Jamie Reidy comments on a less-than-earthshattering study on fat kids’ diets.
NPR’s Nancy Shute reports on recent data released in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, that specifies for the first time just how much kids will need to cut back:
children and teens need to cut their calorie intake by 41 calories a day, to stop the weight gain trend. Otherwise, children and teens will weigh about four pounds more across the board.
Can’t wait for other helpful studies:
“Heroin Addicts Should Shoot Less Heroin.”
“Pedophiles Should Not Hang out in Playgrounds.”
What are some other groundbreaking reports you want to see?
Photo by: ReneS
Stephen, I could tell I hit a nerve; usually I only annoy women I date that much!
Maybe the problem with scientific journalism is that the writers have to try and reach science know-nothings like me, which forces a dilution of the material.
Regardless, the data/report seems to miss the most relevant point which is that parents still won’t monitor their kids’ junk food intake. As the result, the report won’t change a damn thing.
I think the other problem is how they need to come up with a definitive answer to some sort of question, and a simple answer at that. Whereas the actual research might merely recognize trends or provide data that could be further analysed…an article usually is framed in such a way as to provide a recommendation of behaviour to the readers and a definitive answer to whatever question the research was asking.
It’s great to be of service, isn’t it?
But seriously, scientific journalism in the US (and the rest of the world, really) is crap, and these kinds of headlines don’t help. Since I’m a working scientist who is friends with a lot of journalists, this has somehow become a pet issue for me.
Happy to help.
S-A-R-C-A-S-M
Oh you were being sarcastic? Man, how’d I ever miss that in your short, flippant response to a poorly written news article about a relatively unimportant piece of science work.
Oh right, where you suggested heroin junkies should use less heroin. Finally, a rightful heir to Kurt Vonnegut is amongst us.
Congratulations! You missed the point. Here’s the abstract of the actual study: Background: The federal government has set measurable goals for reducing childhood obesity to 5% by 2010 (Healthy People 2010), and 10% lower than 2005–2008 levels by 2020 (Healthy People 2020). However, population-level estimates of the changes in daily energy balance needed to reach these goals are lacking. Purpose: To estimate needed per capita reductions in youths’ daily “energy gap” (calories con- sumed over calories expended) to achieve Healthy People goals by 2020. etc. The point of the study wasn’t to determine if, but how much. It’s moronic responses… Read more »