I fooled millions into thinking chocolate helps weight loss
http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800
Fascinating. And scary that no journalists asked any questions of significance.
Very disturbing…
I doesn’t matter. Readers are going to spin it whatever way makes them feel most comfortable.
When I read this stuff, I look at where the study was published, who did it, how it was designed, and I always pull up the original paper, because journalists are known to misinterpret results or twist the findings to their liking. Oh, and sponsors do matter. Any study funded by Coca Cola that says sugar is great… pure bunk. 
Best nutrition advice I got was from my grandfather, our family “chef.” He would always remind us kids that eating too much sweet stuff and baked goods would turn our butts into gigantic loaves of bread. Grandfather cooked with lots of bacon and fed us veggies grown in our garden. If it weren’t for the unfortunate accident (see the choking thread), he would have undoubtedly lived past 80 (even so, in that day and age it was longer than average longevity). So there, my un-scientific “study” with N = 1, lol!! 
People believe lies from all sorts of sources, particularly politicians.
I was at a large, highly respected scientific conference. Several presentations and posters were about trials that had fewer than 30 subjects. The very small numbers really bothered me and made me question how they could even be considering this decent science. I know it dies cost more to have larger studies, but sheesh, it makes you wonder.
HIMom, sometimes, it is impossible to get a large number of study subjects - for example, when the condition is an “orphan” condition affecting a very small group of individuals. However, this is not the case with chocolate or other tasty nutrition substance studies, though! Sign me up, just give me free chocolate, and no compensation is needed!
The things being studied and presented are not orphan conditions, so my friends and I were shocked at the very low numbers of people used in the studies were still allowed to present in posters and sessions at this major international conference. When numbers studied are so low, it makes me reluctant to give much creedance to any ‘findings.’
^^Agree. That’s why these small studies are being presented as posters and conference talks instead of being published. It is possible to get a hint at whether something warrants additional studying from a small number of subjects. Lots of these pre-studies come with disclaimers that the results are not definitive and only indicate a possible trend that warrants further looking into it.