So, What’s the Answer? What Should I Do?

I was doing some research yesterday about the changing history of expert medical opinion on canola oil and omega-6 fatty acids (of all things). Over the past several decades, it has fluctuated from positive to negative and back to positive again.

Having been in the natural health publishing industry during much of that time, I knew about those changes. And we reported on them in our publications. But in trying to understand the science behind the shifting views in order to form my own opinion, I realized that it was far too complicated for an amateur like me.

Something similar is true of just about every important issue I care about – from economics, to politics, to sociology, to race and gender relations, to charity, to business, and on and on. These are all complicated subjects. And because the discourse on them is politicized today, the facts and statements purporting to be facts pile up on either side of every argument.

If your doctor/lawyer/nutritionist/teacher can’t be sure, how can you?

Well, I can’t. Yet, decisions have to be made. Big ones. Small ones. Dozens every day.

Do you eat paleo or vegan? Buy or rent? Vote for or against gun control? Have this type of medical treatment or another?

There is only one thing to do. Find people (a) that you feel you can trust, (b) that have not just knowledge but proven experience in the subject, and (c) ask for their advice.