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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Food Policy Fight: Junk Study on Vegetarian Diet

by Angela Logomasini on April 7, 2014

Log on to Twitter and you might read: “A vegetarian diet is associated with poorer health, a higher need for health care, and poorer quality of life.” Here we have junk science going viral! And its fanning the flames between meat-eating and vegetarian advocates. But it shouldn’t.

You can’t really blame the person pushing out this tweet too much, however, because her source is a study published in a PLOS One research paper. It highlights some of the pitfalls associated with paying too much attention to isolated studies that rely on questionable methodology and overblown claims.

This study is another example of how junk science adversely impacts public policy debates, which is why I recently developed A Consumer’s Guide to Chemical Risk: Deciphering the “Science” Behind Chemical Scares.” As this study on vegetarian diets shows, it’s not just chemical policy that’s negatively impacted by bad science. Personal choice, should rule the day when it comes to dietary choices, but because government is so involved — setting guidelines and telling us what we should and shouldn’t eat — food politics are unavoidable. Accordingly, meat-eaters might use this dumb study to push their agenda, but the facts do not really support them......To Read More.....
 
My Take - If this was written by someone other than Angela Logomasini I would have pretty much dismissed it, but Logomasini has been stalwart in standing up to junk scientists or every ilk. Her arguments are solid because she points out it's really hard to categorize those who profess to be vegetarians. However, I still am convinced from all I have read over the year veganism - which is a very strict form of vegetarianism - is clearly unhealthy. But this is worth reading!
 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Rich,
    Thanks for posting my piece. I wrote this post because regardless of a study's findings, we need to be even handed. The conclusion of a study is useless—whatever it is—if the underlying science is junk.
    I am a meat eater, but my post takes no position on whether being a vegetarian is better or worse than being a meat eater. It simply points out that drawing such strong conclusions based on misleading and weak findings isn’t helpful to anyone.
    -Angela Logomasini

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angela,
    You’re quite welcome. I am in full accord with you in that we must remain consistent or lose all credibility. Great job! I think your article is a very real demonstration of the quality of your character.
    Rich K.

    ReplyDelete