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: nuts and erectile dysfunction
I swear I’m not making this up.
The study: Effect of Nut Consumption on Erectile and Sexual Function in Healthy Males: A Secondary Outcome: Analysis of the FERTINUTS Randomized Controlled Trial. Albert Salas-Huetos, Jananee Muralidharan, Serena Galiè, Jordi Salas-Salvadó, and Mònica Bulló. Nutrients 2019, 11(6), 1372; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11061372.
The conclusion: “Including nuts in a regular diet significantly improved auto-reported orgasmic function and sexual desire.”
The funder: “This work was partially supported by the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (INC)…INC is a non-profit entity registered at the Register of Foundations of Catalonia, Spain. Nuts were supplied by Crisolar, Spain.
Comment: I love these results, and have no doubt that the funder did too. I can only imagine the ads based on this study. News accounts too (here’s a good one from London’sDaily Mail).
The results were so interesting that a separate group reviewed the data and confirmed that the numbers led to the same results. This is not surprising. Most studies of bias in research show that it turns up mainly in the way the research question is framed or in the interpretation of the data, not in the conduct of the science or collection of data.
Hey guys: have problems? Eat a mixture of raw walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts and collect your own data!
