"Margarine consumption linked to divorce." If you saw that headline on a newspaper or website, what would you think?
What if you read a little further and found a compelling graph showing the rates of divorce and margarine consumption tracking each other closely over almost 10 years.
Tempted to believe there could be a link?
"Maybe when there's more margarine in the house it's more likely to cause divorce," muses Tyler Vigen, "or there's a link with some of the molecules in margarine or something."
Vigen is the man behind the margarine graph, which he published on his website Spurious Correlations. The name gives the game away - he's a statistical provocateur.
More on this story here.
This is a classic illustration for most of the dietary bollocks that gets trotted out as science these days. You know the sort of story "Walls Pork Sausages lead to heart disease" etc. "Low carb diet sends man batshit" The trouble is, most dietitians believe all this sort of stuff. I luv it ! The fact is margarine is a killer ! Don't tell the British Heart Foundation, who flog Flora for all they are worth !
Eddie
I always thought it was Mrs. Olsen's coffee that was the cause of divorce. Hers is mountain grown - the richest kind.
ReplyDeleteMargarine is deficient in cholesterol, which reduces libido, which decreases sexytime between couples, and leads to divorce.
ReplyDeleteLogic?