Jennifer Playz Dum

Posted By elissa on Jun 9, 2010 | 2 comments

Sigh.  I’d like to think that – as a regular Washington Post columnist – Jennifer La Rue Huget has a somewhat-greater-than-room-temperature IQ, but after reading today’s column, I’m not so sure, anymore.

If things worked the way we thought they should, K. Dun Gifford would still be alive.

Gifford, a longtime advocate of healthful eating and particularly of the Mediterranean diet, died on May 9 at age 71. The cause was reported as a heart attack. (More on that in a moment.)

We never like to hear of someone’s death, especially someone as full of life as Gifford was. (I interviewed the founder of the Boston-based “food think tank” Oldways in December 2008 for a column about preparing a Mediterranean-style holiday feast.) But Gifford’s death is unsettling on another level. The olive oil- and veggie-filled Mediterranean diet is supposed to help ward off Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer and, yes, heart disease. If a man who adhered to the diet considered by many experts to be the most healthful succumbs before he hits 75, how much stock can we put in it?

Please, please tell me she’s just pretending to be this dumb.   There are two hyoooge problems with this lede:

1. The Mediterranean diet has been studied quite a bit, and has been found to reduce the risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other degenerative diseases. But the key word is “reduce” – not eliminate. As noted in studies like this one, the reductions in overall mortality are clinically significant, but not earth-shattering.  Ultimately, it’s about improved quality of life for large numbers of people.
2. The Mediterranean diet study conclusions are based on POPULATIONS – and in large populations, there’s ALWAYS a good deal of scatter around the mean.  In other words, individual results vary. Thus, there are no guarantees for me or thee – only probability estimates.  An average 10% – 20% reduction in mortality from degenerative disease doesn’t mean EVERYONE benefits equally.  Some benefit more, others less, and some (apparently) no better than those following a less healthy diet.  That’s the way of it.

As the (perfectly sensible) researcher she quotes says:

“Diet is a major influence on health, but not the only influence,” she writes She cites behaviors such as exercise and stress, as well as effects from the environment and genetics as factors that affect a person’s longevity.

Well, duhhhh.  For example, my father died from lung cancer at age 76.  He started smoking in his teens, and – by the time I came on the scene ~30 years later – he had a three-pack-a-day habit.  He was also an alcoholic, and quite indifferent to diet.  Yet he outlived many of his friends and younger siblings, as well as some pretty well-known health “gurus” like J.I. Rodale (founder of Prevention magazine), Adelle Davis and Nathan Pritikin. Heck, he even lived 5 years longer than K. Dun Gifford. Does this therefore validate heavy smoking and boozing as viable lifestyle choices vs. sucking down organic, whole foods and exercising?

Of course not.  Statistics show that – on average – men like my father typically die a lot earlier than 76.  He was a statistical outlier.  But – and this is a critical point – there are ALWAYS a few.  You can’t rule out genetics and other lifestyle factors (for example, Dad was an avid golfer, so was physically active, despite his other bad habits).

So Earth to Jennifer: eating a healthy diet is no guarantee that you’ll outlive George Burns.  What it will do, however, is improve your chances of living to your full, potential life span (whatever that may be).  Nonetheless, the Grim Reaper will still tap some people on the shoulder before we think they ought to go… and he makes no exceptions for the rich and/or famous. Sure, there’s some irony in the fact that a healthy-lifestyle advocate like Gifford died of a lifestyle-associated disease, but it’s a strictly superficial one. Only a dimwit (Jen???) would posit otherwise.