23 Jan 2008
Metabolic syndrome blue-plate special

Well, this initially attracted my attention because of the ridiculous "25 percent increase" quoted in the teaser. That's a statistically insignificant in and of itself, but the article actually contains detailed information on the study methodology.

It seems that the researchers did food intake surveys over a number of years, showing their bias right off the bat by resolving replies into "Western style" and "Prudent style" diets, with the former being heavy on meat and processed grains, and the latter being mostly fruit, veggies and fish. It was on this basis that they determined the "result". But the real shocker comes a bit further down in the article:

“One surprising finding was while it didn’t increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, there was no evidence of a beneficial effect of consuming a prudent diet either. I had expected to find a beneficial effect because we have seen that in other studies.”

Ya know, if I'd been doing this "study", that tidbit might have, in and of itself, led me to a different conclusion or at the least a reevaluation of the methodology.

Otherwise-healthy adults who eat two or more servings of meat a day -- the equivalent of two burger patties -- increase their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 25 percent compared with those who eat meat twice a week, according to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

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