I love reading about scientific studies. They are always so eye-opening and thought-provoking. Whenever I read about one I invariably feel enlightened and more knowledgeable about the topic.
I’m being sarcastic. My real opinion of scientific studies is that they often only confirm what common sense and logic tell us. I’m mostly curious about how the researchers managed to convince some funding source, government or otherwise, that the study in question should be conducted at all.
When the source of the funding is private, I find myself amused by the wasted money. When the source is the government—in other words, your money and my money—then I get angry.
Earlier this week, I read in Business Week about a study conducted the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Indiana University. Researchers there studied 388 freshmen living in seven dormitories about their eating and exercise habits. (I’m assuming that the study was done at Indiana, although the Business Week article did not make that clear.) The study concluded that—drum roll, please—students who lived in dorms with dining halls gained more weight during the year than students who lived in dorms without dining halls. The students ate more and exercised less when cafeterias were in close proximity to their living space.
The article quoted Jeanie Alter, possibly the author of the study, as saying, “This study confirms what we as public health practitioners have believed for a while. Location is not only important in real estate. It's also important when it comes to health behaviors, and proximity of food and exercise facilities influences our behavior.”
Such a “revelation” by the university seemed to me to be a no-brainer. Just the added physical effort of having to walk a longer distance to get your food would burn more calories. And obviously, if food is in easier reach, people tend to eat more of it and more often.
But the bigger problem I have with such studies is that there are so many variables in human behavior that affect metabolism, to make a blanket statement about a single behavior is simplistic to the point of uselessness. I don’t object to these studies per se; what I will always question is whether all the variables have been accounted for before conclusions are made.