Diet discussions, dieticians view wcsj 2013 helsinki
1. Diet discussions in the social media –
A dietician’s view
Presented at 8th World Congress of
Science Journalists
2013, Helsinki, Finland
[Updated December 2014]
Registered dietician, M.Sc, MBA
Reijo Laatikainen
www.pronutritionist.net
www.pronutritionistblog.com www.twitter.com/pronutritionist
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2. My view is based on participation
• Posted more than 500
posts at different 4 blogs
• Engaging in discussions
in Finland, US, UK and
Australia
• Follow nutrition literature
• Meet patients regularly
2
4. 4
Academics
Media
Individualism
Dieticians and
nutritionists
Interest groups
(low carb,
vegans etc.)
Too often black & white,
sluggish to admit mistakes
& overselling own studies
Selling news & hunting
clicks is rife in some
media.
“I’m the best expert on
my health”
Dieticians are often absent
or cautious. Stand up for the
discipline, as a profession!
Cherry picking, ridiculing &
dismissing opposing data
as a chosen strategy
✔
✔
5. I’ll only focus on two of these.
Nutrition authorities and media,
because …
It’s certainly true that some prominent low
carb, vegan, paleo & other diet proponents
cherry-pick data, dismiss opposing studies
and ridicule ”opponents”. However, this is so
obvious that I don’t find it particularly
interesting.
6. 1.
Public health messages cast by
nutrition authorities are
exaggerated or simplistic
6
Shades of grey. It is risky to oversimplify science for the sake of a clear
public-health message. Nature 2013:497; 410 (editorial)
7. How a single ecologic (correlation)
study becomes the ultimate piece of
evidence
• Professor of Pediatrics in the
Division of Endocrinology at
University of California, San
Francisco
• Eagerly praised and followed by
low carb and paleo communities
7
8. Sugar usage was linked to incidence of
type 2 diabetes in an ecologic study
8
Correlation of sugar availability and type 2 diabetes worldwide
Basu S, Yoffe P, Hills N, Lustig RH. The Relationship of Sugar to Population-Level Diabetes Prevalence: An Econometric
Analysis of Repeated Cross-Sectional Data. PLoS ONE 2013; 8(2): e57873
11. Mark Bittman, NY Times stretches
Lustig’s findings further…
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• ”The take-away: it isn’t simply
overeating that can make you
sick; it’s overeating sugar.
We finally have the proof we
need for a verdict: sugar is
toxic.”
• ”Obesity doesn’t cause
diabetes, sugar does”.
16. This is how it often goes when
conclusions become distorted in
media and in a population.
17. Media and academics do each have their role
and cannot accuse only the bad behaving in
social media
4 Opinion,
comment,
blog
2 Press 3 News
release
1 Scientific
paper (article)
Authors
present
results
University
sells the
story
to media
Media
sells the
story to
people
Someone
further
exaggerates
and modifies
data/context
18. Furthermore, there truly is
contradictory data in the field of
nutrition.
It’s rarely black and white.
20. Sometimes variety of results is
very broad (cohorts)
Schoenfeld & Ionnidis. Is everything we eat associated with cancer ? A systematic cookbook review, Am J Clin Nutr December 2012
ajcn.047142.
22. Hierarchy of evidence is usually not
well articulated or appreciated →
Surrogate/cohort/mice studies tend
to get equal attention as randomized
hard end point studies and meta-analyses.
Media embraces contrary results.
→
a mess
22
23. One step forward?
Lets’ use the ranking tool for
evidence. It’s been around for
long.
23
24. 1. Randomized mortality &
morbidity trials
2. Prospective cohorts
3. Randomized risk
marker studies
4. Cross-sectional and
case-control cohorts
5 Ecological & animal
studies
Strength of evidence
Meta-analyses of 1,2 & 3
Modified from: Micha & Mozaffarian.
Lipids. 2010; 45(10): 893–905 and
Evidence Analysis Manual.
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
January 2012
25. Let’s face it (despite our best
effort):
There will always be media which
do not seem to care about the
”truth” but rather focuses on
exploiting debates
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29. Let’s stop accusing short-sightedly
the “bad” people across
the border (low carb/paleo
advocates, vegans, super foodies,
dieticians, authorities, university
press officers etc. )
Let’s clean up our own behaviour
and language too.
Page 29 www.pronutritionist.net
31. Recommended readings
• Hughes V. The big fat truth. Nature 2013:497;428–430
• Shades of grey. It is risky to oversimplify science for the sake of
a clear public-health message. Nature 2013:497; 410
• Sumner Petroc, Vivian-Griffiths Solveiga, Boivin Jacky, Williams
Andy, Venetis Christos A, Davies Aimée et al. The association
between exaggeration in health related science news and
academic press releases: retrospective observational study
BMJ 2014; 349:g7015
• Goldacre Ben. Preventing bad reporting on health research
BMJ 2014; 349:g7465
32. Wellcome aboard!
http://twitter.com/pronutritionist
http://www.facebook.com/pronutritionist
http://www.pronutritionist.net
Reijo Laatikainen, registered dietician, MSc, MBA
Images bought and licensed from BigStockPhoto. Snapshots from papers and sites refered to.
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Notas do Editor
It’s easy to blame the others. We all should scrutinize our own nests