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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 13d

This is a fascinating story.

A Lebanese team published a study showing massive benefits for apple cider vinegar in 2024. People immediately noticed it was problematic, and complained.

BMJ asked the authors for the data, and they sent it through. The study has just been retracted and WOW 1/n

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · 13d

Link: www.uol.com.br/vivabem/colu...

Guia do Supermercado: 'Sem caldo Knorr': hospital público de Porto Alegre prioriza comida natural

Comida de hospital virou sinônimo de comida sem graça, mas nem só de canja sem sal se alimentam os pacientes internados. Temperos que vêm prontos da indústria, margarina e bebidas de caixinha marcam p...

www.uol.com.br

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · 13d

Matéria da @sarifontana.bsky.social

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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 17d

New piece out - do soft drinks give you depression?

Probably not. The evidence is SUPER weak. gidmk.substack.com/p/soft-drink...

Soft Drinks Probably Aren't Making You Depressed

Why soda/pop/soft drinks probably aren't causing depression.

gidmk.substack.com

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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 17d

10/n Regardless, all of this fuss and noise about soft drinks and depression comes from a cross-sectional study that only assessed soft drink consumption at one time point and did not follow-up patients at all.

Which is absurd.

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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 17d

4/n This is straightforwardly meaningless scientifically. It was a cross-sectional survey of food consumption with some gut microbiome assessment thrown in. According to their methods, the only covariates included in the logistic model here were age and sex.

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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 17d

Science can be such a headache sometimes.

This study has hit the headlines because the authors claim that it shows that soft drinks cause people to be depressed by negatively impacting their gut microbiome.

Several BIG issues with this 1/n

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · 21d

Olha só quem também está aqui

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · 24d

bsky.app/profile/jcso...

José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 7

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👉 Proliferam manchetes sobre um novo estudo (neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...) que alega que 7 adoçantes artificiais estão associados com declínio cognitivo acelerado.
📰 Quase todas usam linguagem causal e números assustadores.
Mas o estudo é BEM problemático. 🧵

Association Between Consumption of Low- and No-Calorie Artificial Sweeteners and Cognitive Decline | Neurology

Background and ObjectivesConsumption of low- and no-calorie sweeteners (LNCSs) has been associated with adverse health outcomes. However, little is known about the association between consumption of L...

neurology.org

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · 24d

bsky.app/profile/jcso...

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 24d

Groundbreaking! @gidmk.bsky.social and @slate.com prove that you can cover an academic study by actually *reading* it, not just regurgitating every breathless bullet point from the press release...

This is what science journalism should look like 👇

slate.com/technology/2...

Scientists Tested the Link Between Artificial Sweetener and Cognitive Decline. Here’s What You Need to Know.

Scientists tested for links between artificial sweeteners and cognitive decline.

slate.com

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · 24d

Como escrevi na semana passada, esse estudo altamente problemático jamais permitiria sugerir que adoçantes em geral sejam deletérios para o cérebro, muito menos adoçantes específicos.

A reprodução totalmente acrítica pela mídia é algo que precisa ser repensado

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 24d

Groundbreaking! @gidmk.bsky.social and @slate.com prove that you can cover an academic study by actually *reading* it, not just regurgitating every breathless bullet point from the press release...

This is what science journalism should look like 👇

slate.com/technology/2...

Scientists Tested the Link Between Artificial Sweetener and Cognitive Decline. Here’s What You Need to Know.

Scientists tested for links between artificial sweeteners and cognitive decline.

slate.com

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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 24d

Groundbreaking! @gidmk.bsky.social and @slate.com prove that you can cover an academic study by actually *reading* it, not just regurgitating every breathless bullet point from the press release...

This is what science journalism should look like 👇

slate.com/technology/2...

Scientists Tested the Link Between Artificial Sweetener and Cognitive Decline. Here’s What You Need to Know.

Scientists tested for links between artificial sweeteners and cognitive decline.

slate.com

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 12

Falei isso hoje de manhã aqui em casa!

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 11

O Fux está inocentando o Paulo Sérgio porque o Paulo Sérgio tentou demover Jair de dar um golpe. Mas ele acabou de inocentar o Jair de golpe 🤷

É o golpe de Schrödinger

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 10

@npto.bsky.social explicou a teoria de Fux ainda em 2023 na Folha

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 9

Ela é um clone da apresentadora do Biggest Loser 20 anos atrás share.google/images/DJthg...

Resultados da Pesquisa de imagens do Google para https://www.phillyburbs.com/gcdn/authoring/2010/09/13/NBCC/ghows-PA-e9b74136-85e6-41d9-a9e3-097db6f0b3f3-579d7e0d.jpeg?width=1200&disable=upscale&forma...

share.google

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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

F. Perry Wilson, MD @fperrywilson.bsky.social · Sep 9

We've all had this conversation before:

"Dude, we both agree this is red... but how do I know what I see as red is what you see as red? Maybe you see red as I see blue."

Mind blown lol.

But we finally have some research that sheds light (and color) on the issue. (Thread)

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 8

👏👏

José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 8

Que bom! Saudades 😊😊

José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 8

O artigo sobre adoçantes e declínio cognitivo, além dos problemas que já citei ontem aqui e no último episódio do podcast Comida sem Filtro, está repleto de erros estatísticos, se vê nesse fio

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · Sep 5

As noted by @carlmc.bsky.social, one odd pattern in these results is that ALL the estimates and confidence interval bounds are multiples of 0.008

What could explain that? 🤔

eTable 6 with all the multiples of 0.008 highlighted in red

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Reposted by José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto)

Carl Müller-Crepon @carlmc.bsky.social · Sep 6

It’s really worrying that it takes a political scientist to point out all these irregularities in a paper that is picked up to such an extent by the press — reviewers, science editors, anyone listening? Anyone bothered to ask for the underlying data & code?

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · Sep 5

As noted by @carlmc.bsky.social, one odd pattern in these results is that ALL the estimates and confidence interval bounds are multiples of 0.008

What could explain that? 🤔

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 8

Smarter people than me found worrisome mistakes: bsky.app/profile/soph...

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · Sep 5

In eTable 6, we have the same estimate and confidence interval.

And now we also get a p-value, that is obviously inconsistent with the reported confidence interval!

(A 95% CI that almost crosses 0 should have a p-value close to but just below 0.05)

José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 8

@gidmk.bsky.social

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 8

14/
👉 Conclusion:📌

It makes no sense to claim that 7 different molecules all cause the same brain damage just because they’re sweet.

The study does not show causality, nor clinical relevance.

The tagatose debacle shows the findings are just statistical noise and confounding by indication

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José Carlos Souto (@jcsouto) @jcsouto.bsky.social · Sep 8

13/
👉 In the end, the study proves only one thing:
When you cross FFQs with food composition tables and dozens of unadjusted tests, you can “find” an association between any molecule and any outcome.🤯
Even a molecule that nobody actually consumed. Tooth Fairy science + Schrödinger's sweetener

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