Are you mesmerized by things that seemingly defy logic?

I am and it’s why — despite having no more than a passing interest in pro football — I’ve hypnotically watched a clip from a recent Eagles’ game about 15 times.

After catching a pass and doing a 360-degree spin to elude one tackler, Saquon Barkley does a 180, which turns his back to the defense and makes him an easy target — or so you’d expect. But as he spins that second time, he jumps, spreads his legs, and causes would-be-tackler No. 2 to miss.

And look just like the baited bull expecting to gore the matador as the red cape rises.

Eagles’ coach Nick Sirianni calls it the best play he’s ever seen. Unless you’re partial to diving one-handed catches made in the end zone, I don’t see how you could disagree.

But I could see you arguing with me over the following statement. That most medical doctors lack the knowledge necessary to advise patients about nutrition.

That argument that never happens, however, if you become as spellbound as I am by a statistic as logic-defying as Barkley’s backwards hurdle. In a 2021 Medicine in Motion survey of more than 1,000 soon-to-be doctors, 58 percent reported receiving no formal nutrition education in four years of med school.

And how’s this for an equally as entrancing stat? The amount of instruction the other 42 percent received averaged out to be 2.9 hours per year.

So if you ask a doc a really tricky nutrition question, you’ll probably be told to consult a nutritionist. It’s the only logical thing the doc can do.

But question-askers who are healthy and simply looking to get healthier tend not to follow that advice. Instead, they’ll pull out their phone and search for answers on social media.

It’s a move that Nathaniel Johnson, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics, University of North Dakota, and med student Madeline Comeau call in an article for The Conversation — “Diet-related diseases are the No. 1 cause of death in the US” — “the worst possible” one. They support that statement by citing a study published in the February 2022 issue of Healthcare that found 94 percent of posts about nutrition and diet are “either inaccurate or lacking adequate data to back up the claim.”

So what’s the alternative to getting your health help from social media? The three-step process you’re about to begin right now.

One: read about the results of recent significant research. Two: decide if the findings apply to you.

Three: create a course of action if they do. One that logically takes into account all those things you already know about yourself and your current situation that could make you different from those in the study.

Using this three-step process makes far more sense than the typical doctor’s dearth of nutritional coursework — or the fact that the majority Americans eat a diet that encourages inflammation, according to a study published in the September 2024 issue of Public Health Nutrition.

In the study, researchers measured the inflammatory potential of about 60,000 one-day, self-reported diets of American adults and found 57 percent eat in a manner that encourages inflammation. String enough of those eating days together and said encouraged inflammation becomes chronic.

And your health takes a serious hit.

Chronic inflammation has been linked to an increased risk of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease, as well as autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.

While it should be stressed that the diets assessed in the aforementioned study were self-reported and limited to a single day, so should the importance of you now doing what’s listed above as step No. 2.

Regularly eating processed meats; fried foods; sugary drinks; white bread and traditional pasta; vegetable and soybean oils; processed snack foods, such as chips and crackers; desserts, such as cookies, candy, and ice cream; margarine, shortening, and lard; too many simple carbohydrates; and anything more than a bit of alcohol creates the sort of inflammation that can become chronic and lead to disease.

So you need to ask yourself — after considering how you’re currently feeling and how you want to feel in the future — if you’re consuming one or more of these foods a bit too regularly.

If so, do step No. 3, the one that also could be called doing what’s logical. Reduce or even eliminate the amount of offending food or foods.

But don’t leave it at that. Create a comprehensive plan.

One that has you eating more of the foods known to fight inflammation. Green leafy vegetables, like spinach and kale; nuts, like almonds and walnuts; fatty fish, like salmon and tuna; and fruits, like oranges and blueberries.

One that has you replacing salt with spices, processed grains with whole grains, and saturated fats with olive oil.

To make your plan truly comprehensive, also consider how much exercise, sleep, and how much water you get each day. Sufficient amounts of all also help keep inflammation at bay.