Why it is so hard to figure out what to eat

Despite the importance of nutrition on public health, most diet trials lack basic quality control

Guests at a media preview on Tuesday at Chicago's Starbucks Reserve Roastery, the world's largest Starbucks outlet. The writers have found that diet trials may provide misleading results for many reasons, including small size, short duration and weak
Guests at a media preview on Tuesday at Chicago's Starbucks Reserve Roastery, the world's largest Starbucks outlet. The writers have found that diet trials may provide misleading results for many reasons, including small size, short duration and weak interventions (they lack power to actually make the intended change in behaviour). PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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Most diet trials in the best journals fail even the most basic of quality control measures.

That's the finding of our study published on Wednesday in the Jama Network Open journal.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 16, 2019, with the headline Why it is so hard to figure out what to eat. Subscribe