Mythbusting And Our Responsibility As Bloggers

The other day I was participating in a small twitter conversation during one of the Lifetime Fitness chats. Participating might be the wrong term I suppose, I logged in while it was happening and was immediately put off so I jumped in the middle of a stream of Q&A. I don’t know why, perhaps I’d woke on the wrong side of the bed or perhaps it was because I hadn’t had enough coffee that day. Either way though, I was put off by the general topic of the hour … busting myths.

Now I don’t blame Lifetime Fitness for doing this chat nor do I blame any/all of the people participating in the chat. I’ve participated in a few similar chats myself in the past but this time something wasn’t sitting right. The general Q&A was Fact/Fiction, True/False, Truth/Myth where the moderator asked a question and you were supposed to reply with whether or not you thought it was Truth or Myth. The questions ranged from strength training to eating every few hours per day.

I didn’t have issues with the topics, what I had issues with was the entire underlying approach of the chat. How do you best go about busting a myth? Education and backing with solid science and evidence is the obvious answer isn’t it? Heck, look at the popular Mythbusters TV show … they start each episode with a myth and then spend most of the episode running different experiments that either bust or support the myth.

The definition of a myth is:

noun

1. a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.
2. stories or matter of this kind: realm of myth.
3. any invented story, idea, or concept: His account of the event is pure myth.
4. an imaginary or fictitious thing or person.
5. an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution.

The origin of the word is mythological, as in a form of fiction and by extension imaginary and not necessarily truthful. What is the worst way you could go about busting a myth? By flaming the fire of another myth of course.

I don’t believe they were attempting to flame any new myths in this chat but I really feel like they did. Any casual observer of the chat might question some fundamental things they’re doing (or not) and walk away more confused and no more educated or informed then before stumbling in. Never once was the audience educated as to why the myth might have been created nor were they given information as to the evidence behind the moderators claim that the myth was True or False. Without evidence isn’t that just another myth:

noun

1. a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.
2. stories or matter of this kind: realm of myth.
3. any invented story, idea, or concept: His account of the event is pure myth.
4. an imaginary or fictitious thing or person.
5. an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution.

Without education, sound evidence, and understanding how can we expect to improve people’s health? From their chat I learned that I should skip meals, eat tons and tons of protein, and do strength training (among other things). But why? According to whom? And that’s all I need to do?

Now maybe I’m coming off harsh and a bit dramatic but I’m just so tired of people spouting opinions on how to get healthy & fit without backing them up or discussing how their path is unique to them. Not everyone can, should, or needs to do the same thing to get healthy. Some people have great success eating often (every 2–3 hours), eating a balance of proteins/carbs/fats, and mixing cardio and strength training … that doesn’t mean they’re doing it wrong.

Lets not forget, these same experts who were busting those myths that day were selling the myths as facts a few years months ago. They’re called fitness instructors or personal trainers and they’ve been learning new techniques for years … but lets be clear about something, learning new approaches doesn’t disprove previous ones. It just means there’s more than one solution to a problem and it should be their (and your) job to find the correct and best fitting solution to your unique health & fitness challenges.

One size does not fit all and one approach or technique isn’t invalid when a new one comes along. If your moderating one of these health & fitness chats in the future please please set the right tone for the conversation. And please do your audience a favor, provide links (crazy right) to the facts to backup your information. Ideally to peer reviewed studies or maybe a link to a website (crazy idea) that has many studies backing your claims. If it’s too much to add one to every tweet then wrap up the chat with links to all of the information.

Oh yea, in case you’re wondering, telling someone to Google it is not the answer folks. I can find just about anything on Google to prove anything I want. Reputable, proven, peer reviewed studies or research really has to be at the foundation of breaking any myth and we as bloggers and advocates to healthy lifestyles online should be at the forefront of advocating and educating and not just evangelizing it.

I’m curious what you think about these chats? Am I overreacting?

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