The third issue is the food categories are way too broad and ill-defined. For example "meat" and "fat". There is meat and there is fat that tastes good (incl. hours later, when the gut had a chance to sample it more thoroughly - there's a "brain" and there are taste receptors down there).
There's meat and also fat that doesn't (taste good). It's not just the meat/fat itself, it's also the combination with other foods and the preparation that can change completely how my body perceives a food. Since those "feelings" have developed for a reason - we didn't have science to tell us what is good to eat for the 1st million years of humans (and pre-humans) - I dare claim it is significant for ones long-term health.
But studies don't make any such distinction. To assume everybody eats what tastes best is a stretch, not just because circumstances in our stressful lives, but also because the brain can only ask for food that it knows, and I remember the stories from that British chef who showed American kids tomatoes and potatoes and they had no clue what that was, they only knew processed food.
So how can you seriously leave it at "they ate x amount of meat" when such a person eats "meat" compared to someone who had opportunity to taste "traditional" (pre-industrial) foods and prepares him- or herself a good piece, including a good combo with other stuff and well-prepared?
Am I seriously to believe a McDonalds burger's "meat" is correctly put into the same place - as "meat" - as a real meal?
Of course, if you acknowledge this difficulty you have to give up on studies because I see now way to reliably collect that information on a scale large enough and long-term enough for a useful study. As the article suggests, actually (to give up going down this path). The story of that guy looking for his car keys under the street light even though he lost them somewhere else comes to mind, in the desire to study this at all this seems to be what happened.
It isn't about giving up as some readers took away from that paragraph, it's about choosing another path. For example, get down to understand what's actually happening instead of high-meta-level studies and see if that gives us new ideas.
Oh and here's a nice article related to the subject: http://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8264355/research-study-hype(I hope nobody tries to count the dots on each side of the plot to use that to draw conclusions... it's an example and incomplete and even if it had dots for every single study could not be used for that purpose)
There's meat and also fat that doesn't (taste good). It's not just the meat/fat itself, it's also the combination with other foods and the preparation that can change completely how my body perceives a food. Since those "feelings" have developed for a reason - we didn't have science to tell us what is good to eat for the 1st million years of humans (and pre-humans) - I dare claim it is significant for ones long-term health.
But studies don't make any such distinction. To assume everybody eats what tastes best is a stretch, not just because circumstances in our stressful lives, but also because the brain can only ask for food that it knows, and I remember the stories from that British chef who showed American kids tomatoes and potatoes and they had no clue what that was, they only knew processed food.
So how can you seriously leave it at "they ate x amount of meat" when such a person eats "meat" compared to someone who had opportunity to taste "traditional" (pre-industrial) foods and prepares him- or herself a good piece, including a good combo with other stuff and well-prepared?
Am I seriously to believe a McDonalds burger's "meat" is correctly put into the same place - as "meat" - as a real meal?
Of course, if you acknowledge this difficulty you have to give up on studies because I see now way to reliably collect that information on a scale large enough and long-term enough for a useful study. As the article suggests, actually (to give up going down this path). The story of that guy looking for his car keys under the street light even though he lost them somewhere else comes to mind, in the desire to study this at all this seems to be what happened.
It isn't about giving up as some readers took away from that paragraph, it's about choosing another path. For example, get down to understand what's actually happening instead of high-meta-level studies and see if that gives us new ideas.
Oh and here's a nice article related to the subject: http://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8264355/research-study-hype (I hope nobody tries to count the dots on each side of the plot to use that to draw conclusions... it's an example and incomplete and even if it had dots for every single study could not be used for that purpose)