Alternative medicine - EFR 6-29

Our focus in nutrition education should be to present information on a topic using the best "scientific" guesses that the true experts can provide. The following from the National Council Against Health Fraud is an example of a book which can help people understand the difference between rational scientific thought and religious faith. One has to be logically true, the other has only to be believed. As nutrition professionals we need to stick to the science.

May/June 1996 NCAHF Newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 3, p. 1 National Council Against Health Fraud

"The Death of Truth" (Bethany House, 1996) is written by scientists and theologians from a Christian perspective, but the information that it contains is valuable to anyone who wants to understand the thinking behind much of today's "alternative" and "complementary" medicine. Donal P. O'Mathuna points out that people who are seeking health care advice from alternative medicine sources "are receiving religious instruction." He says, that "These therapies are spiritually based, and ought to be presented as such. It is unethical for these religious practices to promote themselves as medicine."

O'Mathuna hits the nail right on its head when he points out that much of the objection to alternative and complementary medicine, from the perspective of consumer protection law, is that religious rituals are being falsely and misleadingly labeled and advertised as science-based therapies. The book presents "alternativism" as a combination of old-fashioned spiritualism and New Age postmodernism. The book lays bare many of the ideas that drive today's intellectual climate which is so friendly to antiscientism. Although the book is clearly directed to the Christian community, its message is important for all of society. Its content is scholarly and academically sound. The book is a project of the Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus, Ohio. Order from Bethany Books, Minneapolis, MN.