Today’s Topic in Focus: Understanding Causality in Nutrition Science
- Inferring causality vs demonstrating causality
- Hierarchy of evidence vs. standards of proof
- The need for correlation, time precedence and non-spuriousness
- Reductionism and erroneous application of the biomedical model to nutrition
- The false causality dichotomy: RCTs vs. epidemiology
- Understanding what the “highest quality evidence available” is
- How nutritional epidemiology can infer causality
Links:
- Deaton & Cartwright, 2018 – Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials
- Dawson-Hughes & Harris, 2002 – Calcium intake influences the association of protein intake with rates of bone loss in elderly men and women
- Blumberg et al., 2010 – Evidence-based criteria in the nutritional context
- Heaney, 2008 – Nutrients, Endpoints, and the Problem of Proof
- Sigma Statement: How Diet Influences Heart Disease Risk
- Sigma Statement: Red Meat & Human Health
- Podcast: Understanding Diet & Heart Disease Risk
- Science Based Medicine article about The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS)
The Quack Asylum
Being consigned to the Quack Asylum in this episode is…
The ironically-titled paper “Dietary Recommendations for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia: an Evidence-Free Zone“ by a who’s who list of pro-LCHF, anti-statin, LDL-skeptics.