Too good to be true

“Nutrition interventions are very rarely curative!”

We can rarely rely on nutrition interventions alone to completely reverse or cure diseases or injuries.

Foods, drinks, diets and nutrition supplements mostly serve as supportive interventions that help other treatments, improve healing or help to manage a long-term condition. For example, following specific dietary advice for tuberculosis, or for managing diabetes.

Nutrition deficiencies, however, are an exception and most can be completely cured with nutrition interventions. For example, iron deficiency can be cured with iron-rich foods and iron supplements. In some cases, nutrition deficiencies have irreversible consequences. For example, pregnant women who do not consume enough iodine, a mineral needed for brain development, can have a baby with severe impaired physical and mental growth (congenital iodine deficiency syndrome), which cannot be cured.

BEWARE of ‘miracle’ or curative claims about nutrition interventions.

REMEMBER: ‘Miracle’ or curative claims about nutrition interventions are likely to be wrong, unless they are based on fair comparisons of interventions.