I’m not intending to start a weekly feature Science Tuesday, but what the heck. It’s Tuesday and here’s some science.
First, to piggyback off of last week’s video about bad science in health and nutrition, we have Dr. Ben Goldacre.
If you like his talk, might I suggest his book:
And finally, the greatest warrior against bad science of all time, Dr. Richard Feynman on the Scientific Method. He’s not just a great scientist, but he’s also a darn good mashugana comic.
Well, maybe bacon.
This blog is primarily about stuff I’m interested in. For the most part that’s booze, great food, travel, booze, my stories* and bicycling.
Oddly, one of my seldom blogged about interests is nutrition. If you are at all interested in the subject and specifically how the government and the media have misinformed us about the relationship between saturated fats, cholesterol and heart disease, then you’ll want to watch this.
What follows is a fascinating history of the lipid hypothesis and despite zero clinical evidence, continues to be the conventional wisdom with regards to heart health. If you’ve read Good Calories, Bad Calories, you’ve been exposed to much of this information. But this is still a great, concise lecture on the history of the terrible science used in the nutrition community.
And if you want to know just about everything that is knowable about the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease and you’re not afraid of lots of scientific jargon, read Dr. Attia’s now nine part epic on cholesterol that starts here.
Again, I’m sorry this isn’t funny or contains any of my stolen catchphrases like asshat and douchenozzle. We’ll return to jackassery in the next posting, I’m sure.
* Currently that means Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.
Well, there is a wee small problem in our ongoing anti-oxidize-athon: As it turns out, we have no evidence that antioxidants are beneficial in humans. (Though if you're a Sprague-Dawley rat, there's hope.) In fact, as Emily Anthes wrote last year in Slate, the best available data demonstrate that antioxidants are bad for you—so long as you count an increased risk of death as "bad.
My favorite bit, since it throws the dreadfully moronic Doc Oz under the bus:
But, hey, who ever let a little evidence stand in the way of a good time? Especially in this case, when the charge toward lifestyle legitimacy has been led by willowy celebrities with karmic equipoise, ably supported by the Four Horsemen of the Alternative: Drs. Weil, Oz, Null, and Chopra. The seduction of this confederacy (sex! doctors! pills!) is immense; to appreciate its power, one need only consider the pomegranate.
It turns out, like our overuse of antibacterial products which are actually making our bodies more susceptible to dangerous infection, anti-oxidants are turning our cells into microscopic pussies.
If only reality would play along. As noted by Anthes, and Michael Specter in his bookDenialism, the first clear crack in the façade was the 2007 revelation in JAMA that antioxidant vitamins were not merely useless but harmful. Building on this clinical observation, a German group has developed a plausible scientific explanation of the increased risk. The title of the group's most recent publication, "Extending life span by increasing oxidative stress," pretty much sums up their view: The human cell should toughen up. It can benefit from enduring something harsh like the insult caused by free radicals. This way, the organism is more prepared to fend off the inevitable Big One, be it cancer or a toxic fume or perhaps a bout of cholera. Practice makes perfect.
This is just another indication that we all need to eat natural whole foods (little w, little f) – meat, fish, fruit, vegetables – and we will be fine. And that there is no magic food that will negate the devastating effects on your body of that box of Krispy Kremes (not Top Pot donuts, those are 100% healthy, natural and life affirming) you ate for breakfast.
This video went wrongfully unposted during my recent blog break.
Filthy facebookers should avoid this video and just get fat playing Farmville.
Still South Dakota. Found a cute campground that most of the year is a hopping family holiday retreat. But it’s cold and snowy and latish Oc...
