CHC Radio

Nuance can help health field regain public trust: AcademyHealth CEO

Originally broadcast August 15, 2024

Dr. Aaron Carroll raises eyebrows with statements that highlight contradictory health advice: “‘Eggs are going to kill you because of cholesterol’ — ‘oh, it actually doesn’t matter. Eat as many eggs as you like.’ ‘Red meat will kill you.’ ‘Oh no, read meat can be part of a diet.’ ‘Drink no alcohol’ … ‘Oh, no no. Drinking red wine is perfectly healthy.’”

Dr. Carroll has devoted his career to advocating for scientific and research communities need to improve how they discuss nuance, especially in health. Dr. Carroll, serving as CEO of the AcademyHealth, says “science is portrayed as binary — positive or negative — and that can breed mistrust from the public.”

“The way that we discuss nutrition and food [can] burn people’s belief in science, in that it feels like people are told one or the other,” Dr. Carroll tells “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter.

For most people, ramping up or cutting out consumption of one particular food “can add a tiny bit of risk here or there. But the extremes that we are often sold, one way or the other, about what you should and should not eat are often not really well-supported by science,” he says.

It’s not that new data disproves old research, he says. But both add up to a more complex picture. “When you describe things in absolute terms … it creates a climate where people don’t trust exactly what you’re saying.”

Despite the constantly changing nature of science, nurses and doctors are still consistently held in high trust, Dr. Carroll says. One way to add nuance to public discourse is to use trusted voices to help people understand what questions to ask when they hear new information: Pre-buttal, as opposed to rebuttal, as he puts it. “[That] is much more powerful than trying to change their minds after they’ve heard things that are just not true.”

Conversations on Health Care

Share
Published by
Conversations on Health Care

Recent Posts

America’s Mental Health Crisis: Philanthropy’s Bold Action Plan

Originally broadcast August 14, 2025 One in five U.S. adults lives with a mental illness,…

5 days ago

Food is Medicine Advocate Urges Evidence-Based Solutions Amid SNAP Cutbacks

Originally broadcast August 7, 2025 Experts who believe in the “food is medicine” concept say…

5 days ago

60 Years of Medicaid & Medicare: Health Care Challenges & Opportunities

Americans are living longer for many reasons and experts credit Medicare and Medicaid for some…

3 weeks ago

NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow: Curing Addiction a Real Possibility

“I would have never, ever in my whole life have said, ‘we’re going to cure…

4 weeks ago

Pretend You Have Millions to Fix Health Care: What Would You Do? A Doctor Gives His Answer

Dr. Betancourt, president of the influential The Commonwealth Fund, is committed to “Affordable, quality health…

1 month ago

Dr. Oz’s Second-in-Command Explains Need for Medicaid Reimbursement Cuts as “Big Beautiful Bill” Passes

President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law on July 4 and…

1 month ago