Posts Tagged ‘coronary risk in young adults’

“Studies guide/misguide us.” ~ Doc Meek

 
A new study found people with higher religious participation were more prone to being obese.

A religious fattening; published: 2011/04/12; Author: Celia Milne

“Something about religion makes people fatter. New research in Chicago has found that young people who do religious activities at least once a week are twice as likely to become obese at middle age as those with no religious involvement.”

Above image/text from MetroNews, issue of Apr 12, 2011: http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/ 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Today I am grateful for good research studies that can guide us in decision-making. However, even good studies may misguide us–may mislead us significantly! ~ Doc Meek

The above-mentioned study is a good example. When I looked into the study I found that this was not really about religion, even though the study subjects were affiliated with various religious denominations.

It was a good study about 2,433 young men and women who were followed for 18 years. Reported MetroNews: “[Dr. Matthew] Feinstein and colleagues from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine [in Chicago, Illinois, presented the data] at an American Heart Association scientific session in Atlanta, Georgia.”

“The people in the study were part of a larger study called the ‘Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults.’ The object of the study was to find out which groups are at higher risk for obesity, and therefore diseases and earlier death.”

In my opinion, the real finding really had nothing to do with religion.

It had to do with inappropriate nutrition at social functions. Sugar drinks, cakes, cookies, and other fattening food were served at young people’s activities.

The social gatherings just happened to be religious social gatherings. The same inappropriate nutrition is served at most social functions, religious or not, in our Western culture. 

So the real finding of this good study (I think) is this:

If we serve young people junk food at social gatherings anywhere (at home, at work, at church, anywhere), they are twice as likely to become obese at middle age.

Thank you, Dr. Feinstein and colleagues for a fine study. Maybe it is the media reports that can distort the study findings so as to give false impressions?

Doc Meek, Tues, Apr 12, 2011, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA