They can't figure out what we eat


(Bob M) #1

Whenever I see statements like “The French eat…” or “Americans eat…”, I cringe. How do we know? Turns out, we don’t. Here are two estimates of what people eat in different countries:

See this study by Ty Beal (on Twitter) and others:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00714-5/fulltext

Now, I don’t know if this is grams/day (70g/day of unprocessed red meat? ha!), but the differences between the two techniques are shocking. With this type of variability, there’s no way to say what people are eating, let alone how that affects any end point (eg, cancer, heart disease, etc.).


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Not sure how these people get their data. The GDD site is not clear where their data come from, but it appears to be a number of ongoing databases merged together. The funding comes from the Gates Foundation, the Harvard School of Public Health is an affiliate, and Darioush Mozzafarian is the director. What that means in terms of bias is not clear, but they are not likely to be meat- or keto-friendly.

The Global Burden of Disease data are compiled by the Health Effects Institute, and their site is really not clear about where their data come from. Since their funding comes from the automotive industry, I’m not sure why they are even involved with food data, unless it’s to show that pollution from automobiles isn’t such a bad thing in the greater scheme of things. I just don’t have the patience to delve into it.