This blog is overrated.

The Times’ food-nannying “Well” blog reports on an utterly perplexing study:

Half the women were sent a letter describing the survey as a study of fruit and vegetable intake. The letter included a brief statement of the benefits of fruits and vegetables, a Five-A-Day sticker and a Five-a-Day refrigerator magnet. The rest of the group received a general letter, without mention of fruits, vegetables, stickers or magnets.

Within 10 days of receiving the letters, the study subjects answered a food frequency questionnaire and were asked to recall how many fruits and vegetables they had eaten in the past 24 hours.

The group that had received the Five-a-Day propaganda reported significantly higher consumption of fruits and vegetables. The conclusion: people lie about how many fruits and vegetables they eat. “Because the two groups were randomly selected, average fruit and vegetable consumption should have been similar.” Really? Wasn’t one of the groups just told repeatedly about how important it is to eat fruits and vegetables? Why wouldn’t that make a difference in their eating patterns? This looks like some pretty incredible cynicism on the part of the nutritional establishment; the de facto admission seems to be that nutrition researchers regard the general public as a bunch of liars — and their own public health campaigns as completely ineffective.