School Lunches, P-Hacking and the Original "Pizzagate"

This week we're diving into one of the biggest-ever scandals in nutrition research. For nearly two decades, Brian Wansink's Food and Brand Lab told Americans that lower weights, healthier workplaces and better school lunches were just a few small tweaks away. Then, in 2015, he wrote a blog post and it all came crashing down. Support us: Hear bonus episodes on Patreon Donate on PayPal Get Maintenance Phase T-shirts, stickers, face masks and more Links! A Credibility Crisis in Food Science Statistical heartburn: An attempt to digest four pizza publications from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab Brian Wansink: Data Masseur, Media Villain, Emblem of a Thornier Problem The Wansink Dossier: An Overview More Evidence That Nutrition Studies Don’t Always Add Up Here’s How Cornell Scientist Brian Wansink Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies About How We Eat False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant Death of a Veggie Salesman The Strange, Uplifting Tale of “Joy of Cooking” Versus the Food Scientist Moms, “Food Fears” and the Power of the Internet The science behind Smarter Lunchrooms You Can’t Trust What You Read About Nutrition Energy balance measurement: when something is not better than nothing Scientific method: Statistical errors Effect of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act on the Nutritional Quality of Meals Selected by Students and School Lunch Participation Rates 9.67 Degrees of Deception Support the show