Nutrition Science

Most of the time when I embark on such an investigation, it quickly becomes clear that matters are much more complicated and ambiguous, several shades grayer than I thought going in. Not this time. The deeper I delved into the confused and confusing thicket of nutritional science, sorting through the long-running fats versus carb wars, the fibre skirmishes, and the raging dietary supplement debates, the simpler the picture gradually became. I learned that, in fact, science knows a lot less about nutrition than you would expect; that, in fact, nutrition science is, to put it charitably, a very young science. It's still trying to figure out exactly what happens in your body when you sip a soda, or what is going on deep in the soul of a carrot to make it so good for you, or why in the world you have so many neurons - brain cells! - in your stomach, of all places. It's a fascinating subject, and someday the field may produce definitive answers to the nutritional questions that concern us, but as nutritionists themselves will tell you - they're not there yet.