The Tangled Woof of Fact #1
“It seemed a little too pat. It had the austere simplicity of fiction rather than the tangled woof of fact.”
— Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
I read a lot of interesting nerdy things for work and for pleasure — this series of posts will share some of my favourites from any given week.
This week:
⚖️ Rejecting human-rights claims in the UK’s Supreme Court
🏚️ Falling economic growth and incomes
🥑 Eating based on evidence
… and a little stats meme
⚖️ The British Supreme Court’s shift
“In the first two years of Lord Reed’s presidency, the court has rejected more human-rights claims and sided with public bodies more frequently.” This was in The Economist six weeks ago and I keep thinking about it.
Correlation doesn’t equal causation; post hoc ergo propter hoc etc. but still…
🏚️ Terribly low standards
The Resolution Foundation’s latest Living Standards Audit makes for depressing reading. It puts the UK’s two decades of low economic growth, stagnant incomes, and persistently high income inequality into stark relief.
The UK has large gaps in living standards —and incomes are low compared to our European peers. Indeed, we have the highest income inequality in Europe (aside from Bulgaria) and the highest of the G7 countries (aside from the US).
On top of this, housholds have low financial resilience. Nearly four in ten of the country’s lowest earners said they wouldn’t be able to manage for a month if their income stopped.
And our social safety net is full of holes. Unemployment support is at its lowest level on record, at 13 percent of average pay.
🥑 Evidence-based diets
As my face grows ever wrinklier, I’m trying to become more mindful of what food I shove in it. To help me figure out what works, I spent a good few hours on the Cochrane Library this week — here’s what I learnt.
(I am not a doctor or a dietician, so this very much does not constitute advice or recommendations.)
Eat more unprocessed foods, and minimise ultra-processed food like takeaways, pastries, crisps and so on.
Beware of “low/reduced fat” foods — they might have more sugar to retain taste of full-fat versions.
Reducing saturated fats is linked to lower risk of heart attacks and strokes, but doesn’t do much for cholesterol.
Low-carb diets don’t really do anything and it’s unclear whether a vegan diet or a Mediterranean diet prevent cardiovascular disease.
Using less salt may not be beneficial overall (for white people with normal blood pressure, at least); although it reduces blood pressure, low sodium intake is linked to increased cholesterol and hormone levels.
There’s no evidence that low glycaemic index diets reduce cholesterol, blood pressure, or cardiovascular events like myocardial infarction, angina, bypass surgery, strokes.
Low levels of added sugar in your diet are linked to tiny reductions in cholesterol and blood pressure, but there’s no evidence on whether decreasing added sugar lowers your likelihood of cardiovascular events or death.
Intermittent fasting might help with weight loss but the evidence is unclear whether it can reduce risk of death, myocardial infarction, or heart failure.
Seems there’s a lot we still don’t know about eating well.
And finally, a perceptive meme:
