Ben Goldacre's TED Talk on Exposing Bad Science!

• Olive oil makes your skin younger. Because they eat it in Greece.
• Coffee makes you fat. Because overweight people drink more coffee (did that latte come with a... say, doughnut by any chance...?!).
• Red wine prevents heart attacks. Because they have one of the lowest rates in France. And they do love their wine (and women... So where are we going here? You tell me!)

We have all heard these statements... based on studies.

 

The thing is that these are observational studies - meaning that these are free to be interpreted by the observer.

People who drink red wine typically eat more fresh produce, have less stress, enjoy life more and so on. But disregard all this - focus on the wine. And add that half bottle of vino on top of your overstressed, neurotic, workaholic, take-out, city lifestyle. Yes, that will sure be a life saver.

 

Observational studies (ab)used to tune in on one sole factor are at best useless as their designs are flawed and in most cases funded by some food corp or pharma - and at worst increase your risk of disease, because what they chose to focus on may actually have been a risk factor rather than the healing component.

Drinking more red wine per se is not going to add years to your life on its own - anyone with a basic understanding of biochemistry will know that the type of waste products that alcohol intake leads to in your body does not equal longevity.

 

The French Paradox is based on the assumption that The French should die like flies because their diet is fat laden and rich in saturated fat. And as we have all been brainwashed into assuming that all saturated fat = bad, it's easy to focus on the wine, no? ...And I won't say a word about the fact that screams out loud HELLO! how illogical the whole saturated fat discussion is: that mother's milk is mainly saturated fat (medium chain fatty acids). Does it make sense, without going into further science here, that the type of fat we are raised upon when our brains are still developing should INCREASE the risk of disease? Mmm. Lemme think. Nope.

...And back to the French and the paradox: they actually eat cheese and cream products from cows producing mainly A2 casein (the non opioid triggering casein type) compared to Americans who mainly consume A1 cow's milk products - a newer form of casein that our genes simply have not yet adapted to. And THAT is more than likely the real secret to The French Paradox - albeit more studies are needed, yes.

Watch Goldacre explain crap science in TED terms: