The importance of diet in so-called alternative medicine

Nearly every time that I talk to proponents of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) I hear a lot about diet. Diet is a central theme to almost all of them, it seems. In such conversations, several issues often emerge and frequently take the form of accusations, e.g.:

• Conventional medicine neglects the importance of diet for our health.
• Medical students learn next to nothing about the subject.
• In conventional medicine, hardly any research is focussed on diet.
• By contrast, practitioners of SCAM know a lot about diet.
• Many are experts in the subject.
• Patients are well-advised to consult SCAM practitioners if they want to learn how to eat healthily.
• SCAM practitioners have developed a wide range of diets that keep their patients fit and healthy.

I usually try to object to some of these points. The truth is that medical students do learn about diet, that doctors are aware of its importance, and that research into diets is highly active.

Particularly about the last point, I can get rather irritated. Sadly, this impresses the SCAM fans very little. They have their opinion and rarely budge.

After one such conversation, I decided to go on Medline and produce some figures. Here they are:

• As of 6 October, there are 1 453 clinical trials listed on Medline as published in 2024.*
• Between 1957 and today, around 57 000 such trials have been published.
• Their number shows an almost exponential growth during this period.
• The diets tested range widely and include, for instance, the Mediteranean diet, the ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, vegetarian diet, energy restricted diet, gluten-free diet.
• There are as good as no trials on any of the SCAM diets.
• The researchers doing the diet trials are almost exclusively conventional medics or nutritionist.
• I did not find any SCAM practitioners in the list of authors.

So, the next time a SCAM proponent bullshits you about diet, you can tell him or her to get lost!

*Not all are, in fact, clinical trials