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nativeit 2 hours ago

As a Multiple Sclerosis patient since I was a teenager, let me just say: all you “healthy diet” zealots aren’t helping. Your advice on which blended kale and gogi berry smoothie I should try is cringe and annoying. Normally, the person is right in front of me, and well-intentioned, so I typically smile and politely thank them with a non-committal gesture towards trying it someday.

But since this is all one-party and relatively anonymous, I’d like to take the opportunity to tell everyone that unless you have a PhD or MD in a relevant field, your thoughts about fiber are irrelevant and unwelcome to anyone actually suffering from the disease(s) in question.

staticassertion 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You're on a discussion forum where the topic is colon cancer. Surely you understand that people are going to discuss it?

It's a bit hard to tell from your post what you're saying. Certainly I can imagine being annoyed by constantly being given health advice from layman. But this is... a forum.

pdpi an hour ago | parent | next [-]

There's a bazillion ways to discuss a topic that don't involve giving advice with unearned confidence. Even just saying "My experience is that doing X helped" instead of "You should do X" is a massive massive difference.

staticassertion an hour ago | parent | next [-]

That's fine. It's just unclear to me if the parent poster is being critical exclusively of people "irl" giving unsolicited advice or if they're speaking to the forum of users who come here explicitly to discuss topics like these.

If it's the former, I'm ambivalent. I don't give advice as a general rule. If it's the latter, I find that totally silly.

Freedom2 34 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

One thing I've noticed is that Americans typically use the latter while conversing.

pdpi a few seconds ago | parent [-]

(Nearly) everybody does, it's not an American thing. It takes a bit of personal discipline to avoid it.

2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]
[deleted]
achandra03 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think this is probably due to people suffering from the just-world fallacy. Most folks like to believe that if you do the right things and consume the right stuff you'll have a long and healthy life when the fact of the matter is that luck/randomness plays a much larger role in your health than most people would like to admit.

dbspin 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

One hundred percent. I work in film, and recently had an argument with a friend around this point. He's incredibly healthy, and frequently works a large number of unsociable hours. I was pointing out that filmmaking hours make no concession for family or age. He'd convinced himself that he'll have no more difficulty doing 80 hour weeks in his forties and fifties than he does in his mid thirties, because he 'takes care of himself'. The implication being that everyone could work those hours if they just ate better and held multiple martial arts belts as he does. It was no use pointing out that he'd confused cause and effect.

ericmcer an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You can control your luck a bit though. Granted you could be in perfect health but roll a 1 five times in a row and get a heart attack when you are 40. Or you could be crushing junk food and alcohol but you just keep rolling 6s and make it to 80.

If you look at the sequence of events that happen to trigger a heart attack, it becomes really clear how big a role luck is, but still you can mitigate each step. Studying this stuff also makes your body seem like a walking time bomb.

Rebuff5007 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I dont think this is right... most people I know care more about not doing the "wrong" thing than feeling entitled for doing the "right" thing.

vizzier an hour ago | parent [-]

The issue often manifests in victim blaming. They assume that because something bad has happened to someone then the someone must be guilty of some transgression. Its often done on an unconscious level and we have to check ourselves that we're not doing it.

nuodag 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You’re probably right but it’s also true that that is a very (probably unintended) cruel worldview that thought to the end claims all those suffering had it coming, and as such deserves to be called out and those having it should reconsider.

imjonse 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

One should acknowledge the role genes/luck play in disease, while also admitting that there are a few foods about which there is more or less consensus they are very bad for your health. So you can roll your eyes if someone suggests eating kale sprouts will cure all your problems but don't just keep eating junk food as if the opposite of their take must be good.

logannyeMD 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'll echo this by saying that, as someone who has their MD, there is much we simply do not know. We're always updating our priors and have much to base our decisions off of, but we simply do not understand many things. Medicine is out here winging it with the best of intentions, but there are no "experts" in the grand scheme of things.

VladVladikoff 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But have you tried Kaleidoscopic Perennial Kale?? Not saying it will help at all but it sure looks cool! https://cicadaseeds.ca/products/perennial-kale-seeds-homeste...

jancsika an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> As a Multiple Sclerosis patient since I was a teenager, let me just say: all you “healthy diet” zealots aren’t helping.

I don't understand the relevance to the article. Does Multiple Sclerosis come with a higher risk of colon cancer?

Jerrrrrrrry 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Lol your PhD got you this far, keep appealing to your PhD gods