More Misleading Headlines

A recent article in Eurekalert says in the headline, "University of Minnesota researchers discover Mediterranean diet ingredient may extend life." This illustrates two problems with popular science articles.

First, the authors emphasize the university where the research was done more than the research itself. Of course, this is the job of the PR people who write press releases, as sites like Eurekalert and Science Daily simply print the press releases as they come in, without editing them.

Second, and more important, the headline mentions "Mediterranean diet ingredient," which turns out to be olive oil. If they mean olive oil, why don't they say olive oil. People on a lot of different diets use olive oil. But seeing something in a headline tends to make people remember it. So many will see this headline and think, "Oh yes. If I follow a Mediterranean diet, I'll live longer."

That might be true if they're currently on a fast-food diet or a diet with lots of processed foods. For someone without diabetes, I think the so-called Mediterranean diet is healthy, even though it doesn't represent what many people in that part of the world actually eat. But the diet emphasizes whole grains, which make blood glucose (BG) go up in people with diabetes. Of course, whole grains are better than highly processed grains, but better doesn't mean best. And many people don't really understand what a whole grain is.

Corn and rice are whole grains, but in people with diabetes they'll make BG levels soar.

Health writers, and even some researchers, tend to get on the Diet du Jour bandwagon. You're more apt to get funding if you're researching the popular Mediterranean diet, looking at it from some new angle, than if you're researching the Blubber and Kale diet, which no one eats.

I'm all for informing nonscientists about research results. But not if the publicity is misleading. In this case, the original article was titled "Lipid Droplet-Derived Monounsaturated Fatty Acids Traffic via PLIN5 to Allosterically Activate SIRT1," and although it mentioned that the Mediterranean diet is high in monounsaturated fats (olive oil is monounsaturated), the focus of the research was on how olive oil helps, not on any life extension of that diet.

They write, "While undoubtedly a plethora of components in the Mediterranean Diet contribute to its positive effects on health, the data presented herein provide at least one feasible biological mechanism that may underlie these well-established benefits."

Almost any whole-food diet will show benefits when compared to the Standard American Diet. Maybe the mechanism of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet is simply eliminating chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, french fries, and doughnuts rather than using more olive oil.