Damn lies and statistics

Damn lies and statistics can be used to manipulate the facts.

My favourite sandwich-spread has been minutely changed, to improve its consistency; or so the manufacturer thinks. It's slightly thicker; I had noticed the change but not thought much of it. 

Bored at lunch, I took a few minutes this week to scrutenise the label on my all-time favourite spread made from a yeast extract; let's call it A. And then compare it with a competitor, B.

With a sigh of relief I noticed in the fine print it states that in a serving there are 0.0 trans-isomers. Those are the bad cousins to Cis, made in the hydrogenation of fats.

Well and good but getting a pair of spectacles and a magnifying-glass I notice something different; yes, the print is that fine, deliberately so.

Do you take the time to read food-labels periodically? You should, but don't believe everything you read; damn lies and statistics abound to confuse and mislead you.

This page was last updated by Bernard Preston on 9th July, 2024.

Damn lies and statistics

Damn lies and statistics are employed by food-companies to conceal the truth about additives utilized in their products.

Trans fats

Contents	Units	Per 100g	per 16g serving	%RDA
Energy	kJ	974	156
Protein	g	37.3	6.0	11%
Total Carbohydrate	g	18.1	2.9
of which sugars	g	2.3	0,4
FAT	g	0.5	0.1
SATURATED FAT	g	0.1	0.0
trans	g	0.1	0.0
Mono-unsaturates	g	0.1	0.0
Poly-unsaturates	g	0.1	0.0
Cholesterol	mg	<1	<0.2
Fibre	g	2.0	0.3
Sodium	mg	3480	557
Vit B-1	mg	0.6	0,1	8%
Vit B-2	mg	0.4	0,1	5%
Vit B-3	mg	8.2	1.3	8%
Vit B-5	mg	1.7	0,3	5%
Iron	mg	3.03	0.5

From the company website concerning Marmite, I read further.

"The goodness of home."

"This concentrated yeast extract paste is 100% vegetarian and gluten-free, with no added fat, salt or sugar. M is an excellent source of Vitamin B12, Riboflavin and Niacin; and Folic Acid (every 8,5 g serving of M provides 55% of the RDA) which is good news for pregnant women."

Take special note of that little phrase, no added fat.

The phrase lies, damn lies, and statistics was first coined by that great humorist Mark Twain. Statistics have long been used to manipulate the truth by unscrupulous vendors.

Thus you will see now that in all reliable research projects, the scientists distance themselves from any personal gain from the results of their studies by a disclaimer.

Sadly, for example, and this is controversial and I'm not convinced the jury is out on the subject, there is only one research document that shows that Glucosamine Chondroitin sulphate has benefits for arthritis sufferers that has not been financed by the companies manufacturing the product. And plenty of independent studies that indicate they don't help a jot.

But let's go back to damn lies and statistics.

Rounding off of numbers

Rounding-off figures is a helpful technique we all use. I'll give you two examples.

• If a reporter stated that at the World Cup final there were 80 000 spectators present, you grasp they are not stating there were EXACTLY that number but ABOUT that many people.

Mathematically, depending on the number of decimal places you are rounding off to, it means there were between 76 000 and 84 000 spectators. One really isn't interested if there were 80 052 people. Unless you were collecting the money!

• You're at the supermarket and you buy five items for $5.45 + 3.05 + 6.95 + 18.25 + 2.99. Cashiers often make mistakes, sometimes big ones, so it's useful to know how much the bill is going to be; about, approximately. So we round the figures off.

Mentally you quickly add 5 + 3 + 7 + 18 + 3. Provided your Grade-2 teacher did a good job, you would know the bill was going to be ABOUT $36. So, if the teller demands $41.69, you immediately suspect s/he has made a mistake, and you're about to be $5 poorer; so you scrutenise the till-slip. Sure enough, that item for 6.95 was advertised at a reduced price, down from 11.95 but the company hadn't adjusted the fee on the computer.

That incidentally is another way that unscrupulous supermarkets use to cheat you; I am convinced it is often done deliberately. Yes, it's true that I have a suspicious mind. Some would call me paranoid.

However rounding off of figures can sometimes only be described as damn lies and statistics. It is deliberately misleading in order to sneakily pull the wool over our eyes.

So having enjoyed, absolutely loved, Marmite for all of my 62 years, for the first time I read the label.

Whew that is a relief: 0.0 g trans-fat per helping.

To the average person, 0.0 means zero; none. That is what the manufacturer wants you to believe. But with two years university mathematics under the belt I can show you how they cheat us.

Wait, if there is 0.1g /100g of added trans-fat, how can there be zero? That means none per serving?

Mathematically speaking, 0.0 means somewhere between 0.00 and 0.04. In reality, about 20% of the fat in Marmite consists of trans-isomers; bad stuff.

