Fwd: Latest from Food Politics: No, Virginia, correlation does not necessarily signify causation

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From: Marion Nestle <feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 7, 2023 at 9:39 AM
Subject: Latest from Food Politics: No, Virginia, correlation does not necessarily signify causation
To: olderkirby <olderkirby@gmail.com>

On Thursdays I like posting things I want everyone to enjoy. This one, I stole from Tamar Haspel, who writes about food for the Washington Post. I follow her on X (the site formerly known as Twitter), where she recently posted: This could be my ...

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by Marion Nestle   December 07 2023 No, Virginia, correlation does not necessarily signify causation On Thursdays I like posting things I want everyone to enjoy. This one, I stole from Tamar Haspel, who writes about food for the Washington Post. I follow her on X (the site formerly known as Twitter), where she recently posted: This could be my all-time favorite BMI correlation! In China and post-Soviet states, BMI correlates with corruption. The fatter, the crookeder. The correlation she cites is from an article in the Economist, Are Overweight Politicians Less Trustworthy?                   I agree.  This is a fabulous example of how correlation does NOT mean causation—a basic tenet of epidemiology often forgotten. But here's my personal favorite example.  I laugh every time I see it. No, the Dietary Guidelines did not cause the prevalence of obesity to rise. This is correlation, NOT causation. For causes, please consider food overproduction, pressures on food companies to sell food when there is so much of it, and the shareholder value movement, which demands not only profits, but  continual growth in profits.  All of these forced food companies to find new ways to get everyone to eat more food (by creating an "eat more" food environment.  I discuss all this in Food Politics and my other books). Correlation is lots of fun but causation requires much deeper analyses. Sorry about that. Thanks Tamar. The post No, Virginia, correlation does not necessarily signify causation appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle.   • Email to a friend • More from Food Politics Yet another Salmonella outbreak from cantaloupe The COP-28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai—items Why I care about conflicts of interest This message was sent to olderkirby@gmail.com. Manage your subscription here. Marion Nestle, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, NYU, 411 Lafayette, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10003-7035, United States marion.nestle@nyu.edu Safely Unsubscribe • Archives • Preferences • Contact • Subscribe • Privacy

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