Nutrition Advice Red Flags To Look Out For (with Dr. Idz)

It's sometimes hard to know what advice online (and offline) is credible or not, and seeing someone who is a 'Dr', 'nutritionist' or even 'dietitian' might make us assume they are a trustworthy source... but that's not always the case. Dr Idrees Mughal MBBS, MRes, DipIBLM (@Dr_Idz on socials) is joining me today to demystify the cloud of confusion around who you should trust.

We explore the key red flags to look out for (and some green flags to keep in mind!) when you're looking to follow content creators' advice about health/wellness. Dr. Idz also shares the challenges of providing personalized nutritional advice in the healthcare system and why there are so many limitations placed on providing patients with tailored advice.

Hit play to learn which health/wellness influencers are full of red flags vs full of solid logic and advice. 👀

TOPICS COVERED 👇 

Dr. Idz Background (00:00:03)

Determining the credibility of nutrition advice (00:08:31)

Red flags for non-credible content creators (00:10:53)

The limitations of providing tailored nutritional advice (00:20:39)

The false promises of functional medicine (00:24:34)

The holistic nature of Western medicine (00:28:05)

Criteria for trusting online sources (00:31:16)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Dr. Idz's online school

Dr. Idz on Instagram

Dr. Idz on Tiktok

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Transcript

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Michelle (00:00:03) - Welcome back to the Interest free podcast. I'm your host, Michelle Yates, a registered dietitian, and this show is for discussing how to have a nourishing and healthy relationship with food while being free from all the diet, misinformation, food guilt, and disordered eating. Our episode today is specifically designed to help you with navigating the nutrition misinformation. Today, there's so much with social media, and I mean, there really always has been with any form of media, but especially with social media at our fingertips. And my guest today could not be more perfect for this topic. Dr. Idriss McGill, better known as doctor it's is a medical doctor with his master's in Nutritional Research and is board certified in Lifestyle medicine. Dr. is on Instagram and TikTok has a combined following of over 2 million due to his hilarious reaction videos where he breaks down the flaws in the health and wellness videos that we see today. And the nice thing about his videos is that he really shares the evidence and the science behind why this is misinformation, whatever it is that he's talking about, are highlighting at the time his myth busting, quote unquote school videos have drawn quite a crowd, like I said.

Michelle (00:01:10) - But with it, are people hungry to learn more about how they can know for themselves if somebody's health and wellness advice is to be trusted or not? Maybe it's just total B.S, it's tough to know. And so that's why I really like following Dr. is because he does a really good job of breaking it down for the average person to understand. Today I'm actually going to discuss two different topics with Dr. is. So we're going to have two episodes. In today's episode we're diving deep into how to figure out whether you should trust somebody's nutrition advice or not and how to decide who to trust. And then in my next episode, we're going to discuss the topic of health every size, which is a big part of the anti diet movement. We want to discuss that in more detail and kind of have an open conversation about how evidence based that is. Really quick. Before we dive into this episode, I do need to forewarn you, after recording that whole episode, I realized that my microphone was set to be on my AirPods.

Michelle (00:02:04) - So as a result, I have this beautiful microphone next to me, by the way. But I just forgot to do the setting where it uses the mic for my sound. And so as a result, it sounds like I'm on the phone and I'm like calling into the show or something. So I just want to acknowledge that and apologize in advance. For all of you listening who expect the highest quality sound out of a podcast, I'm the same way I would expect the podcast I'm listening to, especially the host of the show, to have good sounding audio quality. And unfortunately, I totally screwed up. So I apologize in advance. But I had such a good conversation with Dr. is that I didn't want to scratch the whole episode, and I was for sure not going to ask him to come on all over again. That is a complete waste of his time, so I hope you'll enjoy this episode. Even though I made a mistake with the audio setup. Doctor, is it so nice to have you here today? I've been following you for what feels like ages, like I was sharing with you a minute ago.

Michelle (00:03:03) - So it's been really, really cool to now connect with you personally and be a part of the school. And to have you on the show is a huge honor for sure.

Dr. Idz (00:03:11) - Thank you very much for having me. Yeah, it's a pleasure. I'm excited, excited to do this and excited for your future collaborations in the school as well.

