The "Good Diet," promoted by Dr. Diaa Al-Awadi, sparked widespread controversy. Al-Awadi's passing boosted the diet's popularity, attracting a huge number of enthusiastic followers. However, what appears on the surface to be a simple diet carries serious health consequences, as warned by specialists. Numerous reports have surfaced about victims of this diet, particularly those with chronic illnesses, in addition to widespread reservations about the list of prohibited and permitted foods. For some, this list seems to have transformed into a dogma that distinguishes between good and bad, rather than simply a medical hypothesis open to question and refutation.
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This spiritual and emotional aspect is what garnered it supporters and believers, making it immune to the scrutiny of scientific criticism. However, the "good things" controversy is not the first instance of medical debate appealing to people's emotions, and it may not be the last. Nor is it an expression of a social crisis specific to the Arab or Muslim world; rather, it has parallels and similar phenomena in every corner of the globe, north and south. People, wherever they are, regardless of their social class, level of thinking, or education, remain susceptible to deception and falling prey to false claims, whether medical or in other areas of life.
"When it comes to forming beliefs, emotions often prevail over ideas."
Humans have long considered their capacity for rational thought the crown jewel of their species. Yet beneath this rigorous intellectual facade lies a far older system that governs much of what we believe: our emotional brain. When it comes to forming beliefs, particularly in areas of health, identity, and survival, emotions often prevail over reason. Understanding why this happens, and how to harness it systematically, is perhaps the first and most crucial step in building any effective defense against disillusionment.
Our brain and the obsession with survival
The human brain has not always been a machine for seeking truth, but rather an instrument for survival. The imperative to survive has meant making quick decisions based on incomplete information, trusting the social group, avoiding perceived threats, and pursuing available opportunities. These drives, deeply embedded in our neural structure, are precisely what makes us susceptible to manipulation, particularly in the realm of health, where feelings of fear and hope intersect with exceptional intensity.
who argues that humans are "belief-dependent" beings. We first form our beliefs, driven by emotion, intuition, and social influence, and then rationalize them later. This process, which Shermer calls "patternification"—the tendency to find meaningful patterns in noise—and "functionality"—the tendency to assign intentional efficacy to those patterns—means that our brains are essentially storytelling machines, not logical processors. We are not primarily rational beings who sometimes feel things, but rather emotional beings who sometimes think.
This complex system of thinking has profound implications for how people evaluate medical claims. When someone is diagnosed with cancer, their brain doesn't enter a state of calm and analysis, but rather a crisis state fueled by fear and a desperate search for control and hope. In that state, the promise of a miraculous cure doesn't have to compete with carefully evaluated clinical trial data, but rather with a sense of helplessness, and helplessness almost always loses; a drowning person will clutch at straws.
In this dimension, critical thinking and skepticism recede, giving way to the brain's emotional biases. Psychologists have identified several cognitive biases that interact to make emotionally charged ideas particularly persuasive. Among the most relevant to medical disillusionment is "confirmation bias"—the tendency to seek out, interpret, and recall information that confirms pre-existing beliefs. Once a person emotionally decides that a particular treatment "seems appropriate,
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