Does 'Supersizing' Supershrink Your Brain?

Rambo Tribble writes "As reported by the BBC, the journal Neurology is set to release the findings of a study in Oregon on diet and brain shrinkage in Alzheimer's victims. The upshot is: a diet rich in vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids is beneficial; trans fat and fast food are detrimental."

Comments

And once again: correlation, not causation

[Chemisor]

The study found that high vitamin levels in the blood correlated with higher mental abilities, while higher levels of trans fats correlated with lower. The study says nothing about fruits, vegetables, or fast foods. There was also no evidence to conclude that this correlation is causative. They did not take people with high levels of trans fats and put them on a fruit-and-vegetable diet. If that were done, and their scores improved, they yes, they would have been justified in making such a recommendation. As things are, they made no effort to even determine where those vitamins and trans fats came from. If you ate hamburgers and too vitamin pills, you'd have high vitamin levels in your blood too. Another possibility is that people with lower mental abilities tend to eat more junk food with trans fats. That would create the same results in the study.

So, repeat after me: correlation does not imply causation. If you don't know this, you have no business being a scientist.

Re:Yeah, yeah...everything enjoyable is bad for yo

[KarmaRundi]

One Cinnabon and you're posting anti-science rants on slashdot. QED.

Re:Yeah, yeah...everything enjoyable is bad for yo

[lightknight]

Fast food, last I checked, had adequate levels of macro nutrients, but suffers from a lack of micro nutrients (the levels are too low to be considered 'good' enough as the sole source of food).

Here's a study detailing fast food / its lack of micro-nutrients and its effects on rats -> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18718129

Granted, these are lab rats, which ave plenty enough problems as they are, but it does support my argument.

As for the 'vitamin industry,' I can assure you that I am a scientist, and view their claims with less credibility than you do (goes in the same pile as homeopathy or various cures for cancer via Royal Rife machines).