Through the years many myths have been circulated as true fact…some of these myths are based on shady research and flawed study. Recall, for example, the myth about how many women are the victim of domestic violence- fictional figures were used to promote an agenda against men…and it worked for a couple decades. Until others went over the original studies and found the flaws.

Now we face another myth. This time it’s about those oh-so-evil trans fats— you know, margarine, veggie oils and the like. NYC just passed a regulation requiring restaurants NOT to use trans fats in cooking. So we go from veggie to lard, again.

The New York City Board of Health this week banned the use of trans fats by restaurants. The decision is directly traceable back to the “research” of Harvard University’s Alberto Ascherio and Walter Willett, the promoters-in-chief of trans fats hysteria.

Now that the Board has deemed their dubious trans fats research suitable for dictating public policy, New Yorkers ought to hope that Ascherio and Willett don’t press the Board to implement some of their other published research that is similar in “quality” to their trans fats work.

In most research, a scientific method is followed. The famed dynamic duo who performed this research have managed to get by with barely a second review, but not a third or even a fourth…which is common with research and studies. Others review your work to double and triple check your findings…which further validates your hard work…problem with this trans fat research is that the other studies done found no increase in bad health…in fact, the original study didn’t consider the health status of the participants- other than their sex (males) and age, other risk factors were NEVER considered nor accounted for. The very small (1.36 percent) increase in heart attacks seen in the study group of men never considered previous heart conditions, family history, cigarette smoking, drinking, sedentary lifestyles, as possible causes. In fact, one of the researchers had this to say about a similar study- done in Europe:

Studies in which the composition of fatty acids in tissue or plasma was used as a marker of trans-fatty-acid intake have yielded conflicting results. With one exception, however, these studies have been too small to detect an association reliably. The results of the only large study, which included 671 men with acute myocardial infarction from eight European countries, were inconclusive. The overall analyses revealed no association between the intake of trans fatty acids and the risk of myocardial infarction.

Really.

Yet another study was done and a researcher had this to say:

The result spotlighted is so misleading as to constitute scientific misconduct. The relative risk of 1.36 is a raw result, without any adjustment for other heart disease risk factors. When other risk factors are adjusted for — including age, body mass index, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, physical activity, history of hypertension or high blood cholesterol, family history of myocardial infarction before age 60, profession, and fibre intake — the weak relative risk is substantially reduced (by more than 50 percent) and becomes statistically insignificant.

Nonetheless, people will continue to buy the bullshit. And laws will be made based on faulty science.

New Yorkers could, for example, see restaurants banned from serving potatoes, peas, peanuts, beans, lentils, orange juice and grapefruit juice. Ascherio-Willett reported an increase in the risk of heart disease among consumers of these foods in the Annals of Internal Medicine (June 2001). Although none of those slight correlations were statistically meaningful — and, in all probability, were simply meaningless chance occurrences — a similar shortcoming didn’t seem to matter to the Board when it came to their trans fats research.

Exactly.

Red meat might disappear, too.

Ascherio-Willett reported a 63 percent increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes associated with iron intake from red meat (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jan. 2004). They didn’t bother to verify how much iron from red meat any of the study subjects consumed and, therefore, don’t actually have a firm basis for linking red meat consumption with the disease – but what the heck, they don’t really know the quantity of trans fats consumed by any of those study subjects either.

..and we’re taking this seriously- the research that is SO flawed??

It’s not looking good for dairy products either. Ascherio-Willett reported in the Annals of Neurology (Dec. 2002) that consumption of dairy products was associated with an 80 percent increase in the risk of Parkinson’s Disease among men.

Regular (sugar-sweetened) soft drinks ought to be history as well. Willett linked them with weight gain and diabetes in women (Journal of the American Medical Association, Aug. 25, 2004). It didn’t even matter that the same study also inexplicably linked diet soft drinks with a similar risk of diabetes.
[...]
the Board may want to consider requiring restaurant patrons to order caffeinated coffee with every meal. One Ascherio-Willett study reported that the risk of type 2 diabetes was reduced by a statistically significant 54 percent among men who consumed 6 or more cups of coffee per day (Annals of Internal Medicine, Jan. 6, 2004).

The Board might also want to mandate the daily consumption of pizza by men. Ascherio-Willett reported that men who consume more than 10 servings of pizza per week reduce their risk of prostate cancer by one-third (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Dec. 1995).

Seems to me, not to long ago in American history the average lifespan for a man was around 60 yrs….this, it is known, was caused by several factors: Diet high in saturated fats (butter, meats, lard, bacon….); lack of exercise; smoking, drinking, lack of exercise…not that long ago many men DID die of heart attacks and it was due to their lifestyle. In the 1950’s and 60’s- not that long ago folks. What’s changed since then? Better insight with the diets, awareness of the need for physical movement, better medical treatments AND the change in ingredients we use to cook with. Yes- margarine replaced butter for a reason. Sweet and Low replaced sugar for a reason…and we saw results. Now we’re going backwards again. So pile up on the lard…it’s good for you now-so says the flawed research of two “scientists” who don’t bother to really research the results of their own work.