General

A common theme in nutrition science: Nothing seems to change.

The healthy diet narratives we hear today are remarkably similar to those 50 and 60 years ago when governments and health associations first got into the business of disseminating dietary guidelines. Maybe this conventional thinking is right. Maybe it’s not, but resistant to evidence that it might be wrong.

In my first post on Substack, I wrote about the MIND Diet Trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine back in July. Now I’m looking at the subsequent media response, examining how the journalists reporting on these negative trials work (with the best of intentions?) to protect conventional thinking from the challenge of scientific refutation. Once again I’m writing in Unsettled Science.

Here’s my post: Mind and the Media: Further Lessons from a Negative Trial

Please read, pass along to interested friends, and let us know what you think in the comments. And subscribe to Unsettled Science if you haven’t already and want more critical writing on nutrition research.

I’ve wanted to start writing on Substack for a while now. I’ve been looking for a timely subject that worked well as a first column. In short, it would be suitably important and interesting enough that I could devote the necessary attention to write thoughtfully on the issue.  The recent negative results from the MIND Diet Trial, published July 18th in the New England Journal of Medicine, seemingly demanded just such an extended discussion. Rather than start my own newsletter, I’ll be contributing for now to Nina Teicholz’s Unsettled Science. Nina is one of the very few journalists to be reporting critically on nutrition science and policy, and I’m a fan of her work. I’m excited about the promise of Unsettled Science.

Here’s my first post, with Nina’s introduction and my own: Lessons from the MIND Diet Trial.

Please read, pass along to interested friends, and let us know what you think in the comments. Fingers crossed. I hope to write on Substack regularly, weekly or every other week, something I’ve never managed to accomplish on this blog.