Bogus Studies and Margarine

This one's a classic, thanks to Dr. Briffa, who is a must-read.

What happens if you add omega-3 oils to margarine?

Let's find out.

Now Dr. Briffa asks the question:

"It’s a shame that this study used non-enriched margarine as a placebo. The authors of this study really missed a trick here because a better placebo would have been, in my view, no margarine at all. Even though this would not have a been a true placebo, it would nonetheless have been interesting to see how those who ate margarine fared compared to those who did not."

Well, this is a pretty good look at what happens to people who don't eat margarine, and make sure not to take care of themselves:

"Can this study get any better? Yes it can. The investigators broke down the data into two halves: the first ten years, and the second ten. In the first ten years, there was no significant association between margarine intake and heart attack incidence. In the second ten, the group eating the most margarine had 77% more heart attacks than the group eating none..."

Mmm.  Margarine.

I would also note that the Unilever study mentioned above is a pretty good indicator that adding omega-3 oils to your diet is not going to help if you eat too much omega-6 oils.