At each point in the history of beriberi, many years before the true cause was discovered, doctors would be convinced that their current treatment was the correct one, even when it was clearly ineffective. I wondered whether, in the future, we might look back on our current understanding of obesity and see a similar pattern to the misunderstanding and mistreatment of beriberi sufferers before vitamin B1 was discovered. Certainly, our current advice and treatment does not seem to be working to affect the obesity crisis, but doctors are still convinced that the current treatments are the correct
...more

