Follow the Money

Since I stopped training as advised by the wider fitness business, since I stopped popping post-workout shakes and since I began ignoring government backed nutrition advice, I have had to rely increasingly on my paleo compass. This isn't infallible, but is, I believe, a better option. The physical results I have seen by following the compass have definitely lead to better results - and in a hell of a lot less time.

My compass is not without error. I guess I am guilty at times of a romantic belief about paleo living and eating. But even a stopped clock is correct twice a day and the margin of error would appear to be quite small. Personal results speak volumes.

A few weeks ago I blogged about a story claiming Low Carb Diets Causing Athersclerosis. As I wrote then, this sent my paleo compass a-spinning. Something smelt bad!. Whenever I am faced with such a story I still trust the compass going forwards. But to find the source of the smell you have to go backwards.....following the money.

Thus it is with some comfort that I found this story in yesterday's Guardian:

• Doctors have been agreeing to be named as authors on studies written by employees of the pharmaceutical industry, giving greater credibility to medical research, according to new evidence.

the most damning sentence related to funding, where one of the doctors whose research was funded by Proctor and Gamble opined:

• "The only thing that we have to watch all the time is our relationship with P&G. Because … we have the big Sheffield Centre Grant [from P&G] which is a good source of income, we have got to really watch it." .

I do wonder at times if the difference between the direction pointed to by my paleo compass and that advised by 'conventional health/fitness/nutrition/exercise' doesn't push me in to the realms of 'conspiracy theorist' or paleo extremist. But this story does expose a dodgy underbelly to a discipline that really should be above reproach.