New Study in NY Times

[jilliangordona]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/well/new-study-favors-fat-over-carbs.amp.html

[PrimalBrian]

Unfortunately, despite the press headlines/interpretation of this study (PURE study), it’s an observational study of limited use and benefit. No major shifts or takeaways other than chalking it up to being interesting and a step in the right direction to perhaps more defensible studies on the same topic. There was a heavy reliance on food logs, which our side of the fence has used to sling arrows at observational studies that go the other way. Observational studies can’t/don’t show cause and effect, unfortunately. Interesting nonetheless…

[Chris_W]

limited use and benefit.

Scientifically, it’s of limited use. However, in our community it’s fantastic news. Not that it tells us something we don’t know, or that we didn’t have studies as good or better in the past, but this is a widely reported paper giving us yet more ammunition in the fat wars. I think it’s great, even though I wouldn’t go around shouting that it’s proof of anything. It’s funny, though, that as soon as this started getting reported, the usual suspects (LCFH deniers on Twitter and the blogosphere) came out of the woodwork saying that this was nothing to pay attention to because it was merely an observational study based on food questionnaires. Conveniently forgetting that their own advice was based on the same kind of studies. At least we can throw that back at them.

[PrimalBrian]

Understood, but I’m not sure a tit-for-tat with the others over whose science is less worse gets us far. Thankfully, @richard can do it way better than me and anyone else.

Weak associations that we agree with are still weak associations

Originally published at: http://blog.2keto.com/weak/ For decades we’ve been plagued with dietary regulations based upon studies that found weak associations generated from food frequency questionnaires. Here’s how it works: some researchers want to look into whether something people eat affects their health, so they come up with a survey, send it to say 100 people, and ask questions like Q25: Over…

[Chris_W]

True. But, it’s nice to have for well-meaning friends and relatives who sometimes worry.

[PrimalBrian]

Yes, I totally agree, @Chris_W , especially because, at a minimum, it shows that everyone’s position is unsettled, at least. This is why I’m excited about the NUSI initiative, long-term. http://nusi.org

[tsyork]

Is the NUSI initiative still active? I remember reading about issues a while back between the co-founders and noticed that the latest articles on their website are from 2 years ago. Is anyone aware of their current level of activity and whether they’ve received much funding?