Absurdly bad study spurs headlines linking healthy diet to lung cancer
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Upvote
39
(44
/
-5)
ubercurmudgeon
Ars Tribunus Militum
Are they sure they don't mean breathing rather than eating? I could, maybe, see how inhaling an entire pumpkin might do some damage to your lungs.
Upvote
137
(137
/
0)
Problematic statistics and lack of scientific rigor of the actual "study" aside, I feel the article as written with the introduction about RFK and co is somewhat misleading. From the article, I got the initial impression this was some MAHA-cult peddling the dangers of fruit and veggies.
"Without any more data, the researchers speculate that the produce and grains may contain high levels of pesticides, and those pesticides may increase the risk of lung cancer."
This seems more like bad scientists doing bad science. Of course, I'm open to being proven wrong if anyone has details about the group, but I don't suspect them of malicious intent or agenda-pushing, just incompetence. Seems more like they didn't do a good job of designing their study, found an association, and are trying to explain it.
"Without any more data, the researchers speculate that the produce and grains may contain high levels of pesticides, and those pesticides may increase the risk of lung cancer."
This seems more like bad scientists doing bad science. Of course, I'm open to being proven wrong if anyone has details about the group, but I don't suspect them of malicious intent or agenda-pushing, just incompetence. Seems more like they didn't do a good job of designing their study, found an association, and are trying to explain it.
Upvote
4
(28
/
-24)
I told my mother this for years....
She didn't buy it ether and I still had to eat my spinach and broccoli
She didn't buy it ether and I still had to eat my spinach and broccoli
Upvote
146
(146
/
0)
What if I deep fry my fruits and vegetables in beef tallow? Will that negate the cancer risk?
Upvote
132
(132
/
0)
I think I would have preferred an article about eyeworms. It would have been less horrifying.
Upvote
49
(49
/
0)
what does anybody expect considering the lack of intelligence and qualifications beyond loyalty to the orange one of everybody they have put in place? another study without peer review (because peers would laugh at you), no evidence, not a controlled study and the best, coming to a conclusion that is clearly the goal, not the result of a study. par for the course of the "do your own research" crowd.
Upvote
3
(12
/
-9)
On the other hand, how many people do you know who have had cancer? I bet all of them consumed at least some fruits and vegetables.
Checkmate, eggheads.
Checkmate, eggheads.
Upvote
78
(81
/
-3)
When a trained flea is told to hop, it hops.
If you tie its legs together and tell it to hop, it no longer hops.
Ergo, tying a trained flea's legs together makes it deaf.
If you tie its legs together and tell it to hop, it no longer hops.
Ergo, tying a trained flea's legs together makes it deaf.
Upvote
118
(119
/
-1)
Don't people tend to gain weight when they quit smoking? That could be a factor.
Upvote
24
(24
/
0)
Honestly I would not have expected this out of an institution like USC. I kinda thought they had standards, or at least a well-developed sense of shame.
Upvote
53
(53
/
0)
Younger people who eat more fruits and vegetables might also go to the doctor more often, and thus get their lung cancers discovered sooner. Or they might live in places with higher air pollution.
Upvote
41
(41
/
0)
"a claim that flies in the face of decades of evidence-based nutrition guidance, like a full-fat cream pie". Pure Beth. 
Upvote
56
(57
/
-1)
While not a popular opinion, I'm firmly now in the IDGAF camp. They elected, or failed to vote against it and for a sane alternative, these knuckleheads into office, and now we're getting crap like this being thrown in our face on a daily basis. Go ahead and follow the Kennedy Diet into an early grave, it is entirely on your head. I will go ahead and continue eating fruits, vegetables, fish, beef in moderation. I'll keep vaccinated and follow my doctor's advice. And I'll act stupefied as the MAGA voter base declines due to self-inflicted death of said base. Who could have possibly seen this coming?!
MAHA clearly stands for Make America Hellish Again.
Upvote
23
(31
/
-8)
Upvote
10
(10
/
0)
Upvote
28
(29
/
-1)
Everyone who as ever eaten a piece of food has eventually died.
Upvote
88
(89
/
-1)
Yes, primarily for two different reasons:
Nicotine is a stimulant, so metabolism drops when you quit. There's also the 'habit' of having something in your hand/mouth. Snack breaks tend to replace the cigarette breaks.
Find someone who recently quit, and you're likely to also find a pile of empty coffee cups, a small fortress of empty Altoids boxes, and a mountain of gum wrappers. near them.
Upvote
39
(39
/
0)
Well, maybe this was intended as an April Fool's joke but, due to some bureaucratic snafu at USC, it didn't appear on the proper day?
Upvote
5
(6
/
-1)
Asking for a friend: Would barraging the presenter with ripe tomatoes and whole-grain dinner rolls be considered as harm caused by fruits and grains?
Upvote
26
(28
/
-2)
Upvote
29
(29
/
0)
That's cherry picking biased reporting!
Seriously, I lived and worked in Russia back in the 90s and the ice-cream vendors were only out selling in the cold months because they didn't have any refrigeration for their products.
(and for those people who think that Russia is only a frozen wasteland so ice-creams should have been sold all year around, where I was it went from -40°C in winter to +40°C in summer.)
Upvote
39
(39
/
0)
And is it now safe to admit I consider onion rings to be worthy of their own food group?
Upvote
28
(29
/
-1)
No no no, clearly this shows that shark attacks cause people to eat ice cream.
Upvote
83
(83
/
0)
Its fine and all that we have a bunch of experts taking time to point at this piece of work and calling it out for its considerable flaws, but there needs to be some reflection on the role of of the conveners of the American Association for Cancer Research conference (and probably most academic conferences) as well.
Sure researchers know that conference abstracts are meant to be taken with a very heavy dose of scepticism. They are just barely one step up from having a poster. But the public isn't on the same page with this distinction and the media treats these abstract submissions as equivalent in authority to peer reviewed published articles. Now I am seeing more of these "studies" being quickly weaponized to muddy the waters causing misunderstanding, confusion and mistrust. So yeah I think conferences need to be a lot more critical of what they are letting through because it gives these things considerably more authority than they deserve and then causes harm to the public.
By the time we explain to the public that "oh...errr, this wasn't a published study and so... uhh... it isn't actually meant to be taken too seriously and may have serious flaws" it's too late.
Sure researchers know that conference abstracts are meant to be taken with a very heavy dose of scepticism. They are just barely one step up from having a poster. But the public isn't on the same page with this distinction and the media treats these abstract submissions as equivalent in authority to peer reviewed published articles. Now I am seeing more of these "studies" being quickly weaponized to muddy the waters causing misunderstanding, confusion and mistrust. So yeah I think conferences need to be a lot more critical of what they are letting through because it gives these things considerably more authority than they deserve and then causes harm to the public.
By the time we explain to the public that "oh...errr, this wasn't a published study and so... uhh... it isn't actually meant to be taken too seriously and may have serious flaws" it's too late.
Upvote
42
(42
/
0)
Finally, a study that validates my food choices. I can now use this as a shield and ignore any other data. It was really hard to justify before but now I can enjoy my baconators and frosties knowing they're the less harmful option! /s
Upvote
18
(18
/
0)
Forget all those fruits and veggies. They’re clearly not getting enough raccoon penis in their diets.
Upvote
20
(20
/
0)
Why not? After all, the all knowing, orange faced, a$$hole mouthed, waste of food has already informed us that diet soda kills cancer cells based on his own observation (sample size of one) that diet soda kills grass. See, logic?
Upvote
9
(10
/
-1)