Junk Science, Writ Large
If you have any brains, you'll be a vegetarian. Honest. That's what the headline says.
FRIDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) — As a child's IQ rises, his taste for meat in adulthood declines, a new study suggests.
British researchers have found that children's IQ predicts their likelihood of becoming vegetarians as young adults — lowering their risk for cardiovascular disease in the process. The finding could explain the link between smarts and better health, the investigators say.
"Brighter people tend to have healthier dietary habits," concluded lead author Catharine Gale, a senior research fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre of the University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital.
Recent studies suggest that vegetarianism may be associated with lower cholesterol, reduced risk of obesity and heart disease. This might explain why children with high IQs tend to have a lower risk of heart disease in later life.
The report is published in the Dec. 15 online edition of the British Medical Journal.
"We know from other studies that brighter children tend to behave in a healthier fashion as adults — they're less likely to smoke, less likely to be overweight, less likely to have high blood pressure and more likely to take strenuous exercise," Gale said. "This study provides further evidence that people with a higher IQ tend to have a healthier lifestyle."
In the study, Gale's team collected data on nearly 8,200 men and women aged 30, whose IQ had been tested when they were 10 years of age.
"Children who scored higher on IQ tests at age 10 were more likely than those who got lower scores to report that they were vegetarian at the age of 30," Gale said.
Now, these stunning results were trumpeted all over the world. I have seen variations on this report all over today. But here is the actual number from the study:
The researchers found that 4.5 percent of participants were vegetarians. Of these, 2.5 percent were vegan, and 33.6 percent said they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken.
There was no difference in IQ score between strict vegetarians and those who said they were vegetarian but who said they ate fish or chicken, the researchers add.
The article does not say what the difference in IQ scores were for any of the groups. But the stunning part here is the gross manipulation of numbers. Read this again:
The researchers found that 4.5 percent of participants were vegetarians. Of these, 2.5 percent were vegan, and 33.6 percent said they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken.
People with high IQ's also can figure when numbers are being misreported. This is idiocy, not reporting. This is an agenda. Turn the number around: 95.5% of people are not vegetarian. The sample they are working with here is meaningless. This "study" is aimed at the five out of four people who cannot understand fractions.
Junk Science | Gaius Friday, 15 December , 2006
By colm, Sunday, 17 December , 2006 @ 5:09 pm
The actual press release can be found here
“The study involved 8179 men and women aged 30 years whose IQ was tested at age 10 years.
Twenty years later, 366 (4.5%) of participants said they were vegetarian. Of these, 9 (2.5%) were vegan and 123 (33.6%) stated they were vegetarian but reported eating fish or chicken.”
A 1979/1980 study found similar results in a group of 28 children.
“While many vegetarian parents believe that their diets improve their children’s intelligence levels, Dr. Dwyer suggests this is not so. She studied intellectual development among 28 vegetarian children, 17 of them macrobiotic vegetarians, who ate very small amounts of animal foods. Over all, the children were developmentally above average: their average I.Q. was 116; only five were below 100, which is considered the average I.Q. for the general population. The children’s mental age exceeded their chronological age by one year.
However, Dr. Dwyer pointed out that this does not mean that vegetarian diets produce smarter children; rather, the children’s parents were probably brighter than average, since all had attended or completed college. ”
Colm