…Now, with any luck, the game is up for this form of research. On page 6 you’ll find details of the 63-author review headed by the University of Aberdeen’s Prof John Speakman that decided to check the most basic metric: self-reported energy intake – ie calories, or the amount of food admitted to. It concludes that in the studies they looked at, more than 50% of the dietary information was inaccurate. “The macronutrient composition from dietary reports in these studies was systematically biased as the level of misreporting increased, leading to potentially spurious associations between diet components and body mass index”, they reported.

The research team publishing in Nature Food detail some obvious reasons for this: “All these methods are prone to ‘misreporting’ because people cannot accurately estimate the amount of food they are eating, have fallible memories for their intake and may, in some cases, deliberately falsify reports. In addition, for food intake diaries, people may react during the period of recording by changing their intake”.  Or as one of my favourite nutritionists, Martin MacDonald, says: “People lie”.

And it turns out that some of the participants’ food recall reports in trusted surveys are only updated once every 2-4 years!

The Nature paper comments: “The problem of misreporting is so ubiquitous and severe that there have been calls for journals to stop publishing studies based on methods that depend on participants estimating their own dietary intake.. Yet, such studies continue to proliferate in the literature”.

Don’t be scared of AI – it’s here to help

It’s not going to replace you at the intimate point of shared power you have when you connect with a client. But it might just save you time and help you find answers more quickly.

Mike Ash, probably the leading clinical educator in the UK , is offering us an artificial intelligence tool tuned to our specific needs. He gave me an exclusive, pre-launch intro to FunctionalMind™ – it starts on page 25.

Mike says: “Amidst the rapid advancements in AI and technology, clinical expertise becomes more crucial than ever. The true art of medicine – understanding intricate patient narratives, fostering trust, and applying nuanced clinical judgment – will transform these technological innovations into powerful tools for delivering exceptional care”.

It’s one of those articles – you’ll think you’ve got it…kryptopyrroluria

Yes, thanks Gilian…when you read the list of “consequences” in Gilian Crowther’s great “beginner’s guide” to this double-pronged haeme disorder (page 42), I guarantee you’ll be wondering if you need to check yourself out.