Michelle (00:03:19) - Yeah, yeah. So I don't know if I've told you how I found you yet, but I actually found you from I don't know if you remember this, but you did a video on the statistic that 95% of diets fail. And as you know, the anti diet kind of health at every size group of dietitians throw that around a lot. That statistic in particular. And so when I found your video at first I was like kind of ruffled. I was like getting defensive like but they do 95% fail. And then I actually listened to what you had to say. And I looked into this, the research and everything, because I do like I take the time to look at what you cited.

Michelle (00:03:55) - And I was like, oh, he makes some really good points. So your video actually left a huge impression on me in a really good way because it it taught me that I shouldn't just, like, blindly follow what the people in my same field are doing and the people that are in my nation or whatever. So. I mean, that was impressive that you left such a big impact, because that's hard to do when you're on social media. So that's just a small little window into I know the impact that you've had on a lot of other professionals too, and that was really valuable. So thank you for that, because that was a good shift in my career to know kind of recenter on.

Dr. Idz (00:04:32) - Yeah. Thank you for being receptive, which is something that a lot of professionals aren't. And, you know, I've had many back to backs and back and forth with a supposedly credible professionals who don't think it's a good idea to, you know, look into opposing evidence on whatever your stance is and they'll just hammer and perpetuate, you know, commonly perceived statistics like the 95% thing, right? So yeah, no, just kudos for you for, you know, being actually being receptive and doing what any credible professionals should do and challenging your own bias, which is great, you know.

Dr. Idz (00:05:08) - Fantastic.

Michelle (00:05:10) - Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think your content does a really good job of like convicting people to do that, you know, and you're I also really appreciate that your content is not focused on one group of people. Like you're not specifically going after people who don't have credentials, or people who are doctors or people who are like, you really do create content around anybody that is maybe not seeing the full story, and then you give that full story which is which is cool. So, I mean, you do end up picking up professionals quite a bit. How does it usually go when they see your video publicly calling them out?

Dr. Idz (00:05:46) - Yeah, that's a good question. I would say that the majority of you know, these professionals, no matter what field is they're in, they will probably ignore it or block me as a kind of first response. You know, that's probably like 50 to 70% of them. Another 20%. My kind of respond with a comment or to say, oh, well, you know, you're simply wrong or you know, just not bother to even listen to what it is that I'm saying.

Dr. Idz (00:06:18) - So it's like, what was the whole point of me actually making the video? But now what I've what I've realized is actually me responding to other professionals and, you know, providing some more of the nuance or, you know, some kind of stronger evidences. It's not about changing that individual's opinion. It's about reaching the audience that that individual has to then try and make them see more of the picture. Right. So now I really don't care if a so-called professional updates their view, because often they've been so ingrained in, you know, advocating for this particular narrative or this particular viewpoint that they have no interest in changing, even if all of the evidence in the world was to point the other the other direction. Right. So I think it's more about kind of providing insight into their own audience. Not so much. The original poster or the original person that made the content. Right? So yeah, I don't really focus on how they respond. I'm going to call them out and I'm going to do it in a relatively respectful way, unless they're an outright charlatan, outright grifter who? So yeah, like, you know, I have my method of doing things.

Dr. Idz (00:07:33) - I do also agree with certain points as well. So I make a lot of videos where I'm actually agreeing with the creator that a lot of people don't seem to remember because they know the drama, right? They love people, love drama, so.

Michelle (00:07:47) - They.

Dr. Idz (00:07:47) - Do. Me agreeing with a statement's not going to be in the back of someone's mind as much as me calling someone out and, you know, being like, you're a muppet, right? Whatever. Like.

Michelle (00:07:59) - Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure that's that's what people usually respond to when you're calling them out. Right? Is more like, oh, will you disagree with and whatever? But you're like, actually, I did agree with you on some points too. And they just missed that. Right? Because they feel defensive. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to discuss that topic then of who to really trust then for nutrition advice because it can get so confusing. Right. Like a lot of these people that you do videos about are supposed to be credible sources.

Michelle (00:08:31) - And so it can get really, really confusing trying to figure out how do I know what's credible or not. Because this person has all the credentials. That and some obviously don't. Like we've mentioned with the charlatans and everything, but like some people don't but some do. And you would expect what they're saying right off the bat to be accurate just from their education. But but a lot of times it's not right. So what are some of the things that you look for when a professional, regardless of their credentials, is giving whatever information out to figure out if it's if it's credible or not?

