Want to Cut Cancer Risk? Try Munching Pistachios
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Rating
Want to Cut Cancer Risk? Try Munching Pistachios
Our Review Summary
This is the kind of story that comes with the daily drumbeat of health/medical/science research stories – a story that gets a brief light-hearted comment at the watercooler because of the cute headline – "Want to Cut Cancer Risk? Try Munching Pistachios." But it’s a story that delivers almost no meaningful information. Why?
Because it:
- was based on a very small, very short-term study
- didn’t explain the limitations of drawing conclusions from such a study
- appears to have come directly from a news release without any independent reporting.
- included no independent perspectives on whether the findings were important or not.
- doesn’t explain that this study – because of small size and short duration – may not have a meaningful impact on the literature about dietary factors and cancer prevention.
Why This Matters
Lung cancer is the top cause of cancer death in men and women in the US. So prevention is an important issue that demands better attention than this.
Criteria
Not Applicable
The cost of pistachios isn’t in question.
Not Satisfactory
The story stated that the " pistachio group showed significantly higher blood levels of gamma-tocopherol" What does that mean? And what difference could it mean in peoples’ lives? Of course, not much can be said about such a small, short-term study, which makes the entire discussion of potential benefit – and the newsworthiness of the story – questionable.
Not Applicable
There was no discussion of potential harms, but we will grade this as Not Applicable because this is not an intervention likely to cause harm.
Not Satisfactory
The story never comments on the limitations of drawing conclusions from such a small (18 people in each group), short-term (4 weeks) study.
Not Satisfactory
The story says that "Eating pistachios every day might reduce your risk for lung cancer and other malignancies." What other malignancies? The story never explains.
Not Satisfactory
No independent sources were quoted in the story. Again, everything seems to have come from a news release.
Not Satisfactory
The story didn’t give any context about nutritional approaches to reduce cancer risk.
Not Applicable
The availability of pistachios isn’t in question.
Not Satisfactory
No context was given about any other past research looking at vitamin E or gamma-tocopherol. And there is a substantial body of literature on this topic already from large cohort studies across the world.
Total Score: 0 of 7 Satisfactory
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