Busybody TV Doctor Wants to Inspect, Control What Supplements You Can Take

Dec 19, 2024

I’ve lost count of how many times some very close approximation of the below scenario has unfolded in my personal life:

· A doctor asks me if I’m taking any supplements

· I tell him

· He might be familiar with creatine or something more common on the list but is clearly unacquainted with anything more exotic than that — for example, Bacopa monnieri

· If he were not afflicted with a God complex the size of Wisconsin, he would honestly acknowledge that he doesn’t know what it is and inquire to that effect. Instead, because he has been trained to maintain the façade of authority at all times, he doesn’t ask what it is but rather asks why I am taking it — a subtle dodge to continue the conversation without losing face

· I tell him why I am taking it

· He shakes his head and says it’s an unnecessary supplement that doesn’t work

· Turning the tables, I politely ask him why it’s unnecessary/doesn’t work

· Blank look, followed by furrowed brows of indignation that a mere peasant would question the edicts of a credentialed priest of The Science™

· Some artful PR-speak variation of “because I said so”

The point being: actual practicing doctors — much less actors portraying themselves as doctors on television for money and fame — know next to nothing in reality about nutrition or supplementation. They receive, notoriously, on average, less than twenty hours of nutrition training total in their four years at medical school.

So when this telegenic, suave asshole pretending to be a concerned doctor — very probably on some industry front group payroll —suggests on corporate state media that Americans “bring your supplements to your doctor’s appointment” so he/she/zhe can inspect them for approval because the highly trustworthy FDA with multifaceted perverse incentives is alleging they are tainted, I’ll take a hard pass, and you should too.