Dr. Idz (00:09:09) - Yeah, interesting. Interesting question. I would say. That one of the biggest kind of Telltale's for me when I'm, you know, quickly browsing someone's content is do they provide a balanced or nuanced discussion around anything. Right. Are they the type of person to make reductionist, kind of like absolutist statements, or are they the kind of person that actually provides nuance and, you know, provides a balanced, a balanced argument? Right.

Dr. Idz (00:09:44) - Because as we know in health science, nutrition science, there is no absolutes. There's no, like one solution for all people. There's no one best intervention for, you know, for all people. And how do you even quantify, you know, the best for something, right? Because you need to obviously look at different demographics, different kind of medical populations, different ages, gender, etcetera. So I think when someone makes content and straight away I see statements like, you know, here's like the worst three things you can do for your health. Right. And it's some random, you know, drinking tap water or flipping. You know, brushing. Brushing your teeth with fluoride. Something that just random just mentions, right? Yeah. Straight away, those kind of segments. I'm just like, I don't even have to look at anything else they're saying. I just know automatically they're not credible. Right. Because no actual academic, you know, find me a single scientific publication that goes, here are the three worst or best things you can do, right? That's just no academic talks like that.

Dr. Idz (00:10:53) - Because because we understand that, you know, you're supposed to understand that there is obviously exceptions to every rule. And people that are that are just there making kind of like sensationalized, you know, styles of content to incite emotional responses, incite kind of controversy. Those aren't the kind of people that I'm interested in. And I wouldn't advise my followers or your followers to, you know, take those creators with any kind of authority or as a credible source of information. That's probably one of the biggest giveaways. Another giveaway is creators that don't even allude to evidence or allude to science. Right? That's obviously a major giveaway. People making claims without any kind of scientific backing, and then those who do make claims, right when they kind of they're a bit defensive about it and they're a little bit hesitant to provide evidence. They become a little bit sassy, you know, like. Someone off the top of my head that springs to mind straight away is like, you know, Max, Max, lava lamp or whatever.

Dr. Idz (00:12:02) - His last name is. Lugovoi. He'll he'll, you know, he'll become very sassy, like a child, you know, he'll just insult people. And I've seen it time and time again. You know, people that think that people should just take their opinions as gold standard without, you know, any kind of questioning is, is, is seemed as being. You can't question what I'm saying. Right. It's like, how are you supposed to frame yourself as an expert if you're not going to, if you're not going to welcome criticism or, you know, constructive criticism? Obviously I'm not I'm not talking about insults. I'm talking about genuine or, you know, elaborations. Someone that is actively defensive, actively snarky, actively not willing to expand on the content. That's another big giveaway that they're not credible. Yeah. And another one, I think this one will filter like 90 to 95% of nonsense creators, right? If someone demonizes seed oils or omega six.

Michelle (00:13:07) - Plus.

Dr. Idz (00:13:08) - You can just, you.

Michelle (00:13:10) - Immediate know.

Dr. Idz (00:13:11) - Ignore the rest of their content. That is such an easy filtering system. If Instagram or Facebook or TikTok had, you know, a seed oil button tick or a cross on everyone's page, you can just figure out straight away no serious academic, no serious expert, no serious researcher would ever demonize seed oils because the overwhelming amount of human evidence right shows they are not inflammatory and in a lot of cases, anti-inflammatory. Right. They don't cause cardiovascular disease. When you replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat from seed oils, you lower, you know, myocardial infarction rates, you lower cardiovascular disease risk, you lower all cause mortality. And not even in observational studies. I'm talking randomized controlled trials. Right. So that's I think those three principles. You know, someone that that lacks nuance, lacks balance in the conversation and uses absolutist or sensationalized styles of intros, a big red flag, you know, someone that's snarky, you know, defensive, kind of hesitates to provide evidence or elaborate on their evidence.

Dr. Idz (00:14:25) - Another red flag and demonisation of seed oils. Those three things you'll probably filter out 95 to 97% of nonsense information. Probably.

