Introduction

Praise for the Un-PhD

People who report research with humorous, firm and scientific based approaches are to be searched and commended.  Not only what they say, but *how* they say it inspires many like me to dare to know the truth, and to defend it against "the Experts".  The goal is to be correct and professional without bowing to credential-ism.  To fight with reason, not by getting a PhD, or two, or however many it takes to outrank your critic(s).

I have a tremendous respect for "un-PhD's" like Denise Menger, Gary Taubes and others.  Smart, well reasoned people sans degree and sans heavy personal or industry bias.  Truth seekers.  In my view, what they are doing in nutrition is transformational, in part because of the content, but also because they break the mold of "the expert" and argue based on reason vs credentials.  I believe there are many such blind alleys into which we are following "experts" down even more blind alleys.  There's a great talk on TED by Liz Coleman that supports this idea.  In it she says,

"We, the people have become inured to our own irrelevance...we persist also in being sidelined by the idea of the expert, as the only one capable of coming up with the answer, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  The problem is, there is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of zealots, politicians and spectators."

Fantastic, right?  The full talk is here: http://www.ted.com/talks/liz_coleman_s_call_to_reinvent_liberal_arts_education.html

Now, besides the fact that I had to look up "inured" I totally get what she's saying. And I seek out and applaud people like you who are fully aware of the problem.