Originally Posted by
MinnMan
I guess the same could be said for nearly all studies linking diet to long-term health outcomes. How many servings of salmon do you have each week? Do you follow the Mediterranean diet? As
PeteHski notes, few of us follow consistent dietary patterns sustained over decades. Possibly this wasn't so much of a problem in the past, where people's diets were well correlated with how they lived and their social class, but the more cosmopolitan we become, the more our diets shift with changes in offerings, with changes in our personal choices and lifestyle as we age, etc.
It's not just what, but how much people eat. Most of what we know comes from industrial societies where almost everyone is in positive energy balance. This factor is a huge risk in itself and it undoubtedly determines with how people metabolize macronutrients to a large extent. I suspect, for instance, that sugars aren't nearly as toxic in people who aren't in energy overload.