Michelle (00:14:36) - Yeah, I love that. That idea of just having a filter on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, where it's like, does this person have this narrative about seed oils? Yes or no? Yes. All right. Moving on. Yeah. There you go. There's your instant filter. So when it comes to I think that people a lot of times come to me and they're like, oh, my doctor told me to do this. My doctor told me to do that. And, you know, in terms of nutrition and a lot of times what I'm hearing is things that. Aren't supported by evidences, at least in the US. So I feel like doctors in the US a lot of times can miss the mark when it comes to nutrition. So I'm curious if you feel like. You're obviously a doctor. So do you feel like doctors in general are a credible source for nutrition information?

Dr. Idz (00:15:20) - So this is a difficult one because it really depends on the structure of the curriculum that you are obviously formally educated in.

Dr. Idz (00:15:30) - You know, I can only speak for my experience and some of the universities kind of around the UK that I'm very familiar with because I've done, you know, medical school interviews, I've done, you know, for hundreds of students. I've obviously lectured at different universities. So what I would say is for my university, the University of East Anglia, you know, they're a very progressive, very kind of modern style of medical school where, you know, from the first week of the first year, you're thrown into hospitals, you're thrown into GP practices, you're thrown into primary care. You know, you're doing live dissection on actual human bodies, right? You're doing problem based learning in groups. You're also doing lectures, seminars. So our entire first semester, the whole semester was called a holistic Understanding of medicine. Right. So imagine you come into university and you're expected to like oh, go straight into, you know, medication and radiology and CT scans and X-rays and how do we treat X, Y, Z.

Dr. Idz (00:16:29) - And your whole first four months is spent around a topic called the fundamentals of the the holistic Nature to medicine. Right. And that whole first semester was all about it was all about, you know, how to improve health outcomes, the importance of exercise, you know, the metabolism of different nutrients and what you know, what constitutes a healthy dietary pattern. And you've got things like, you know, what are some myths around how people catch viruses or illness, you know, like these kind of old fairytales, not fairytales, but old. What are they called? Wives tales. Right. Where you step outside it. Yeah. You would you would step outside in the cold and. Oh, don't go out in the cold with wet hair because you'll catch a catch a cold. Right. And it's like we, we did a lot of this kind of debunking of kind of old misconceptions surrounding health in the more holistic sense of the word. Right? So that's that's how my university did things. And I think any, you know, medical school around the UK, at least, you know, they provide a foundational knowledge on the importance of different nutrients.

Dr. Idz (00:17:37) - You know, what happens to a to fats when you when you die, you know, digest it, you know, how does insulin resistance start obviously because that's a medical condition. You know fatty liver. You know, what are the how do you improve certain outcomes to do with brain health etcetera? I think UK medical schools in general, they're taught about the principles of the UK dietary guidelines, which are very evidence based, of course, as are the American ones. Many people won't like to hear that, but I'm sorry to tell them no. I know the dietary guidelines are pretty like they're very robust, and there's a reason why they're robust, because the evidence says so, right?

Michelle (00:18:17) - Yeah, there are so many people against them though.

Dr. Idz (00:18:20) - So yeah, we can that's that's that'll need a whole nother podcast.

Michelle (00:18:24) - That's another.

Dr. Idz (00:18:25) - Basically. Yeah.

Michelle (00:18:26) - Yeah yeah.

Dr. Idz (00:18:26) - But you know, I guess what I'm trying to say is because nutrition is a very tiny component of all of medicine, because medicine is so vast, it's so huge.

Dr. Idz (00:18:37) - There's so many avenues to someone's health. Right? How much emphasis someone wants to put into their nutritional understanding is going to be very individual, individual based. Right? So if you're a doctor in medical school and you're very, you know, you find a passion or you find that you're very passionate about the nutrition aspect of medicine, then sure, like, you know, as as with I did, you know, I took time to do additional studies. I looked more into the research. I, you know, I use my skills from research methods that medical school is very heavy on, you know, how to actually critique peer reviewed evidence. I think we spent four years doing that without even my actual master's degree. So you can gain what you want from how much you want, right? If you want to minimize the emphasis on it, then you don't. You don't have to cover it at all really. You know, just go to the lectures, ignore that part of the textbooks, like ignore that part of placements.

Dr. Idz (00:19:33) - Right? Like you, you can just stay at home, you know, when you're doing a shadowing of a hospital dietitian, for example. Like you can take as much as you want from it. The real important thing to remember is that all doctors in the UK, they are taught a predominantly evidence based style of healthy eating, whether that gets construed later in life, or from their own biases, or from their own patient stories. They might see one day that a patient with fatty liver disease and obesity massively improve their health because they went on the keto diet. Right.

