Women ‘confused by too much advice about health’

WITH a never-ending stream of advice on how to look and feel your best, it seems even the experts aren’t in agreement about what works and what doesn’t.

And if you find yourself struggling to make sense of it all, you’re not alone.

More than four in five women feel baffled by the information overload – and many admit this leaves them switching from one fad to another, a survey has found.

Diet seems to create the most confusion, with questions over whether a lowcarb or a low-fat regime is better, how much water is best, whether red meat is healthy and if coffee is bad for you.

Women are also at a loss about their beauty regimes, questioning whether expensive anti- ageing creams really work, if washing hair every day dries it out, and whether grey hairs will grow back if plucked out.

Some 81 per cent of those polled said they were confused about what was best for their health and wellbeing, while almost two thirds (63 per cent) confessed they were at their wits’ end trying t0o work it out. It seems most women just want a simple answer – as nine in ten said they wished someone would give it to them straight, and 60 per cent said they would like their beauty regime to be as straightforward as possible.

The survey found women trusted the advice of friends and doctors equally, while half said they turned to the internet for guidance and 14 per cent scrolled through social media for ideas.

Four in ten of the 1,500 women polled said they constantly switched from one fad to another in the endless quest to improve their wellbeing.

And perhaps it’s hardly surprising considering how radically expert advice can change. With drinking coffee, for example, between 1991 and 2016 the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, advised the drink ‘probably’ caused cancer. But last year a review by the IARC concluded there was little evidence linking coffee to cancer specifically – but instead it’s drinking beverages that are hotter than 65C (149F) that increases your risk of cancer of the oesophagus.

Pregnant women were told until last year that drinking two units of alcohol a week was fine, but now the Government says there is no safe amount to drink during pregnancy. The debate about whether fats such as butter are bad for your heart rages on, with some research showing that the warnings to cut out fat may have led some people to eat more carbohydrates, increasing the risk of diabetes.

Meanwhile the once hugely popular Atkins Diet promoted eating a low- carb diet with more meat and fat – but most advice now suggests too much red meat increases the risk of bowel cancer.

The latest research was commissioned by skincare brand E45 to launch its Straight Up Skincare campaign, which claims to offer simpler advice and products.

Kate Sweeney, a marketing manager at E45, said: ‘The research shows that British women feel bombarded with lots of conflicting and, at times, downright confusing pieces of advice and information every day.’

E45’s newly announced brand ambassador, Olympic boxer Nicola Adams, said it was clear from the survey that women wanted to live less complicated, more straightforward lives but feel ‘overloaded with information’.