subject: Women Nutrition And Fitness Misinformation [print this page] While the field of nutrition and fitness is overlaid by many myths, men seem at a lesser loss than are women when it comes to misinformation. Most nutrition and fitness experts will tell you of acquaintances and clients who came soliciting for advice based on very flimsy worries and or concerns and sometimes outright misinformation. The fairer sex is bombarded with volumes and volumes of literature each pointing to a new direction for success in dieting and fitness training. The result is that most, instead of gaining knowledge from the various sources, they get confused by the myriad of training regimens and diet routines advocated.
The main cause of this contemporary misinformation is because women usually source their information from casual conversations and or discussions with fellow women. Most of these discussions and or conversations are based on heresy, misconceptions and bias. The same information is reiterated by fitness novices and some unscrupulous experts to form the gospel truth in most a female body builders.
And in comes the mass media. Anyone with a critical but objective mind will conquer that the media today has gone haywire. Instead of educating, informing and guiding the mass, most times the contemporary media has become a vehicle of myths and misconceptions. This has resulted mainly because of the business concerns of most media houses overriding those of the editorial departments. As such, most columns and features and nutrition magazines are specifically written as sales pitches for particular products available in the market. The problem has been perpetuated by the invasion of a million and one magazines both on and offline claiming to be fitness and nutritional publications. The fads, ads, fashion features, advice lines and expert columns usually dispense fitness and nutritional advice with an engrained bias and misinformation.
The problem is not unique to women only because even men are riding on the same country bus. It is however more pronounced among the fairer sex mainly because they are more concerned about fashion, looks and sexy physiques. This might sound like exaggeration or hyperboles but the seriousness of misinformation in women nutrition and physical fitness fields requires urgent attention. Not much can be achieved by government or organizational control and or regulation, especially now that we are living in a global neighborhood.
The good news is that, no regulation is required to ensure that a female and even male bodybuilder does not fall prey to this misinformation. The answer lies in each individual body builder. The point is to ensure that he or she, and especially she, makes the right choices when it comes to which information to take as the gospel truth and which to reject or ignore. A body builder should learn that only personal experts can make the advice given fit their individual needs and characteristics. Secondly, advice should not be taken ignorantly just as advice but the credibility of the source should be rigorously questioned and established before the body builder begins an advocated routine.
Friends, colleagues and acquaintances or even pop-up magazines online should not be considered as authentic sources of guidance. Although even these informal sources of info sometimes carry a grain of truth, the potential danger of misinformation is overwhelming.
