Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Industry-funded study of the week: adding pork to a Mediterranean diet
I saw this tweet from Washington Post columnist Tamar Haspel:
I took the bait.
Science Daily summarized the study.
Incorporating 2-3 serves (250g) of fresh lean pork each week, the Mediterranean-Pork (Med-Pork) diet delivers cognitive benefits, while also catering to Western tastes, and ensuring much lower greenhouse-gas emissions than beef production.
Since the article gave the name of the lead author, Alexandra Wade, and the name of the study, MedPork, I had no trouble finding the actual study.
The study: A Mediterranean Diet with Fresh, Lean Pork Improves Processing Speed and Mood: Cognitive Findings from the MedPork Randomised Controlled Trial. Wade A, et al. Nutrients 2019, 11, 1521; doi:10.3390/nu11071521.
Conclusion: “Compared to LF [low-fat diet], the MedPork intervention led to higher processing speed performance (p = 0.01) and emotional role functioning (p = 0.03).”
Funding: “This study was funded by the Pork Cooperative Research Centre (#3B-113). The Pork CRC had no role in the study design, implementation, analysis or interpretation of data. Acknowledgments…We would also like to acknowledge the following organisations for their generous contributions: Almond Board of Australia for the donation of almonds; Cobram Estate for the donation of Australian extra virgin olive oil; and Simplot Australia Pty Ltd. for the donation of legumes, tuna and salmon.”
Comment: This study was so obviously industry-funded that Haspel could tell without even looking at it (the Science Daily article did not mention the funder—it should have). What these investigators did was to add a bit more than half a pound of pork a week to an otherwise healthful diet; They found that people like this diet better than one that is low-fat. Why would anyone do a study like this? I can think of only one reason: to give pork a health aura so you will eat more of it, obviously.
Addition
A reader points out that this is not Wade et al’s only sponsored study. Here are some others:
- A Mediterranean Diet with Fresh, Lean Pork Improves Processing Speed and Mood: Cognitive Findings from the MedPork Randomised Controlled Trial. Wade AT, Davis CR, Dyer KA, Hodgson JM, Woodman RJ, Keage HAD, Murphy KJ. Nutrients. 2019 Jul 4;11(7). pii: E1521. doi: 10.3390/nu11071521. Sponsor: Pork Cooperative Research Centre
- A Mediterranean Diet to Improve Cardiovascular and Cognitive Health: Protocol for a Randomised Controlled Intervention Study. Wade AT, Davis CR, Dyer KA, Hodgson JM, Woodman RJ, Keage HA, Murphy KJ. Nutrients. 2017 Feb 16;9(2). pii: E145. doi: 10.3390/nu9020145. Sponsor: Dairy Australia.
- Including pork in the Mediterranean diet for an Australian population: Protocol for a randomised controlled trial assessing cardiovascular risk and cognitive function. Wade AT, Davis CR, Dyer KA, Hodgson JM, Woodman RJ, Keage HAD, Murphy KJ. Nutr J. 2017 Dec 22;16(1):84. doi: 10.1186/s12937-017-0306-x. Sponsor: Pork Cooperative Research Council
- A Mediterranean diet supplemented with dairy foods improves markers of cardiovascular risk: results from the MedDairy randomized controlled trial. Wade AT, Davis CR, Dyer KA, Hodgson JM, Woodman RJ, Murphy KJ. Am J Clin Nutr. 2018 Dec 1;108(6):1166-1182. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy207. Sponsor: Dairy Australia Effects of Mediterranean diet supplemented with lean pork on blood pressure and markers of cardiovascular risk: findings from the MedPork trial. Wade AT, Davis CR, Dyer KA, Hodgson JM, Woodman RJ, Murphy KJ. Br J Nutr. 2019 Oct 28;122(8):873-883. doi: 10.1017/S0007114519001168. Epub 2019 Sep 23. Sponsor: Pork Cooperative
Research Centre.
