Top all-time · #3050
Denise Minger
Personal blog · rawfoodsos.comhealthscience
Denise Minger's personal blog at rawfoodsos.com covers health and science. Since 2010, 24 different Hacker News readers have linked it 30 times, most often “The China Study: Fact or Fallacy?”. The last post was in 2020, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (26) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Denise Minger's posts mainly as critiques of The China Study, including her statistical reanalysis of Colin Campbell's data, plus posts on low-fat diets, sugar and wild fruit.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 26 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Rescuing good health from bad science.
Most-linked posts?
- The China Study: Fact or Fallacy?11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2010-07-09
- /the-china-study/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-02-12
- Takedown of the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-02-22
- /2010/08/03/the-china-study-a-formal-analysis-and-response/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-04-26
What Hacker News says?
No - see studies mentioned in https://rawfoodsos.com/2015/10/06/in-defense-of-low-fat-a-ca... Those shows that sugar on it its own is OK, what is problematic is mixing it with fat. I.e. as long as fat is less that 10%-15% of calories, sugar and carbohydrates are fine.
Comment linking /2015/10/06/in-defense-of-low-fat-a-call-for-some-evolution-of-thought-part-1/
on “How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat”Submitted The China Study: Fact or Fallacy? as a story · 43 points
HN discussionCriticism of "The China Study" pretty much ends my confidence in it: https://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fa...
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “Helpless to Prevent Cancer? Actually, Quite a Bit Is in Your Control”Submitted Takedown of the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines as a story · 3 points
HN discussionWhile I'm not going to get into good or bad about vegan/meat eaters, you do know that the China Study has been heavily criticised for selective data picking right? Thus, just because he was part of it doesn't mean he is a reliable source. I've included the link below as a starting point for the criticism of the China Study. There is a good bit of scientific literature on it as well (am at work, don't have the links…
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “John Yudkin: the man who tried to warn us about sugar”Submitted In Defense of Low Fat as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere is some controversy on the china study to say the least: http://rawfoodsos.com/the-china-study/
Comment linking /the-china-study/
on “John Yudkin: the man who tried to warn us about sugar”Submitted The New USDA Dietary Guidelines: Total Hogwash, and Here’s Why as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThis looks like a pretty good article on that subject: http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/05/31/wild-and-ancient-fruit/ A quick browsing indicates that while our modern fruits are all domesticated, there are plenty of wild, sweet, and large African fruits. Apparently some modern wild berries also have similar sweetness profiles as their domesticated counterparts. The article points out that one prominent difference that doe…
Comment linking /2011/05/31/wild-and-ancient-fruit/
on “What happens to your brain when you stop eating sugar”Some counter arguments for those interested. http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fal...
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick ”Very interesting study unfortunately the conclusions from the book has been debunked[0] a few times. It's a great example of how hard nutritional research is, even with an incredible big dataset and a bunch of very intelligent PHDs it's still very easy to come to the wrong conclusion. I can highly recommend "Death by Food Pyramid" though, it's a very honest look into food science and the author is very honest about…
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “Eating Spicy Food Linked to a Longer Life”For an interesting and deep analysis of China Study, one can look at http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fal... She uses Campbell's own figures, but comes to almost diametrally opposite results. It's up to statisticians here to judge how right or wrong she is ...
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “High protein diet not as bad for you as smoking”As it happens the vegetarian control group, even if some of them do wear leather shoes, tends to outlive those I am sorry, but no such thing happens. There's a lot written on the subject why you can not directly compare "vegetarians" to "everyone else". For example, vegetarians not only do not eat meat, but also smoke and drink less, and exercise more than the general population and are in general more health consci…
Comment linking /2011/01/06/vegetarians-and-heart-disease/
on “Popular fish oil study deeply flawed, new research says”This one's circulated a fair bit on the internet: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fal... The central idea is that the china study showed correlations (sometimes), but not causation, and that it isn't supported by causal evidence. I haven't read the China Study, or the critique in full, so I don't think I'm qualified to say more.
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “My Paleo Media Diet”https://rawfoodsos.com/2015/10/06/in-defense-of-low-fat-a-ca... is more closer to what I was looking.
Comment linking /2015/10/06/in-defense-of-low-fat-a-call-for-some-evolution-of-thought-part-1/
on “Diabetes: can you really eat to beat it?”"Not really. The real problem is that many claimed environmental/diet factors turn out to be statistical noise or complete bullshit when examined further." No doubt this is true, especially in the case of meat and saturated fat. Usually this is the result of bad science, typically drawing cause and effect conclusions from epidemiological evidence (See Denise Minger's critique of The China Study here: http://rawfoods…
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “Cause of ALS is found, Northwestern team says”It seems Denise Minger has changed her mind: http://rawfoodsos.com/2015/10/06/in-defense-of-low-fat-a-cal...
