20-year study dismisses possible risks - Top Buzz Times Everywhere in my social news feeds this morning: A popular fad diet is apparently lethal, scientific research says. Specifically, a study found that caloric restriction, also known as intermittent fasting, has a 91% higher risk of death due to cardiovascular disease.
Except scientific research doesn’t say that — and not only should you not be worried about this study, you shouldn’t be wasting brain glucose thinking about it. Even including that 91% number, which you’ll remember, caused me pain, because I don’t think this result should be remembered.
The study is a type of nutritional research that is notoriously weak, and right now it’s only available as a press release. It’s not clear from the many, many news articles on the study whether reporters actually viewed the data that will be presented at an upcoming research meeting held by the American Heart Association.
So how am I, a science journalist, confidently dismissing this research? It’s based on observational research, and one lesson from more than 20 years of reporting on health and medicine is that one should be very skeptical of observational research, especially when it is about nutrition.
