."
This is what I am about. Put the information out there as unfanatically as possible and in doing so, win over the fanatics from whatever branch they stem from.
I am not out to simply bad mouth people. Where I can I try to encourage a forum with any such individual or organisation so that a discussion can arise. Similarly, I'm not out to ruin anyone else or 'steal' their business. I will almost never mention individual names (naming corporations is another story all together) because I wouldn't want to be so callous as to affect someone's livelihood… however, it is a shame people spouting incorrect, life damaging nutrition information don't have the same courtesy. OK, so maybe it is not their fault and they were taught wrong… and therein lies the reason for this blog. To educate those who want to listen. I have close friends, family and even clients who are Doctors, Dietitians, Physios etc and therefore when I broadly 'slate' other medical professionals please do not take offense; if you are reading my blogs it is more than likely that you are on top of your game. It is those that blindly listen to terrible health messages and then spout these to others that need to get up tight.
There was a time, about 10+ years ago now, that I believed I knew what I was talking about when I recommended that family and friends reduced their salt and fat intake. So I am no stranger to being brainwashed; however, I remained teachable and instead of simply believing dogma I have done my own research and remained critical in the light of 'new findings'. I try not to be too 'definitive' in my writings either and much of it is subject to small changes; however, I hope the main graphic at the top right of every page is one that can stand the tests of time. If you eat REAL food you will be 95% of the way there. However, even what constitutes real food is open to slight discussion but that's what keeps this game interesting right?
Yours in Nutrition,
Martin MacDonald
