You’ve probably come across Wansink’s ideas at some point. He researches how subtle changes in the environment can affect people’s eating behavior, and his findings have made a mark on popular diet wisdom. Perhaps you’ve adopted the tip to use smaller plates to trick yourself into eating less, moved your unhealthy snacks into a hard-to-reach place, or placed your fruit bowl prominently on your kitchen counter. Maybe you’ve scoffed at the “health halo” marketing of a decidedly unhealthy food, or chosen 100-calorie snack packs to control your intake.
From the article:
“Why did peer review not catch this?
“Because peer review doesn’t do this,” Heathers told Ars. The point of peer review has always been for fellow scientists to judge whether a paper is of reasonable quality; reviewers aren’t expected to perform an independent analysis of the data.”
When you hear people yammering on about peer reviewed studies as justification for whatever political policy they favor, remember this quote. Ditto for evidence based policy and data driven decision making. With the overwhelming progressive/liberal conformity in humanities and social science it has become more pal review for progressives and enemy review for the few remaining conservatives and libertarians. With progressives love of no platforming and extreme political correctness, how many studies challenging the left wing orthodoxy would the peer review process judge as “reasonable quality”. What a great way to ensure a consensus. Index Librorum Prohibitorum?
the historybuff diet plan:
just under a year ago I adopted a wonderful part Mastiff who never refuses to go for a walk.
Im not a dog trainer, so he of the built-like-a-tank variety turns the walks into a tug-of-war. it’s kinda like toting a fully loaded wheel barrow for 4 kms a day.
the result? I am now at my weight from the early 90s, down some 20 friggin pounds.
seriously, diet is a MOST personal thing, all of us are different. every human ever born is different even exact twins for other reasons.
*therefore* any sweeping recommendations regarding optimum behaviour to be taken with a sizable grain of salt.
Statistically speaking … 78.4% of all students receiving a Michelle Obama designed “healthy lunch” at their school cafeteria, deposit 95.8% of the contents of their lunch trays into the trash.
I suppose THOSE empirical statistics don’t get counted … because they are “anecdotal” … and go against the approved narrative
I was eating a bag of potato chips when I read this.
You are correct. I don’t need to fool myself into keeping healthy. Eat sensibly, not too much, and balance it with plenty of exercise. My dog keeps us both healthy that way. If I’m sitting in the office for too long, he reminds me it’s time for another walk. That 4-6km every day keeps us both in good shape.