Michelle (00:20:10) - So I knew you were going to say that, right? Specific.

Dr. Idz (00:20:15) - Yeah, yeah. It's true, it's true. So like so like, you know, over time and you can imagine over months and years those doctors who have seen anecdotal evidence for different things, they will then be more inclined to look into perhaps that specific avenue for nutrition. And then before you know it, they get lost in the whole sphere of low carb, animal based.

Dr. Idz (00:20:39) - You know, weight loss is the end all be all, for example. And they lose the fundamental teachings of what was taught in medical school. Right. So I think that's where a big problem arises is their own individual experiences with them and their patients. And they take that as being evidence. Right. And I think as long as all of us, as medical professionals just think back and we actually, you know, think back as to what is strong scientific evidence and what's not, I think we can do a better job. Now, that being said, there's another issue to to answer a surrounding this topic is that the way the UK health care system is set up, it's very difficult for any doctor to actually provide any kind of targeted, tailored nutritional advice, right? That's because when you go to your primary care doctor, you are literally you literally have no more than eight, ten, maybe 11 minutes, if you're lucky. Yeah. So you find out what the problem is in the US, you know, to to review their medical history, to assess them, to physically examine them.

Dr. Idz (00:21:46) - Right. Depending on what the problem is, to hear their thoughts, hear their concerns, make a plan, document, refer, prescribe, write, send them for a scan. Right. And then you've got a then you got to send them out in a nice kind of way. Then you've got to bring the next person in. Even me, who I would say that I'm pretty informed on, you know, nutrition science. If you gave me that time, I wouldn't be able to offer any beneficial advice. Right? All I'd be able to say is, look, follow the dietary guidelines. That's all I have time for, right? You know, right now, if you want, if you want a tailored, a tailored intervention, then I'm going to need at least at the very least 30 minutes. You know, all of my private consultations are 60 minutes, right. And even then, sometimes I need, I need I need more time. Right. So, like, I just think it's a very difficult ask.

Dr. Idz (00:22:41) - To say, you know, doctors, you need to be providing better nutrition education. And it's like, even if you have the knowledge and even if you are evidence based, the infrastructure is not set up in a way that allows you to actually give tailored, targeted advice. Right? So that's where obviously we need a system where there's an easy referral system to dietitians. There needs to be ease of access to everyone you know, there needs to be allocated clinics in primary care where doctors can actually give lifestyle intervention in a more comprehensive manner, where they could talk about exercise, they could talk about stress, they could talk about, you know, the harmful effects of of staying isolated and not socializing. Right. They could talk about the benefits of following a healthy dietary pattern. The system is not set up like that at the moment, and I hope to see it change in the future.

Michelle (00:23:33) - I think you bring up a really amazing points, and that's very similar to how it is in the US as well, where providers, physicians really only get 5 to 10 minutes with their patients because they're just they're constantly going, they're seeing like five people an hour, you know.

Michelle (00:23:46) - And so it's that's kind of in where the issue comes where patients don't feel listened to, they don't feel heard, they feel like they got bad advice. And so then they turn to these like functional providers who take hours with these people and maybe give them not so great advice. So actually, I'd love to hear just a quick like your thoughts on that kind of functional space, because I do feel like there's a little bit of I mean, that's really the bridge there is that they've these patients feel like they're not being listened to and heard because of the system, not because of that doctor and of itself because of the system. And so, yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts on kind of like the functional space. And I don't know, what do they call it, complementary medicine.

Michelle (00:24:31) - Yeah, yeah.

Michelle (00:24:32) - What are the red flags that you see there.

Dr. Idz (00:24:34) - So a couple of things I would say that just the term functional for me is just a bit of a red flag. Like I wouldn't, I wouldn't automatically, you know, disregard everything.

