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Comment by throwawaaarrgh | Hacker News Reader

Except that everyone's body is different, and sometimes you really should be on a particular diet of some kind. Ask your doctor what to eat, eat that. When they say "stop drinking", "cut back the salt", "eat more fiber", etc, do it.

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> Ask your doctor what to eat, eat that.

Ummmm ... maybe. I work in a medical practice, and I don't think the doctor's really have that great an understanding of nutrition. I'm not sure it's even something they study at med-school.

Med school gives you maybe a couple of lectures on nutrition specifically, and it's mentioned as a major risk factor when discussing many diseases. A doctor should be able to tell you the basics, but if you want detailed info you should really be speaking to a registered dietitian instead.

But that shouldn't be handled by jumping into random diets. Better approach is people think there is something wrong, is to start strict elimination diet and gradually add different food groups.

Honestly, our bodies are different but not that different. Barring digestive issues like celiac disease and allergies, the basic guidelines are pretty much the same for all of us.

The idea that you need a highly personalized custom diet is a lie peddled by everyone who profits from this

You do not need to see a doctor prior to eating kale

Your doctor is a person who uses WebMD to determine what prescription to write you as quickly as possible. Your doctor is probably unhealthy also.

My wife is a doctor, most of of our friends have at least one, often both as doctors. Most of them are living healthily, but that may be also due to location - Geneva, Switzerland which has strong French influence. Meaning good high quality food is default, portions smaller than US, tons of physical exercise is a default here, we have beautiful nature and mountains at our doorsteps so that helps. My banking IT colleagues fall into exactly same category.

But then there are the rest, which have various issues like eating crap, overweight, no sports etc. Yet they know fully darn well where it leads to. Either they make some mental bypass like smokers 'it won't happen to me', or they are at peace and enjoy themselves.

Proper knowledge of consequences is not enough to persuade everybody, regardless of their IQ. Also, even healthily folks that are say anxious go sometimes on regretful binging spree when things get tougher.

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