If you are confused about what's healthy to eat these days, you are not alone.

Every day, we are faced with new health warnings and nutritional discoveries. There are studies that show going vegetarian actually will increase your chances of suffering a heart attack, and that drinking coffee or smoking cigarettes might even help to prevent some kinds of cancer. A glass of wine can be good for your heart, (though not your driving). To the horror of our raw-food friends, experts have declared that carrots and then tomatoes must be eaten cooked. Green tea has just lost its status for promoting longevity - its asserted health benefits were entirely discredited in recent experiments. Meanwhile, other studies agreed that now we can eat as many eggs as we like a day, since admonitions about too much cholesterol have been shown to be utterly groundless.

Forget the whole truth

Forty years of sifting through the facts rewarded this writer with a few insights:

1. We don't know enough yet.

Despite this ocean of theories and mountains of data, there still is much more to learn about health and nutrition. Life is far too complex for modern science to explain life in its every aspect. Huge gaps of knowledge about the workings of nutritional biochemistry and body function remain. The most unequivocal declaration from any authority can be overthrown tomorrow. It would be wise to keep an open mind on any assertion one encounters.

2. They could have better tools.

The methodology and theories at the disposal of our experts for examining the aforementioned discoveries are, at best, crude and sometimes naive. Much more advanced measuring instruments and refined methodology and computational concepts are needed before we are able to obtain reliable data and give correct interpretation on a large scale. Over-confidence in the effectiveness of present-day tools can lead to self-deception and public misinformation - which regrettably is the prevailing climate of today.

3. Those who should know have good reasons for fooling themselves.

Companies make clever use of research findings in advertising, slanting them to appear favorable to their products. Researchers design their surveys and experiments and draw their conclusions, keeping in mind the need to guarantee corporate funding for their future research. Restricted by their training and faced with the need to update their knowledge so as to maintain professional standing, members of the medical profession do not always embrace the truth, nor do they always care to promote it. In all these circumstances, the advertisers, researchers and medical professionals are influenced by their biases and often are tempted to be selective in giving out information or even to distort it in their own interests.

4. Some news makes better headlines.

The media pick and choose from among thousands of findings and reports only the most sensational. The isolated experiment that concludes that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is not necessarily bad for health makes headlines, while several hundred studies confirming its health-averse affects are buried. The finding of a high correlation between meatless diets and the frequency of visits to health clinics is juicy stuff to tempt editors to write headlines something like "Vegetarianism Shortens Life", without seeking detailed analysis concerning the population sample, methodology and the validity of the results. Name one TV news editor who dares to bore his viewers and risk his position by reporting the benefits of going meatless. Finally, there is the status quo, which many simply fear to challenge.

How to survive bewildering information?

How does one sort through all this conflicting information? Here's what I do:

* Play safe - Whenever another innovative cooking utensil is marketed beside the claim that it is safe, I wait and see. Invariably, it takes decades and costs thousands of innocent lives before dangerous technology is banned. Meanwhile, I refuse to own a microwave oven or a mobile phone.

* What's at stake? - Hunting down the source of research can shed light on its trustworthiness. If someone stands to gain nothing by urging you to stay away from MSG, would you ignore him, preferring to believe an expert whose research is funded by a company that produces MSG?

* When in doubt, go natural - Faith in the laws of Nature can simplify things dramatically. When health gurus tell me that eating large amounts of bananas on an empty stomach is bad for one's health and that carrots must be cooked to maximize nutrient absorption, I laugh. How about those healthy chimpanzees and rabbits?!

* Your body knows the answers - Tune in to your body. Your body knows what is best for you. It'll tell you if it is craving raw vegetables or more water. The more you listen to your body's intuition, the more attuned you will be to what your body really wants.

Dr Chau chairs the Green Living Education Foundation. He can be contacted at simon@simonchau.hk.

(HK Edition 04/25/2009 page7)