Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Lies, D@%$ Lies, and Statistics

A Facebook "friend" of mine posted on his Facebook page a link to this article, "Diet drinks "DO help you lose weight!"

Funny, huh? And even funnier when you consider the context: He wrote, "Can't stop laughing. You can find evidence to support about any position. Just Monday I was being told that the huge Chinese study says that plant based diets are the bees' knees, only to get home and find my wife watching a long documentary on how me are built to eat largely meat based diets. So now evil, diet sodas, that supposedly caused weight gain, are better than water for weight loss... go figure. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2640557/Diet-drinks-DO-help-lose-weight-Study-finds-theyre-effective-water-alone.html.

I followed the link and glanced at the study. Sure enough, it was funded by the American Beverage Association. I'm probably not the only person who would be surprised if that group found water to be better than soft drinks!

I mean, give me a break! Here is a perfect example of the kinds of advertising---because this whole study is obviously just another form of advertising---and some real, scientific, unbiased studies---are misrepresenting facts, making conclusions not founded in reality, and messing with people's minds.

Is it any wonder no one trusts scientists, doctors, the government, or any of their work any more?

So, I'm going to be writing in coming days about study design, statistics, and so-called "science reporting."

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