• The Washington Post reports that five years after a landmark study conducted in Spain concluded that a Mediterranean diet rich with vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts and olive oil had enormous health benefits, the study’s authors now have retracted it and published a new version “after facing criticism of the way the initial experiment was conducted.”
According to the story, “The findings of the revised study arrive at the same conclusions as the original one — that the Mediterranean diet can prevent heart disease. But the language in the new report is a bit more modest … The issue had to do with randomized controlled trials, which divide participants by chance into separate groups that compare different treatments. Using chance ‘means that the groups will be similar and that the effects of the treatments they receive can be compared more fairly,’ according to the National Institutes of Health.”
The Post writes that “the original study concluded the diet ‘resulted in a substantial reduction in the risk’ of major heart illness among high-risk people, while the new study said ‘those assigned’ to a Mediterranean diet had a lower risk than those not assigned.”
According to the story, “The findings of the revised study arrive at the same conclusions as the original one — that the Mediterranean diet can prevent heart disease. But the language in the new report is a bit more modest … The issue had to do with randomized controlled trials, which divide participants by chance into separate groups that compare different treatments. Using chance ‘means that the groups will be similar and that the effects of the treatments they receive can be compared more fairly,’ according to the National Institutes of Health.”
The Post writes that “the original study concluded the diet ‘resulted in a substantial reduction in the risk’ of major heart illness among high-risk people, while the new study said ‘those assigned’ to a Mediterranean diet had a lower risk than those not assigned.”
- KC's View:
