Really, you’re just figuring this out now, I thought as I read an article in the Washington Post called “Too Much of Too Little.”

The article focuses on the highly processed and low nutrition diet often consumed by those on food stamps and how this contributes to obesity. I’m glad the topic is getting attention and I hope they make strides in the area.

But my main reaction was still “you’re just getting this now. Really?” I could have told you this years ago.  Many people could have told you this years ago.

Did we really need statistics and studies to tell us this? Wouldn’t your basic gut instinct tell you this? Even if I couldn’t have said obesity was an issue, I could have pointed to malnutrition or diabetes or lowered immune systems or host of other health problems stemming from this behavior.

Are we so afraid to trust our gut instincts in today’s world that we can’t see things for what they are without a multiyear study from the FDA or HHS or Harvard or whoever studies these things? Can we not go with our gut instincts because we’re afraid we’ll be sued for not having all the facts available (and as if that really ever happens anyway as we have a tendency to confuse facts with reality) when we make a choice?

Perhaps we don’t use our gut instincts because their capacity has been diminished. Atrophied for lack of use. Shelved, shunned and shamed by society for not being scientific enough. Undernourished by an education system more interested in teaching you to take tests than to understand.

I don’t know. I know I’d be horrible at my job and life if I didn’t use intuition, a little bit of the old ultra-gut instinct. I told someone once that the day I have to rely on data to understand a situation is the day I fail. Fortunately that hasn’t happened yet. Intuition often is all I have to add to the mix. And I like it that way.

I want you to use your intuition. I want you to trust yourself. Will you be wrong sometimes? Certainly. Will you be wrong any more often than if you relied on facts and figures? I doubt it, and you’ll get there much faster.

As always there are tons of resources on how to follow your intuition out on the Web. Trust me.