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walkitoutI tried blogging about this earlier, and then got bogged down in the eternal, Did I Just Get Taken by An April Fool's Day Prank question.
Anyway.
Here is the press release (don't waste your time with the million people and organizations that edited the press release -- all they did was introduce errors):
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/foas-ad040711.php
The people who did the study are real researchers and the paper was presented at a reasonable symposium, as near as I can tell, as a relatively late addition.
Short form: 160 women 45-65 were given 75 grams of dried apples or dried prunes every day for a year as a dietary supplement. The apple group lost weight, dropped their LDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein, etc. Blood draws were done at 3, 6 and 12 months and results showed up at 6 months.
I can't really complain that this thing didn't get coverage: everyone jumped all over it back in April and I stumbled across it in google news in the health section, not very far down [ETA: Incorrect recollection. I actually read something about the Multaq atrial fibrillation trial and saw the apples thing in a most-read sidebar]. But I had to ask: What. The. Fuck.
And the answer is: oh, this showed up in the control group for another study. Arjmandi et al were looking at prunes and bone health in postmenopausal women and just sort of tripped over this. And FTW? Arjmandi's department was the department at FSU formerly known as Home Economics. (cue laugh track).
I _really_ hope this holds up. But I'm not sure I'm going to wait. I may order up some dried apples Right Now.
Anyway.
Here is the press release (don't waste your time with the million people and organizations that edited the press release -- all they did was introduce errors):
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/foas-ad040711.php
The people who did the study are real researchers and the paper was presented at a reasonable symposium, as near as I can tell, as a relatively late addition.
Short form: 160 women 45-65 were given 75 grams of dried apples or dried prunes every day for a year as a dietary supplement. The apple group lost weight, dropped their LDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein, etc. Blood draws were done at 3, 6 and 12 months and results showed up at 6 months.
I can't really complain that this thing didn't get coverage: everyone jumped all over it back in April and I stumbled across it in google news in the health section, not very far down [ETA: Incorrect recollection. I actually read something about the Multaq atrial fibrillation trial and saw the apples thing in a most-read sidebar]. But I had to ask: What. The. Fuck.
And the answer is: oh, this showed up in the control group for another study. Arjmandi et al were looking at prunes and bone health in postmenopausal women and just sort of tripped over this. And FTW? Arjmandi's department was the department at FSU formerly known as Home Economics. (cue laugh track).
I _really_ hope this holds up. But I'm not sure I'm going to wait. I may order up some dried apples Right Now.