Are poor statistics to blame for diet sodas supposed link to obesity risk?
Drinking one or more soft drinks per day, be them diet or regular, may increase your obesity risk. Okay, fine. This is old news by this point. But, for some strange reason, I can’t seem to get past this report, which appeared in the very well-respected journal Circulation. This is not because I’m overly concerned that it may be true, but because I feel it’s an obvious sign of poor statistical analysis. What the researchers found is that downing one or more 12-ounce servings of soda per day can increase a person’s risk of obesity by 31 percent. Clearly this makes sense when referring to the drinkers of regular sodas, as it is almost common knowledge that soda contains an inordinate amount of fast-digesting, simple sugars and a great deal of calories. My issue, however, is with the claim that diet soda can have the same effect. There is a well-known Mark Twain quote that, at one point or another, passes through the lips of just about every college statistics professor on the planet. “The
