What I'm Reading

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Full of debunking of homeopathy's claims and just about anything to do with "nutritionism". Scathingly critical of the pharmaceutical industry. Also has lots of stunning findings. An excerpt:

Attendants working in various hotels were divided into two groups: one group was told that cleaning hotel rooms is 'good exercise' and 'satisfies the Surgeon General's recommendations for an active lifestyle', along with elaborate explanations of how and why; the 'control' group did not receive this cheering information, and just carried on with cleaning hotel rooms. Four weeks later, the 'informed' group perceived themselves to be getting significantly more exercice than before, and showed a significant decrease in weight, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index, but amazingly, both groups were still reporting the same amount of activity.

Highly recommended.