{"id":3563,"date":"2010-06-09T05:08:22","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T03:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2015-12-07T11:51:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:51:19","slug":"jennifer-playz-dum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/jennifer-playz-dum\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Playz Dum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sigh.\u00a0 I’d like to think that – as a regular Washington Post columnist –\u00a0Jennifer La Rue Huget has a somewhat-greater-than-room-temperature IQ, but after reading today’s column<\/a>, I’m not so sure, anymore.<\/p>\n

If things worked the way we thought they should, K. Dun Gifford would still be alive.<\/p>\n

Gifford, a longtime advocate of healthful eating and particularly of the Mediterranean diet, died on May 9 at age 71. The cause was reported as a heart attack. (More on that in a moment.)<\/p>\n

We never like to hear of someone’s death, especially someone as full of life as Gifford was. (I interviewed the founder of the Boston-based “food think tank” Oldways in December 2008 for a column about preparing a Mediterranean-style holiday feast.) But Gifford’s death is unsettling on another level. The olive oil- and veggie-filled Mediterranean diet is supposed to help ward off Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer and, yes, heart disease. If a man who adhered to the diet considered by many experts to be the most healthful succumbs before he hits 75, how much stock can we put in it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please, please tell me she’s just pretending to be this dumb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are two hyoooge problems with this lede:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Mediterranean diet has been studied quite a bit, and has been found to reduce the risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other degenerative diseases. But the key word is “reduce” – not eliminate. As noted in studies like this one<\/a>, the\u00a0reductions in overall mortality\u00a0are\u00a0clinically significant, but not earth-shattering<\/a>.\u00a0 Ultimately, it’s about improved quality of life<\/a>\u00a0for large numbers of people.<\/li>\n
  2. The Mediterranean diet study conclusions are based on POPULATIONS – and in large populations, there’s ALWAYS a good deal of scatter around\u00a0the mean.\u00a0 In other words, individual results vary. Thus,\u00a0there are no guarantees for me or thee\u00a0– only probability estimates.\u00a0\u00a0An average\u00a010% – 20% reduction in mortality from degenerative disease doesn’t mean EVERYONE benefits equally.\u00a0 Some\u00a0benefit\u00a0more, others less, and some (apparently) no better than\u00a0those\u00a0following a less healthy diet.\u00a0 That’s the way of it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As the (perfectly sensible) researcher she quotes says:<\/p>\n

    “Diet is a major influence on health, but not the only influence,” she writes She cites behaviors such as exercise and stress, as well as effects from the environment and genetics as factors that affect a person’s longevity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Well, duhhhh.\u00a0 For example, my father died\u00a0from lung cancer at age 76.\u00a0 He started smoking in his teens, and – by the time I came on the scene ~30 years later\u00a0– he had a three-pack-a-day habit.\u00a0 He was also an alcoholic, and quite indifferent to diet.\u00a0 Yet he outlived many of his\u00a0friends\u00a0and younger siblings, as well as some pretty well-known health\u00a0“gurus”\u00a0like J.I. Rodale (founder of Prevention magazine), Adelle Davis and Nathan Pritikin. Heck, he\u00a0even lived 5 years longer than K. Dun Gifford. Does this therefore validate heavy smoking and boozing\u00a0as viable lifestyle choices vs. sucking down organic, whole\u00a0foods and exercising?<\/p>\n

    Of course not.\u00a0 Statistics show that – on average –\u00a0men like my father typically die a lot earlier than 76.\u00a0 He was a statistical outlier.\u00a0 But – and this is a critical point – there are ALWAYS a few.\u00a0\u00a0You can’t rule out genetics and other lifestyle factors (for example, Dad was an avid golfer, so was physically\u00a0active, despite his other bad habits).<\/p>\n

    So Earth\u00a0to Jennifer:\u00a0eating a\u00a0healthy diet\u00a0is no\u00a0guarantee\u00a0that you’ll outlive George Burns<\/a>.\u00a0 What it\u00a0will do, however, is\u00a0improve\u00a0your\u00a0chances<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0living to your full, potential life span (whatever that may be).\u00a0\u00a0Nonetheless,\u00a0the Grim Reaper\u00a0will still tap some people\u00a0on the shoulder before\u00a0we think they\u00a0ought to go… and\u00a0he makes no exceptions for the rich and\/or famous. Sure, there’s some irony\u00a0in the\u00a0fact that a\u00a0healthy-lifestyle advocate like Gifford\u00a0died of a lifestyle-associated disease, but it’s a\u00a0strictly superficial one. Only a\u00a0dimwit (Jen???)\u00a0would\u00a0posit otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sigh.\u00a0 I’d like to think that – as a regular Washington Post columnist –\u00a0Jennifer La Rue Huget has a somewhat-greater-than-room-temperature IQ, but after reading today’s column, I’m not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,14,28],"tags":[498,1862],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10305,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions\/10305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}