Another reason why nutrition remains an academic backwater is because we don’t have good biomarkers (e.g., blood tests) that measure what people are actually eating. Most of the data in nutritional studies are obtained through memory recall to food questionnaires. You can see for yourself—try asking someone what they’ve eaten for the last three days. Most people can’t tell you what they’ve eaten in the last three hours. Which doesn’t even factor in that sometimes people lie, not always intentionally, but perhaps they put on rose-colored glasses when it comes to memory recall.