And now being suspicious of their questionable reporting, they may well have rounded off 0.14g to 0.1g meaning nearly 30% is trans; see here how I have rounded off the figures to exaggerate to my cause.

That should really be 28%. And if they are really dishonest, they may have rounded off 0.19 to 0.1. We just do not know.

The figures do not matter; what we do know is that there is a substantial amount of trans fat in Marmite, and their 0.0g per helping is just so much lies, damn lies and statistics.

Hydrogenated foods

Hydrogenated foods are an anathema to the human body; they contain totally foreign substances that are known to cause cancer.

Grist to the mill

Adding grist to the mill can you spot something further in their specious reporting?

"No added fat" raises some question marks.

Trans-isomers do not exist in nature. It is a foreign chemical to the body. You certainly won't find any in mushrooms.

So, if about 20 to 28 percent of the fat in Marmite consists of trans-isomers, then hydrogenated oil must have been added.

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Why is this important?

Firstly they think the public is gullible, and they can lead us by the nose. I do not trust most food companies, full stop, and when they are being deliberately dishonest, then I despise them.

Secondly as far as trans-isomers are concerned, the nerves of your body are coated with fat. Without that myelin-sheath they cannot conduct impulses normally.

In the last century we have seen an epidemic of nerve-conduction sicknesses, like MS, ALS and motor neuron disease; plus Alzheimer's.

And the auto-immune diseases where your body takes a serious dislike to some foreign chemicals and starts attacking your own tissues.

And in cardiovascular diseases where foreign fats start clogging the arteries. I do not entirely buy into the cholesterol story; our forefathers ate plenty of animal fats, but heart disease was virtually unknown until the last hundred years.

It is the unsaturated and hydrogenated trans-fats that have taken off in modern man's diet, just as we have seen the prevalence of these nasty diseases escalating logarithmically.

Thirdly recognise that food-companies, just like everyone else will twist the facts to suit their own viewpoint. You have to read the labels very carefully.

Damn lies and statistics

The truth...

I will probably go on eating product Marmite despite their lies, damn untruths and statistics. When I was weaned, it was probably one of the first spreads used on my bread crusts! However, that was more than 70 years ago, and I'll bet it did not contain a drop of added hydrogenated fat.

Along with raw honey from my grandfather's hives I was brought up on natural foods. But I have less trust now in all the products made by this company (and they are big), and I'll eat rather less Marmite. I will stick to my resolution to get my fats from those that we know are good; from fish, the olive and avocados. Nuts and seeds are excellent too.

And I keep hunting for cold pressed oils; it's the solvent extraction at high temperatures that spoils many of the other seed fats like sunflower and canola.

The exception is olive oil; it is cold pressed, as are some nuts like macadamia; read the labels, and don't necessarily believe everything you find there. Yes, I am a skeptic. It's a lying deceitful world.

Avocados get a lot of flak by the way because they are rich in fat but it's the healthy mono-unsaturated oils. 100g of the fruit contains about the same number of calories as a can of beer; 170cals.

In short monounsaturated fat means healthy nerves,and that's important to a chiropractor; and to you. So I still choose butter, in moderation over margarine which mostly is fifty percent hydrogenated. There are exceptions.

Here is an update. It is now nearly 10 years since I wrote this page. The various companies that manufacture Marmite no longer report the percentage of trans fats; they've got sneaky and whether they no longer add them is a moot point.

Let's be clear about it, though; trans fats cause atherosclerosis of the linings of arteries by the same mechanism as food high in cholesterol. Both of them suppress "transforming growth factor" responsiveness in the endothelium of arteries. You will find that in J Nutr Biochem 2011. It is the chief cause of high blood pressure and stroke.

Wholemeal

These are both "wholemeal." One of them comes directly from our Hawo wheat grinder and has all the goodies; none of the bran or germ has been removed.

The other is from a miller; the packet describes it as wholemeal too, but they are chalk and cheese.

Food manufacturers use all kinds of deception, damn lies and statistics to confuse and confound us.

One of these flours is rich in the lignans that prevent breast cancer, has all the vitamin E and other phytochemicals that enable us to enjoy sparkling good health. The other is counterfeit.

Research without bias is the goal but it's a difficult moving target to hit. Many scientists have an axe to grind; a theory that they trying to prove, a product or drug that they are hoping to peddle.

INTERESTING LINKS

• Pathophysioloy of atherosclerosis
• Folic acid overload
  

Bernard Preston

I too am peddling a product. I hope with rather more integrity than food companies; and it is not an iota of damn lies and statistics when I say that not one person has reported they don't like them.

My first three books were written to fill a gap in the market; there's no literature about chiropractic in the book shops. If you want to find out more about the art of manipulative care in joint injuries, not in a hard, factual way but in light, humorous literature then I guarantee you will love books like Bats in my Belfry. Enjoy it on your tablet for a song.

DAMN LIES and STATISTICS

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