<story><title>You Do Not Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/upshot/no-you-do-not-have-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water-a-day.html?_r=0&amp;abt=0002&amp;abg=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mangeletti</author><text>Without any disrespect to the author, why don&amp;#x27;t we all just start thinking for ourselves when it comes to our health, rather than being told contradictory information every 3 years by mainstream media?&lt;p&gt;One minute it&amp;#x27;s best to eat ice cream for breakfast; the next minute we shouldn&amp;#x27;t eat any carbs at all; then we should start drinking red wine every day; then more water; then less water, etc. It&amp;#x27;s as if we&amp;#x27;re just a big experiment or some sort of inside joke to the mainstream media.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>CJefferson</author><text>How do we &amp;quot;think for ourselves&amp;quot;? Come up with independant reasoning?&lt;p&gt;Lots of things are highly non-obvious. Vitamins weren&amp;#x27;t discovered until the 20th century. Many baby&amp;#x27;s lives are improved by their mothers taking folic acid. I would never guess how few calories there are in things like raspberries or strawberries without having been told about it.&lt;p&gt;Certainly there is lots of terrible health advice, and it&amp;#x27;s a major issue, telling people to &amp;quot;only read good advice&amp;quot; seems like the worst advice I&amp;#x27;ve ever heard -- obviously we would all only read the good advice if we knew what that was!</text></comment>
<story><title>You Do Not Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/upshot/no-you-do-not-have-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water-a-day.html?_r=0&amp;abt=0002&amp;abg=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mangeletti</author><text>Without any disrespect to the author, why don&amp;#x27;t we all just start thinking for ourselves when it comes to our health, rather than being told contradictory information every 3 years by mainstream media?&lt;p&gt;One minute it&amp;#x27;s best to eat ice cream for breakfast; the next minute we shouldn&amp;#x27;t eat any carbs at all; then we should start drinking red wine every day; then more water; then less water, etc. It&amp;#x27;s as if we&amp;#x27;re just a big experiment or some sort of inside joke to the mainstream media.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dekhn</author><text>Are we all experts who are capable of thinking for ourselves (&amp;quot;thinking for ourselves&amp;quot; seems to equal: inspecting the primary literature, or review literature, and coming to a conclusion)?  No, we&amp;#x27;re not.&lt;p&gt;Thinking for yourself is untenable- we need scientists who are experts in analyzing data to provide specific suggestions, and disseminate those in the media.  Unfortunately, there is little consequence to reporting false conclusions, or inaccurate health data, so I don&amp;#x27;t see any change forthcoming.</text></comment>