October 25, 2023 — It’s a popular cause. Red meat production is a problem for the climate. Add that to ethical concerns some people have about consuming meat, and the push to reduce red meat consumption makes total sense. But when people start spinning misleading narratives about observational research and using them to promote this otherwise worthy idea, they’re […]
April 22, 2023 — An “impassioned polemic” is headed our way from British media doctor Chris van Tulleken and it aims to have us excise ultra-processed from our dietary habits. No doubt about it, ultra-processed food wins the prize for today’s best food boogeyman, but how wise is this bit of food fear based on correlation without a cause. […]
March 21, 2022 — It seems pretty clear. Increased screen time correlates with a higher risk of obesity. In children and teens, for example, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis told us the risk goes up by two thirds with more than two hours daily. Recent prospective research links high screen time with BMI going higher a year later. […]
April 22, 2021 — Call us quaint. But we believe medical journals should publish research grounded in facts and evidence. Not speculation. Especially in the midst of a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than three million people around the world. BMJ, though, has a different approach. This week the BMJ group has a paper promoting magical […]
March 20, 2021 — Some time ago, the Beatles told us that money can’t buy us love. Now a new study from Molly Martin at Penn State suggests that it also may not buy a community less obesity. Martin is a researcher with a keen interest in social inequality, families, and child well-being. Her research examines data from a […]
October 27, 2020 — Just in time for Halloween, JACC has published another scary study about diet drinks. The study finds an association with cardiovascular disease. It’s great fuel for the health news machine, but not so helpful for informing people about real health risks. CNN says this is part of a “growing body of research” suggesting something scary […]
December 24, 2019 — We see a pattern. Take a look at the list of the top attention-getting stories on the JAMA network for 2019. Because if you do, you will see that most of them are about correlations. Or associations. Or links. In other words, they’re not about experimental evidence of causality or effects. It seems that we […]
