Currently, one of the biggest sources of informational chaos and myths in nutrition is the misinterpretation or purposeful interpretation of the results of scientific studies. Of course, different scientific studies are of different quality (methodology, study population size, animal models, etc.) and correlation of two values is not evidence for a causal relationship, etc. However, all this is usually explained in detail by the authors themselves in the results of the study and in the discussion.
The problem arises when only one "appropriate piece of information" is purposely taken from the results of a scientific study and spread on the internet without context. As an example, consider studies in the area of intermittent fasting (note: We have nothing against intermittent fasting. If individually adjusted appropriately, it may be an appropriate nutritional practice. Intermittent fasting is used here only as a common example).
Example: a small cohort study of 10 morbidly obese American women with an average weight of 180 kg found that intermittent fasting resulted in a significant reduction in total caloric intake, which also led to a very significant weight loss. This study will be taken up by a nutrition and healthy lifestyle website, which will bring these results and findings to its readers in a simplified (but still correct) form. Because every website is obviously concerned about viewership, but only "Intermittent fasting helps obese people lose weight" will make it into the title of the article (because these are popular terms that people search for), even though the key role of the calorie deficit that led to the weight loss is actually correctly explained inside the article itself.
However, an article with this headline will happily be taken over by bloggers who are intermittent fasting supporters, who present this same study on their social media with the words "according to the latest scientific studies, intermittent fasting is the key to weight loss". Their followers and readers then already share such a post around the internet saying "See, calories don't matter! If you want to lose weight, you need to follow an intermittent fasting diet!" Such an interpretation of a scientific study is obviously wrong.
And so is recommending intermittent fasting to absolutely everyone indiscriminately as the most effective weight loss diet. The fact that intermittent fasting can be a very effective weight reduction procedure for morbidly obese people does not automatically mean that it will also be a suitable weight reduction procedure for e.g. active athletes with normal weight who need to fit into a weight category or "sculpt" a figure for the summer.
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