It seems like every piece of advice we receive from others about our health or safety is prefaced with the words, “They say”. You may have been told not to drink out of certain plastic bottles because “they say it’s dangerous,” or to avoid gluten because “they say it can be bad for you.”

There is no shortage of advice out there for how to take care of ourselves, and we often follow it without hesitation. While some of the advice rendered in this context fits in the category of urban legend, a good deal of it is based in science. Much of what we know about the dangers of smoking, for example, has been built from decades of science, and it begs the question of just who “they” are and how “they” know so much. [Read more…]

Originally posted on June 11, 2018 @ 8:31 pm