Comment linking /2015/10/06/in-defense-of-low-fat-a-call-for-some-evolution-of-thought-part-1/
on “WHO says processed meats rank alongside smoking as cancer causes”The China Study has been very thoroughly debunked. I think this article is probably the most highly thought of http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fal...
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “WHO says processed meats rank alongside smoking as cancer causes”Read the criticisms and controversies section of the wikipedia article, it's a widely criticised study (perhaps not as much as Ancel Keys' study but close) Also see here for a very thorough refutation: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/08/03/the-china-study-a-formal-an...
Comment linking /2010/08/03/the-china-study-a-formal-analysis-and-response/
on “How to Gain or Lose 30 Minutes of Life Every Day ”The China study has been debunked, on numerous occasions. My personal favorite: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fal...
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “How to Gain or Lose 30 Minutes of Life Every Day ”This is basically the central premise of the book The China Study, which is what convinced me to go vegetarian myself You may also be interested to read the impressive critique of the China Study, which is based on Colin Campbell's own data: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fal... which is what convinced me that my diet, which contains a fair amount of meat, poultry, eggs and seafood is the w…
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “Diet hacker data point”I'm now reading "The Big Fat Surprise" ( http://www.thebigfatsurprise.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Fat-Surprise-Healthy/dp/145162... ). I have not read the whole book yet but if what is written in it is truth then there is no science I am expecting in lipid hypothesis and that's is very disappointing. I will double check some facts myself after reading this book but it is interesting. 1-star comments in am…
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “Brazil's billion-dollar gym experiment”I enjoyed Forks Over Knives but as with any documentary there is always a bias. I would recommend taking a look at this write-up in response to the film: http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/09/22/forks-over-knives-is-the-sc...
Comment linking /2011/09/22/forks-over-knives-is-the-science-legit-a-review-and-critique/
on “How I lost 10% body fat, while launching a startup (and raising kids)”This should answer all of your questions and then some: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/08/03/the-china-study-a-formal-an...
Comment linking /2010/08/03/the-china-study-a-formal-analysis-and-response/
on “How I lost 10% body fat, while launching a startup (and raising kids)”This was some years ago now, but I saw the PI of the Nurses's Health Study [0] (I don't remember if it was Speizer or Willett; probably Willet) give a talk at Harvard. This was just after I read The China Study [1] -- a book recommended by Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which was given to participants of this study. The recommendations of the NHS [2] seem to disagree with the more extreme diets of TCS and this s…
Comment linking /2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
on “A Way to Reverse Coronary Artery Disease? [pdf]”You are missing the point on what I said - the China study was about plant-based diets. China study was widely critisized, and the author's own data does not support his conclusions. There was a link already in this discussion, here's one more http://rawfoodsos.com/the-china-study/ And all of the Blue Zone diets do not include meat - I can think of the Seventh Day Adventists that were studied just as one example. As…
Comment linking /the-china-study/
on “The Fake Meat Revolution”If you believe Dr. Colin Campbell you might want to take a look at these articles: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/16/the-china-study-my-response... http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/cancer/the-china-study-vs... They're both very well written and put some serious doubt into the validity of Campbell's conclusions.
Comment linking /2010/07/16/the-china-study-my-response-to-campbell/
on “Meat based diets made us smarter”And I find Denise Minger's statistical reanalysis of Dr. Campbell's work to be quite compelling. http://rawfoodsos.com/category/china-study/
Comment linking /category/china-study/
on “Normal Plasma Cholesterol in an 88-Year-Old Man Who Eats 25 Eggs a Day”The China Study[1] is a really good book that contains a lot of research about the effect on chronic disease a vegan diet has. I found it very interesting. Did you read any of the critisism though? Here are some http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition/... http://rawfoodsos.com/the-china-study/
Comment linking /the-china-study/
on “How to Satisfy the World’s Surging Appetite for Meat”> ...a study... low carb vs balanced... Might this be it? (link is a debunking): http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/09/08/brand-spankin-new-study-are...
Comment linking /2010/09/08/brand-spankin-new-study-are-low-carb-meat-eaters-in-trouble/
on “ Trying Tim Ferriss's "no grain" diet for 30 days...”
