Posts Tagged ‘spin’

Calories and the PACE Versus the Pace of Aging

February 11, 2023 — “Calorie restriction slows pace of aging in healthy adults.” This headline for a press release from Columbia University sounds pretty impressive. Until you stop and read the paper – which comes to no such conclusion. It appears that the headline writers were referring not to the pace of aging, but to P.A.C.E. – the Pace […]

“Promising” Obesity Prevention with a Weak Effect

February 6, 2023 — Authors of a new study in Preventive Medicine Reports tell us that their program “shows promise for obesity prevention among children in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.” But there’s a catch. The study failed to show a significant effect on the study’s primary outcome measure for obesity prevention – BMI z-score. Undaunted, Milagros Rosal and colleagues call […]

Retractions Can’t Travel at the Speed of Hype

October 2, 2022 — From the Annals of Sad but True: “It is not only predatory journals that publish bullshit,” said Guillaume Cabanac. He was commenting of the news last year of hundreds of retractions from special issues in journals published by Springer Nature and Elsevier. This and other recent news suggests that scientific fraud is hardly negligible. But […]

Headlines vs Science: Calorie Restriction and Diabetes

November 22, 2021 — The PR for a new analysis of dietary strategies for weight management in diabetes certainly is an attention grabber. The only trouble is that the headlines don’t line up with the science and real world outcomes in diabetes. The press release says: Low energy diets and meal replacements appear best for kicking diabetes But in […]

Eat Less Junk Food to Save the Planet?

November 7, 2021 — Can we get a two-for-one deal on dietary and planetary health, please? The news has been full of dispatches from the climate summit in Scotland this week. Some folks are frustrated by too much talk and too little action. The costs of a warming planet are mounting. So the University of South Australia has a […]

Spin, Pilots, and Sacred Cows of Obesity Care

August 15, 2019 — Beware of pilot studies with claims of effectiveness. “A pilot study is not a hypothesis testing study,” says Andrew Leon in a cogent summary of what pilots can and can’t do. But it’s oh so tempting to jump on effect data from a pilot study. Especially when you believe in what you think it tells […]

How Come Cinnabon Doesn’t Cure Obesity?

November 26, 2017 — Scanning the latest hyperbolic headlines on obesity research, we’re left with just one question. Does Cinnabon have a cure for obesity? It’s really quite amazing. The Tech Times tells us “Cinnamon Could be the Secret Ingredient to Weight Loss.” USA Today says “Cinnamon May Help Attack Fat, Fight Obesity.” So maybe all that Cinnabon smell […]