Mindless Thinking – Is This Man Qualified to Tell You What to Eat?

(Note:  When I finished writing my review of Mindless Eating, it came out to nearly 2,000 words, too long for a blog entry even by my verbose standards.  So I am breaking my review up into installments.) 

Several weeks ago, a lot of the mainstream nutrition blogs were practically wetting themselves with joy about the appointment of Brian Wansink to head the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, the division of the USDA that interferes in the diets of Americans advises Americans on what to eat.  At last, sighed the nutrition writers, we’ll see sensible nutrition policy coming from the USDA.

I’m all for sensible nutrition policy, although I often disagree with the mainstream about what that means.  I had never heard of Wansink, though, so I put in a library request for his popular book, Mindless Eating.  Like me, you may not know Wansink by name, but you have probably heard of his research.  He’s the guy who discovered that people eat more if food is served on bigger plates.

Having now read the book, I must say that what Brian Wansink doesn’t know about nutrition is even more interesting than what he knows.  The man has a PhD from Stanford, and I simply couldn’t understand how he could propagate the glaring misconceptions that occur throughout Mindless Eating.

Let’s start with the most obvious one:

But in 1968, grain prices were low.  When I innocently asked Uncle Lester why we weren’t seeing a movie that year, he summarized the state of agricultural economics in seven words, “We would if people ate more corn.”  To an 8-year-old, this pretty much translated into “If I ever hope to see a movie again, I’d better think of a way to get people to eat more vegetables.”  (Mindless Eating, p. 3)

Corn, of course, is not a vegetable.  It’s a grain, and poor in nutrition even as grains go.  (Think pellagra.)  I can forgive Wansink’s 8-year-old self for thinking corn was a vegetable – in the 60s virtually every parent in America fed corn and peas to their kids and called them vegetables.  Heck, many parents still do this.  But grownup Wansink, with his PhD, should know better, and it is his responsibility to spread knowledge, not misconceptions.

Another thing that Wansink doesn’t seem to know is the role of insulin in the regulation of hunger (more on that in a minute).   Discussing the surge in popularity of the Atkins diet a few years ago, he says:

The Atkins Diet worked initially because it made eating a mindless activity.  There were bad guys (carbohydrates) and good guys (meat and vegetables), and very little variety.

The good news:  the Atkins Diet worked.  The bad news:  It was boring to eat just meat and vegetables.  (Mindless Eating, p. 70)

Does Dr. Wansink not know that Atkins works by directly regulating the production of insulin?  How could a guy with a PhD be unaware that insulin is secreted in response to carbohydrate consumption, and that it causes the storage of both serum glucose and serum fat in the adipose (fat) tissue?  And how could a nutrition expert not know that the allowable foods on a low-carbohydrate regimen are legion?  You can eat eggs, bacon, beef, lamb, pork chops, sausage, ham, fish, chicken, duck, turkey, fresh cream, sour cream, literally thousands of different kinds of cheeses, lettuce, spinach, watercress, arugula, mizuna, dandelion greens, mushrooms, green beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, collards, turnip greens, radishes, zucchini, summer squash, winter squash, pumpkin, red peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, turnips, carrots, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, fish roe, anchovies, olives, avocados, full fat yogurt, smoked salmon, oysters, lobster, mussels, scallops, clams, crab, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, canteloupe, honeydew, crenshaw melons, casaba melons, small quantities of apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, bananas, peaches, nectarines, and plums, chicken livers, calves’ liver, olive oil, peanut oil, butter, coconut oil, 85% dark chocolate, coconut milk, lemons, limes, chile peppers, garlic, onions, and every herb and spice imaginable.  (In the last three months, I’ve probably eaten all of these, except bananas, which I don’t like, and liver, which I didn’t like as a kid and have not tried since.)

I have never, ever been bored by a low-carb diet.  And as for Wansink’s implicit claim that carbohydrates add variety to our diet, anyone who is truthful has to admit that it is the high-carb snack foods that are boring.  One of my favorite posts at Mark’s Daily Apple, says it best:  “But even being so careful about what goes on my plate, I’d say honestly I get a lot more flavor and variety than some people I know who insist on a steady diet of burgers, beers and pizzas. The truth is, “fun” foods like nachos, pizza and tacos all taste the same: the texture is usually a mix of creamy or crunchy, there’s a lot of salt, some meat-type seasoning, and sugar. Eat that stuff and you’re starving the next hour…. But honestly, I never am deprived, hungry or suffer from any cravings. Actually, I refuse to eat something that isn’t delicious, period. To me, the relentlessly boring, salty, familiar flavor of most processed foods is not delicious. The fact that they’re also totally unhealthy is almost a side issue.”

Amen, Mark.

Yes, the diet’s simplicity makes it easy to understand – no grains, no potatoes or other starchy vegetables, no caloric sweeteners, no liquid milk – but the ease of understanding the diet is a secondary, bonus feature.  One could conceive of an even simpler diet – eat 1000 calories worth of pure sugar a day, for example – that would fail because it doesn’t address how fat is stored by the body.

So there I was, reading, and scratching my head over how one could obtain PhD in nutrition from an illustrious university like Stanford and know less about how insulin works that little ol’ amateur me.  Then I discovered that Wansink’s PhD was in marketing, specifically a field called Consumer Behavior.  Yes, that’s right – the guy at the USDA that is supposed to be telling Americans what to eat has a PhD in marketing.  But maybe his bachelor’s or master’s degrees are in nutrition?  Nope, his B.A. from Wayne State College is in Business and Technology; and his M.S. from Drake University is, as he says on p. 3 of Mindless Eating, is in communication research.

Yes, boys and girls, it is entirely likely that the man who will be heading the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion knows less about nutrition than I do.  Or you.  Or your 8-year-old.  Will you take advice from him?

So the mystery of how Wansink could manage to know so little about nutrition is finally cleared up – it’s actually not his area of expertise.  But this raises a new mystery – why are so many nutritionists from Marion Nestle on down so excited by this guy?  Shouldn’t a nutritionist be skeptical that the new nutrition czar at the USDA actually has no special expertise in that field?

Next up:  flaws in Wansink’s research.