Reply #157: I'm glad there is some responsible soy cultivation -- but that's not [View All]

always the case.

"Soy -- at this moment -- is the most important driver for deforestation, directly and indirectly," says environmental analyst Jan Maarten Dros. "Directly because the cerrado is being converted from natural vegetation into soy fields. But indirectly, because in this region a lot of cattle farms are being replaced by soy farmers buying or renting land from cattle farmers." This means, according to Dros' 2003 WWF study on the impacts of soybean cultivation in Brazil, that the "cattle farmers tend to advance into new forest area, causing more deforestation." http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11756

"However, the bottom like kicker is this: THEY DON'T TELL YOU WHAT THE SAMPLE WAS!

Was 10, 100, 1000, or 10,000? WE DON'T KNOW!

This is what is called lying through omission. It has the look of something genuine with just enough pertinent facts missing to prevent you from going "oh, I see"."

Enig and Fallon don't have to give you the numbers from the original study -- they give you the reference. If you want to see the subject population - go to the original. One would assume that if it was published in a decent journal and was conducted over several years it would have sufficient subjects to give it enough statistical power. Also they are examining the science behind the assertion that veggies live longer. One of the studies showed that male non-veggies had .11 greater Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD )incidence than male veggies, whereas female non-veggies had .04 less than female veggies. More importantly the data for ALL CAUSE DEATH was higher among the Veggies - both male and female. In the case of females -- the differential was an alarming .32. Oddly enough Enig and Fallon didn't go on the claim that the vegetarian lifestyle was deadly, only that the assertion that veggies live longer was not supported.

BTW, this is the kind of reporting you get in the statin trials -- lower heart incidents among those treated, but higher deaths overall -- especially from cancer. They don't usually put that bit out in the media release -- but some of us like to read the boring methods and results sections of the studies. They also like to tout statin 'miracles' in relative rather than the appropriate absolute statistics.