The skeptic's guide to sports science : confronting myths of the health and fitness industry / Nicholas B. Tiller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tiller, Nicholas B., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sports sciences--Social aspects.

Sports sciences.

Physical fitness--Social aspects.

Physical fitness.

Sporting goods industry--Marketing.

Sporting goods industry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, New York ; London, England : Routledge, [2020]

Summary:

"The global health and fitness industry is worth an estimated $4 trillion; we spend $90 billion/year on health club memberships and $100 billion/year on dietary supplements. In this industrial climate, meagre regulations on the products we're sold (the supplements, fad-diets, training programs, trainers and garments) result in marketing campaigns underpinned by strong claims and weak evidence. In addition, our critical faculties are ill-suited to a contemporary culture characterized by business, fake news, social media, and bad science. We've become walking, talking prey to the 21st-Century Snake Oil salesmen. In The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science, Dr Nick Tiller (Exercise Physiologist, Harbor-UCLA) confronts the claims behind the products and the evidence behind the claims. In this treatise on the commercialization of science in sport and exercise, the author discusses what might be wrong with the sales pitch, the glossy magazine advert, and the celebrity endorsements that our heuristically-wired brains find so innately attractive. Tiller also explores the appeal of the one quick fix, the fallacious arguments that are a mainstay of product advertising, and the critical steps we must take in retraining our minds to navigate the pitfalls of our modern consumerist culture. This informative and accessible volume pulls no punches in scrutinizing the plausibility of, and evidence for, the most popular sports products and practices on the market. Consumers are encouraged to confront their conceptualizations of the industry and, by the book's end, readers will have acquired the skills they need to judge product effectiveness for themselves. The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science is a must-read for exercisers, athletes, students, and practitioners who hope to retain their intellectual integrity in a vast, lucrative health and fitness industry that is spiralling quickly out-of-control"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table of Contents

List of Figures

1.1 Alongside Traditional Snake Oil, Other Ineffective Nostrums Like Powdered Unicorn Horn Were Sold as Cure-alls Well into the 1900s. Unsurprisingly, we're still waiting for the First Controlled Studies on the Effects of this Elusive Panacea

1.2 Information Versus Knowledge

5.1 Ratings of 391 running Shoes Versus Shoe Cost. The Trendline Suggests that more Expensive Running Shoes Generally Receive lower Ratings than more Affordable Shoes

5.2 Despite Being Exposed as a Fraud by John Haygarth, public Support for the Metallic Tractors Remained Steadfast, Thanks in part to refutations like this from Benjamin Perkins, son of Elisha Perkins Who Had 'Discovered' the tractors

7.1 The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) food plate, divided into five sections for each of the Major Food Groups

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Snake Oil for the 21st-Century

1.1. Beginnings

1.2. Why Do We Take Shortcuts?

1.3. A History of Health Claims

1.4. The Post-Truth Era

1.5. Failures in Education

1.6. Carbohydrates, Vaccinations, and the Pope

2 Sharpen Your Tools

2.1. Consciousness-Raising

2.2. Dihydrogen Monoxide

2.3. Supermarket Scam?

2.4. Out of Control

3 Logical Fallacies in Sports Science

3.1. Playing by the Rules

3.2. The Logical Fallacy

4 Show Me the Research

4.1. Raise Your Standards

4.2. Step 1: Fun with (Red) Flags

4.3. Step 2: Prior Plausibility

4.4. Step 3: Show me the Research!

4.5. Step 4: How to Read a Paper

4.6. Statistical Versus Clinical Significance

4.7. Other Resources

4.8. Ask...

5 Placebo Products and the Power of Perception

5.1. Intuition Versus Intellect

5.2. Bias

5.3. The Placebo Effect: A Historical Perspective

5.4. How Do Placebos Work?

5.5. Placebo Effects in Sport

5.6. The Price of Placebo

6 Sports Nutrition

6.1. A Lucrative Industry

6.2. The Good, the Bad, and the Tasty

6.3. Nutritionist or Dietician?

6.4. Nutrition in the Media

6.5. Chasing the Headline

the Time I was Offered Money to Bias Data

6.6. Organic Food

6.7. Fruit, Vegetables, and the Myths of Dietary Fructose

6.8. The 5-a-day Initiative

6.9. Fad Diets

6.10. Detoxing

6.11. The Irony of Ignorance

7 Supplements and Drugs

7.1. Regulations? What Regulations?

7.2. What are Supplements?

7.3. Are Supplements Safe?

7.4. Drugs in Your Supplements

7.5. Should I Ever Use Supplements?

7.6. Fat-Burning Supplements

7.7. Protein, Protein, Everywhere

7.8. Forty Years of Bad Science?

7.9. Supplements with Robust Supporting Evidence

7.10. Supplements without Robust Supporting Evidence

7.11. Food Intended for Sportspeople

8 Training Programs and Products

8.1. Disproportionate Claims

8.2. Recycling

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-429-44616-0

0-429-82088-7

9780429446160

OCLC:

1129398992