Last month, two opinion articles in The New York Times, published on consecutive days, argued that nutrition and overall health are very straightforward, based on “boring” principles we’ve known since “third grade,” like eating your vegetables. Wellness entrepreneurs who say otherwise are probably just trying to sell you their fake advice and products, according to one of the op-eds.

Phony wellness pushers make easy targets, but they’re not the only ones saying this stuff is complicated. Scientists at the world’s leading universities see great complexity in food’s interactions with human biology over a lifetime. They’re studying these dynamics, forming new hypotheses and pointing to unsettled research questions. When it comes to the dietary principles that scientists have agreed upon, few American adults, let alone third graders, are actually aware of them.

The message that healthy nutrition rests entirely on long agreed-upon, clear-cut fundamentals, as articulated by those Times editorials, […]