I have been working as a scientist and author on the subject of food intolerances for over 10 years. A lot has happened in this time, a lot has changed, some things have improved. But there is one constant: people who think inductively. Here are a few thoughts on the subject, without any claim to philosophical completeness
In philosophy, there are two ways to come to a conclusion: Induction and deduction. Deduction involves drawing conclusions from many observations to a single case. Induction involves drawing conclusions from a single case to the generality. This means: I see a green apple and conclude that all apples are green. But now we know that there are also red, yellow or multi-colored apples. The inductive conclusion is therefore wrong.
In philosophy, many bright minds such as Popper, Hume and Rudolf Carnap have discussed the inductive/deductive problem. Your solution: It is better to conclude deductively:
A green apple alone does not mean that all apples are green. If I see only green apples in the course of my life and there is no sign of any other variety, I can deductively conclude that all apples are green. I will probably live with that quite well. Only when a red apple appears do I have to rethink and my conclusion is no longer correct. I have to reduce them and say: Most of the apples in my neighborhood are green, but there are others.
We see: Neither induction nor deduction bring me certainty. But I have a better chance of formulating generally valid sentences through deduction.
What does this have to do with NMI?
I keep getting emails from angry people telling me that I have no idea what I’m talking about. There are people who rant about my books or about this website on Wikipedia, Amazon or other sites. And inductive thinking is almost always involved. Some examples from the last few years (spelling mistakes taken over):
“I tried histamine-free wines, I couldn’t tolerate the wine. Why are you claiming that there are histamine-free wines if I don’t tell you? Don’t claim things like that, it’s a disgrace ”
“You use garlic in all kinds of recipes in your book. Everyone knows that garlic is not compatible with fructose intolerance. I only need to eat half a bulb and I get symptoms. Your book spreads absolute nonsense and you probably have no knowledge of nutritional values.”
“Your website says that lactose-free milk is tolerated by lactose intolerant people. That’s not true. I have lactose intolerance and I can’t tolerate it. Please change this on your website so that other people don’t fall for it too.”
You can see immediately in all the examples: inductive thinking. If I can’t tolerate something, NOBODY can! The writers do not care that we never use half a bulb of garlic in our book, but at most a small clove (always with the note “only those who can tolerate it”), or that, for example, millions of sufferers have tolerated lactose-free milk perfectly for many years. But if I can’t tolerate it, nobody can. That’s the way it is, the other millions simply have to live with it.
I will certainly continue to receive such emails and I will ignore them or collect them for such blogs, as I have done in the past. But what is important to me: Inductive thinking is deeply human, each of us thinks like this. Inductive thinking protects us. If we didn’t think inductively, survival would be difficult. If a tiger in the wild is dangerous, then I should be afraid of all tigers, or even better: of all animals that look similar to a tiger. Yes, this inductive thinking helps us to survive.
But we are educated and intelligent beings and can do otherwise. We are aware of the problems of inductive thinking and we can reflect on our own thoughts and ideas before we make them public (on the Internet). I don’t tolerate lactose-free milk, millions of others do. Why? Maybe I also have a milk allergy? Perhaps the symptoms come from other foods? But should I really write on the internet that nobody can tolerate lactose-free milk because I can’t tolerate it?
I am aware that the people addressed will not change because of this entry, but perhaps it helps us all when it comes to nutrition to think about the extent to which our own nutritional behavior is generally valid, or to what extent general nutritional guidelines do not always apply to everyone.
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Image: wikipedia.de, public domain
