Hi Beth I followed the link to the abstract (archives of internal medicine), and it sounds like white rice eaters were NOT compared against brown rice eaters as the basis for the lowered risk (if so, the 5 vs 2 servings is the obvious confound). Rather, 2+ servings brown/week was compared against <1 brown/month, and the relative risk decreased, and they also compared white vs white (5+/week versus <1/month) and the risk increased. On the surface it sounds like solid evidence in favor of brown versus white as the risks moved in opposite directions as a function of portion size. I'd like to see what then entered for "other lifestyle and dietary risk factors", especially food total food intake as well as food intake for different food categories. Their estimate of the lowered risk by "replacing" a certain amount of white with brown is just that, as estimate, limited by how they modeled the data.
Ah yes! another in a long series of articles about food and health that preys on our "omnivores dilemma" (what do we eat??). That is why (at the personal level) I retreat into the stability of longitudinal-tested diets of ancestors and the traditions that keep them alive, and why I get a kick out of Michael Pollen's pithy advice: (1) eat food, (2) not too much, (3) mostly plants :-) ========================== John W. Kulig Professor of Psychology Plymouth State University Plymouth NH 03264 ==================================================================== GALILEO GALILEI: I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reasons, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. ==================================================================== ----- Original Message ----- From: "Beth Benoit" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 8:47:10 PM Subject: [tips] (brown) rice vs. lots of rice Sigh ....this is the latest bizarre effort to track causes of Type II diabetes, and a great example of problems with trying to determine causes and correlations. " Now a new study from researchers at Harvard reports that Americans who eat two or more servings of brown rice a week reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by about 10 percent compared to people who eat it less than once a month. And those who eat white rice on a regular basis — five or more times a week — are almost 20 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who eat it less than once a month." So - wait for the punch line - those who ate two servings of brown rice were compared to those who ate five servings of white race - and the white rice eaters were more likely to develop Type II diabetes. No comparison of other diet variations likely in those who routinely ate brown rice? Or of course, two servings of brown rice vs. five servings of white. How much is wrong with this conclusion? (Where to start?) http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/eating-brown-rice-to-cut-diabetes-risk/ Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] . To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13338.f659d005276678c0696b7f6beda66454&n=T&l=tips&o=3110 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-3110-13338.f659d005276678c0696b7f6beda66...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=3129 or send a blank email to leave-3129-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
