Comment by rustynails | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rustynails | Hacker News Reader

Looking at dietary benefits is very complex. For example, there is one study that suggests there are no known benefits to yogurt. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/292809.php

The point is that when I see numbers of test subjects, duration, measures of benefit, etc I feel more confident that some thought has gone into understanding benefits. However, Unless a test subjects only ate that one product or all test subject diets were controlled, it's difficult to measure benefits.

After reading this article, I was unsure of how rigorous this research was. Despite many references, the strength of the data wasn't analysed in a way that was quantifiable. This article isn't alone. One of the few miracle vitamins (vitamin c) also has its critics when it comes to potential benefits.

In summary, I wasn't convinced one way or another by this research.

> Looking at dietary benefits is very complex. For example, there is one study that suggests there are no known benefits to yogurt.

Well, apart from its being food, protein and fat. :)

I once spent part of an evening reading the labels of all yogurts in my local chain supermarket, looking for the smallest counts of "ingredients that aren't yogurt" and carbs (I'm type 2 diabetic, hence my interest in carb count over the day). For my supermarket, that turned out to be Fage greek yogurt. I eat their full-fat product almost every morning, and I can state without a doubt that it is food. :)

Naturi yogurt has even lower sugar. (But looking at their website, they don't seem to be available nationwide -- east coast only)

That study that the news article links to is pretty weak: there is no control and they only did a single baseline assessment of yoghurt consumption. Whereas some of the articles on outcomes referenced in the article are review articles.

But my main takeaway from this was not so much about outcomes (I would need to look into those studies more closely as you suggest). Rather it is that studies show that fermented foods are capable of surviving digestion and altering gut flora.

Overall I am really happy to see an article based on research citations rather than that it was published in NYT.

Vitamin C is easy: there are no benefits, assuming you've already reached the amount you need.

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