So Fat In Our Diet Is OK Now?

The news has been full of commentary on a clinical trial just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It's in the news because the results seemed surprising. Apparently, lowering dietary fat doesn't significantly lower the risk of breast cancer. The study was done on post-menopausal women, a lot of them. Check out the abstract: JAMA. This clinical trial is an excellent example of how medical research is conducted, published and reacted to.

The first thing to notice is that the title does not say anything about the result. "Low-Fat Dietary Pattern and Risk of Invasive Breast Cancer" tells the reader what the study is about, not what the study shows. If this were a newspaper or magazine article, the title might be something like "Lowering Dietary Fat Does Not Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer." That may be more of a hook, but it's not the way scientific results are published.

Next, take a look at the number of authors - I lost count after 40! Authorship in science is different that in the news media. Everyone who contributes substantially to the research is generally eligible for authorship. Everyone, that is, except for the research participants themselves. In this case, though, there would be an additional 48,835 author...

Next time: how the study was designed.

-Joe

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