“Slim by Chocolate!” the headlines blared. A team of German researchers
had found that people on a low-carb diet lost weight 10 percent faster
if they ate a chocolate bar every day. It made the front page of
Bild,
Europe’s largest daily newspaper, just beneath their update about the
Germanwings crash. From there, it ricocheted around the internet and
beyond, making news in more than 20 countries and half a dozen
languages. It was discussed on television news shows.
And
the statistically significant benefits of chocolate that we reported
are based on the actual data. It was, in fact, a fairly typical study
for the field of diet research. Which is to say:
It was terrible
science. The results are meaningless, and the health claims that the
media blasted out to millions of people around the world are utterly
unfounded.
Here’s how we did it.
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