Oh CNN, your headlines make me sad sometimes.
Is eating egg yolks as bad as smoking?
No. No it is not. The study you're reporting on does in fact claim that eating egg yolks accelerate heart disease about 2/3rds as much as smoking does, but acceleration of heart disease is not actually the health problem smoking is most known for. But you know that. Sigh.
Not that I'm buying the study anyway. They asked people, who already had heart disease, to report their egg yolk consumption over the course of their lives. How accurately can you recall your average egg yolk consumption over the course of your life? Additionally, people who have heart disease have most likely been told to cut down on consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol. Those still eating more eggs have likely heard this advice, and disregarded it. What are the chances that they're disregarding other advice as well? Lastly, it does not appear the study asked about the consumption of any other food, meaning egg consumption could actually just be co-occuring with the consumption of something else that was even worse. Surveys that ask only about very specific foods tend to see what they want to see.
So basically, another correlation/causation issue here, combined with those terrible consumption recollection surveys, with a sprinkle obnoxious headline writing. Yeehaw.
[sarc]
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean if I want to take up smoking eggs, it will be as bad for my health as smoking cigarettes?
[/sarc]
After I heard about that study, and after I finished spluttering and ranting (both in my head and out loud) about how they HAD to be disregarding all kinds of variables (that makes no sense -- the study MUST be flawed. that is almost the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Next thing they will try to tell me bacon is bad for me)I thought of asking you to look at it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hearing my prayer and commenting. Enjoy your eggs.