Health Studies on Ice Cream Are 'Pretty Bonkers'

The headline of David Merritt Johns' story in the Atlantic refers to it as "nutrition science's most preposterous result." And in the story itself, Merritt Johns calls it "pretty bonkers." It seems that nutritional studies over the years keep suggesting an unexpected result: Eating ice cream might be good for you. Much to their own surprise, researchers have repeatedly spotted an association between ice cream and a lower risk of diabetes and heart problems. Of course, it doesn't make much sense that a "dessert loaded with saturated fat and sugar" would convey such benefits, and Merritt Johns writes that researchers generally don't like to talk about it or trumpet it in research. But before you go loading up the freezer, know this: "To be clear, none of the experts interviewed for this article is inclined to believe that the ice-cream effect is real," writes Merritt Johns.

The story digs into the science, including the possible factors in ice cream's favor (its relatively low glycemic index) and reasons the research might be skewed (self-reporting study participants often lie about what they're eating). But it also deals with the big-picture theme of nutrition scientists shying away from a finding that seems to fly in the face of common sense. "They don't want to see it," says epidemiologist Mark A. Pereira of the University of Minnesota, who published a paper about the association two decades ago. "They might ponder it for a second and kind of chuckle and not believe it." Merritt Johns' takeaway: "If there's a lesson to be drawn from the parable of the diet world's most inconvenient truth, it's that scientific knowledge is itself a packaged good," he writes. "The data, whatever they show, are just ingredients." Read the full story. (Or read other Longform stories.)