In this bonus episode, author and science communicator Timothy Caulfield returns to discuss what to do if your healthcare provider seems to be under the influence of gut hype, how journalists and health professionals can report on and advise people about gut health in a responsible way, how his research on gut hype changed his own eating and health behaviors, and more.
Timothy Caulfield is an author and professor at the Faculty of Law and School of Public Health, University of Alberta. He has won numerous academic, science communication, and writing awards, and is a Member of the Order Canada and a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He contributes frequently to the popular press and is the author of two national bestsellers: The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness (Penguin 2012) and Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash (Penguin 2015). His most recent book is Relax, Dammit!: A User’s Guide to the Age of Anxiety (Penguin Random House, 2020). Caulfield is also the co-founder of the science engagement initiative #ScienceUpFirst and was the host and co-producer of the award-winning documentary TV show, A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, which has been shown in over 60 countries, including streaming on Netflix in North America. Find him at the University of Alberta, and on social media @CaulfieldTim.
Resources and References
Christy’s second book, The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being
Christy’s online course, Intuitive Eating Fundamentals
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Transcript
Disclaimer: The below transcription is primarily rendered by AI, so errors may have occurred. The original audio file is available above.
Christy Harrison: Hey there. Welcome to this bonus episode of Rethinking Wellness. I'm Christy. And today, we're back with more from author and science communicator, Timothy Caulfield, who returns to discuss what to do if your health care provider seems to be under the influence of gut hype, how journalists and health professionals can report on and advise people about gut health in a responsible way, how his research on gut hype changed his own eating and health behaviors, and more. And now without any further ado, here's my bonus interview with Timothy Caulfield. So, Tim, welcome back. Thank you so much for coming for this bonus episode.
Timothy Caulfield: Thank you.
Christy Harrison: I know there are quite a few journalists and dietitians and other clinicians in my audience. And so I'm curious for anyone in those fields, if you have any tips on how to report on or advise people about gut health or maybe on other, you know, science in general in a responsible way. We talked a little bit about that in the main episode, and, you know, you mentioned that there are some tools and ways that people can communicate science, you know, accurately and responsibly and not fall prey to hype. So just curious if you can share some of those.
Timothy Caulfield: You know, the first one is a sort of big picture one. Recognize that there is hype there. It's kind of an obvious recommendation, but, you know, our knowledge translation ecosystem is just filled with incentives that create hype, and I'm just talking about in the university system. Right? With respect to our research environment. I'm not even talking about social media and marketing. So just recognize that there's hype there.
The second thing is, look at the study. Look at the study. You know, was it a big study? Was it an animal study? What were the limitations of the study? What are the realistic applications of the study? You know, just doing those two things, I think can make a real difference. And the last thing I would suggest is, wherever possible, use a weight of evidence approach. In other words, don't represent something in one study as being, you know, conclusive. Always put that study in the context of where the research more broadly sits.
Christy Harrison: That's so tricky in this day and age, right, with the commercial pressures as you talked about in the main episode, wanting to make something exciting, needing to sell papers, or get eyeballs on a story or whatever it is. And, you know, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on, like, the larger media ecosystem and how that needs to change maybe to sort of support better reporting on science.
Timothy Caulfield: You know, I do. I actually think we're in the middle of a knowledge creation crisis. There's this decrease in trust in science, decrease in trust in journalism and the media more broadly. We're seeing the rise of social media influencers who are kind of filling that void, and by the way, creating more distrust in those institutions. And I think the bedrock of our fight against the spread of misinformation and twisted science is the creation of trustworthy science and trustworthy translation of science. And so I think that it starts obviously with the research institutions. But those knowledge translators out there, whether it's a clinician or a journalist or someone who's on social media, they play such an important role in making the science accurate, but also engaging. So we need those voices out there representing science as accurately as possible.
Christy Harrison: Mhmm. Going back to gut health a little bit, what do you think people should do if they encounter a health care provider who seems to be under the influence of this gut hype and is pushing gut health protocols or pushing, you know, probiotics for things that they aren't necessarily indicated for and things like that?
