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A Tennessee newspaper recently provide an excellent example of how the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine distorts genuine medical research. Notice the difference between the reporter's accurate summary of a recent study about dairy products and prostate cancer, and Neal Barnard's snap judgement,
A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health raised the possibility that consuming lots of dairy products could modestly increase the risk of prostate cancer. The study stressed the case was far from settled and recommended further study of calcium's effects on health.
"Dairy products cause hormonal changes in a man's body that increase the risk of prostate cancer," said [Neal] Barnard, a psychiatrist and nutrition researcher with Georgetown University.
For the activists, any study which finds a correlation for something they agree with becomes instant proof that they are right, while studies that find correlations which the activists don't agree with (such as those finding some advantages for eating fish) are either ignored or dismissed out of hand.
Source:
Group Targets Mississippi Because Of High Prostate Cancer Death Rates. The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), June 13, 2001.