On Baseless Advice

All over the web, there are articles on this or that. What foods you should be eating. Exercises you should be doing. How to be happy in life. And on and on. These articles are written with very little in the way of authority. No papers are cited. No studies are done. Indeed, it seems they merely copy their well-worn advice from someone else.

Yet, advice like this abounds. The four food groups were suggested by some governmental group. Then, it became a pyramid. Needless to say, they suggested foods that were commonly available in the US. After all, why mention fruits that could only be found in obscure parts of Asia.

People seem to get paid to do this, as if they had never written a research paper in their lives, and yet they feel supremely qualified to tell you what to do. Now, as with most people, I take such advice with a grain of salt. If it makes some sense, I might follow it.

I'm just surprised how common it is.