- Nigerian fermented foods
- I point out that certain results in the BMJ are impossible
- Big increase in ADHD diagnoses
- Preface and Chapter 1 (Abraham Lincoln) of Edward Jay Epstein’s new book, Annals of Unsolved Crime
- How to taste umami (very good)
- No mortality difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians (2009 study). This is evidence against the new TMAO theory of heart disease (carnitine in meat is converted by bacteria to TMAO, which causes heart disease).
Here’s another interesting article about ADHD. Could the underlying cause be sleep deprivation?
“Attention Problems May Be Sleep-Related”
Seth: I agree, very interesting. Someone noted this in a comment on the previous post.
> I point out that certain results in the BMJ are impossible
And they reply you are misreading it and it’s based on different populations, so it’s not violating the conjunction rule.
Seth: Thanks, I hadn’t seen that. Their explanation of the discrepancy is that the two graphs are based on different populations.
Your picking out 1999 ACJN journal is cherrypicking a study of very limited value. I am shocked by the very strong selection bias due to the fact that participants are selected for absence of prior disease despite a very high median age (49 for non-vegetarians). There are many other problems, namely a lower-than-national-average intake of meat for meat-eaters, no checking whether labeled “vegetarians” still were vegetarians throughout the study, etc
Also, many other studies state exactly the contrary (for instance https://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/63, based on the same EPIC cohort) so at best I think we’ll have to wait for more studies and an honest transversal study on that subject. For the time being, just stating “No mortality difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians” is purely speculative.
Seth: All studies have “selection bias” in the sense that you use it. If “vegetarians” were not actually vegetarians, that would reduce observed differences between “vegetarians” and “non-vegetarians” — the wrong way for your claim that the study should be disregarded. I don’t know what a “transversal study” is.
Hi All,
first thanks for the nice blog and the free information we get here. The blog by itself is really thought provoking.
I have learned a lot from this blog and also i changed my diet .I tried to eat a more fermented food, unfortunately i have developed an intolerance to alcohol. This intolerance is so strong, that i can not drink eat alcohol or eat minimal fermented food like sauerkraut and curd.
Does anyone know some other possibilites to get the needed fermented food without the alcohol? The only thing i did find through coincidence was the medicamentation perenterol which has milk bakteria in it and also reduces my acne a lot. (The skin gets drier)