Dr. Idz (00:24:47) - A functional doctor or a functional naturopath or functional dietician is saying. But to me, it kind of it preys on the vulnerability of certain people who don't feel listened to, as you rightly said, you know, because of the time constraints, because of the pressures, the work pressures. And I feel like this space has just kind of they've catapulted and they've, you know, they've leveraged off, off of the way that, you know, the limitations of Western medicine at the moment. Right. And they've kind of like they made a kind of false promise that, oh, you know, if you to follow my advice, I'll give you everything you need. Right? I'll tell you all of the correct supplements. I'll I'll tell you what the root cause of your disease is, which is absolute garbage. No, you don't know what the root cause of disease is, because for any disease, there's multiple root causes, right? So it's just it's a very stupid thing to say. And in a, in a weird way, I don't know why they all think that, you know, lifestyle changes are the root cause of, of every disease.

Dr. Idz (00:25:54) - It's just so absurdly right. It's just so absurdly reductionist. It's like they try and paint you a picture that you have complete control over, over your health. And, you know, if you fall ill, it's like it's completely your fault. And you should have listened to me earlier. And it's like, what? What on earth are you taking.

Michelle (00:26:13) - Enough elderberry syrup?

Dr. Idz (00:26:15) - Right. And it's like, well, if you just took my concoction of super greens and, you know, 26 supplements in the morning, right, you wouldn't you wouldn't be where you are now. And it's just like, oh, for God's sake. Yeah. You know, I think this whole phrasing, this whole phrasing around functional medicine, I'm not a fan, obviously. Like I refer to myself as a lifestyle medicine specialist because that's what the board certification is. We don't use terms like functional because we understand that I don't actually know what functional means. Like what does functional mean? I'm not actually sure. Yeah.

Michelle (00:26:50) - No, no.

Michelle (00:26:52) - I couldn't tell you. But it's very like I almost feel like it's kind of an oxymoron, a bit like, especially with functional diet. And this isn't a call out any specific dietitians because again, like we're not automatically discounting that do it. But but when I see like Holistic Dietitian it's just kind of irks me because I'm I'm sitting there like we went into a field about nutrition. It's holistic in and of itself. You don't need to clarify that. Again, you know, and it's it's a little bit it is a red flag because it's like, why do you need to restate that? You know, what are you trying to prove? I guess.

Michelle (00:27:31) - It's a great.

Dr. Idz (00:27:32) - Point that actually Western medicine is also holistic in nature. Right? Like if you look at, you know, the. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence, which is the main guidelines for how we treat certain diseases here in the UK. If you look at all of the first line interventions for loads of conditions, right, whether it's depression, type two diabetes, fatty liver, insulin resistance, you know, polycystic ovarian syndrome, obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, name whatever you want to name, right.

Dr. Idz (00:28:05) - If you actually looks at the clinical excellent guidelines, a lot of the first line interventions are around psychological help. Right. You know exercise interventions right. Healthy eating interventions stress management right. Reducing alcohol smoking you know use. Right. And you've got things like, you know, increasing activities in the community and you know, working on stress, you know, things and you know, CBT and you know, ways to help with mental health issues. Right? Nowhere is anyone encouraging doctors to jump straight to like medication unless unless prescription.

Michelle (00:28:43) - Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Idz (00:28:44) - Unless if it's a life threatening issue that needs to be addressed right now. And then of course, like you need to save their life, right? But I don't get this whole idea that Western medicine is all about pills. We actually. No, it's not the issue. The problem is, is that often when people actually come to the doctor, they've already exceeded that low to moderate intensity illness phase, right? They're coming at a severe like at a severe stage of illness, a severe stage of high blood pressure, a severe stage of of, you know, elevated blood lipids.

Dr. Idz (00:29:19) - Right. So in those cases, you need to get things down early and early quickly, you know, to better obviously help their health. So I think this whole thing about why do you need to clarify that your functional in nature, when all of medicine should be functional, it should be, you know, it should be holistic in nature. Yeah. I don't understand like I don't I don't understand this whole narrative that, you know, big Pharma is like the end all be all for, for medicine. And that's just simply not that. It's just not the case.

Michelle (00:29:46) - Yeah.

Michelle (00:29:47) - Yeah, exactly. And I think it brings up a little bit of hypocrisy too, because then we're in the functional again. I'm generalizing here and I know there's exceptions. But in the functional space there can be this just blatant denial of everything that has come before for that patient with their doctors and prescriptions and any advice they've gotten. And so then it's almost like, I mean, it's that reductionistic attitude that you were talking about earlier where we're saying that none of that matters.

Michelle (00:30:13) - What matters is the root, quote unquote, root causes. And doing all of these tests that might not even be evidence based or accurate. And and then it's like, how is that functional? Because then you're ignoring so much that came before, which should be a part of the whole clinical picture. So it feels like a little hypocritical. But I don't know. I've just that's been on my mind a lot. I feel like there's a lot of targeting going on with that.

Dr. Idz (00:30:41) - It's a it's a it's a great point. It's a great point. And I think these people, when they make egregious claims, I think they do need to be called out and held accountable because, you know, you're selling you're selling a dream. You're selling a dream and making, you know, sensational, sensationalized claims surrounding what holistic or functional health care can do for you when all health care should be that. Anyway, I don't know why you feel the need to, you know, try and isolate yourself in a tiny little box so you can prey on a certain demographic, right? Yeah.

Michelle (00:31:14) - Anyway, yeah, yeah.

Michelle (00:31:16) - Well, this was super helpful. So I feel like to kind of some things up for our listeners here when they're trying to figure out, okay, who should I trust online, who's a credible source of information here. Number one, does that individual have some balance to nuance conversations around their whatever it is they're talking about? And maybe not in the context of a doctor's office because they only have about 8 to 10 minutes with you. So you're probably not going to have those conversations there. But hopefully you do. We don't know. They probably don't have time for it. So that's not a great, great time to judge that. But otherwise look for that balance conversation, look for those nuances. And then if somebody brings up seed oils as being inflammatory, just immediate. No immediate, no stop. Just move on. Squirrel. Leave the office, whatever it is. And then the other thing to what was your third point? I guess it was technically your second, but about credible information.

Michelle (00:32:07) - Oh, if they cite research or not.

Michelle (00:32:09) - Right. Yeah.

Dr. Idz (00:32:09) - If they're kind of a bit hesitant to clarify or cite or, you know, if they're a bit defensive or snarky when someone asks a genuine question, that's not that's not how any credible professionals should respond. You know, someone you know, it's your job to answer complicated questions. So if you don't want to answer them, don't be online in the first place. Why are you online making content right? This is good. Go away.

Michelle (00:32:35) - I love.

Dr. Idz (00:32:35) - It.

Michelle (00:32:36) - I love it, and I think that applies to being in person too, right? When these people do meet with a functional provider or chiropractor or their doctor, right? Like they need to be able to engage in those conversations. Otherwise it's a red flag. So yeah, really good points, I love that. I think that's super helpful to our audience. And yeah, in terms of trusting providers for advice, I think it kind of goes back to those same things, right? No matter the credentials, no matter the education level, are they willing to have balanced and nuanced conversations or not? So I love that.

Michelle (00:33:09) - That's super helpful. I do want to just kind of like put a note in here to promote your school. You have your online school of doctor IDs, which is a fantastic resource for anybody who is wanting to dig deeper into these conversations and nuances of health. Because it's not simple. You can't really have a meaningful conversation in a 32nd TikTok or whatever it is. So I really love your school doctor IDs. I feel like it's great for having those those in-depth conversations where you dig into the research and everything. So I mean, anything you want to say about the school.

Dr. Idz (00:33:40) - Yeah, no, that's a great, great summary, really. You know, it's just it's meant for people that kind of they already understand the basics and they want kind of more nuanced, you know, balanced, kind of higher level scientific research where they're actually interested in how to critique the evidence base and how to apply it to their own client base or patient base, or if they're just a health enthusiast and they want, you know, they want to be more informed about certain topics, that's definitely what the school is, is tailored for.

Dr. Idz (00:34:09) - Imagine my TikToks, but, you know, five times longer and, you know, higher level and cover, a bit more kind of nuance surrounding certain topics that aren't really appropriate for social media. You know, there are some topics that just aren't really they're not designed to appeal to kind of like the mass audience, really. So yeah, I would say just and obviously I, you know, try to respond as best as I can to all kind of questions. And people ask me very complicated questions that everyone can have access to as well. So yeah, yeah.

Michelle (00:34:43) - It's a great resource.

Michelle (00:34:44) - And it's super affordable for anybody who's just interested in the topic, interested in the field. You know, I think it's great for everybody. So and you might even recognize one of the teachers in the school.

Dr. Idz (00:34:55) - Yes. Yes. Another video coming coming next month. This month.

Michelle (00:35:00) - Yeah. That's right. That's right. Good. Exciting. Amazing.