Sunday, June 17, 2007

Advice People Will Take

Future Pundit has a recent post about research suggesting that pistachios are good for your heart. The final sentence in the bit he quoted:

"What's more, we noted very good compliance and a positive response from participants during the four-week period."

I was struck long ago, reading the literature on whether large doses of vitamin E were or were not good for you, with the prejudice among some medical writers against anything that's easy to do--"popping pills" instead of regular exercise, for instance. As this example suggests, they have it backwards. If you find things good for people that they actually like doing, they are much more likely to do them. Even I could be persuaded to eat pistachios on a regular basis—for the good of my heart, of course.

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

Hence the popularity of research suggesting that wine and chocolate are good for you. A health regime involving both would certainly not be hard to endure.

One scientific study (French, of course) even seems to suggest that foie gras is good for you -- if not for the unfortunate creature from which it's taken.

Anonymous said...

People forget that only red wine is good (white - not so much) to the extent that it has the anti-oxidants and other nutrients found in the red grapes.

I always point out that drinking non-fermented red-grape juice (or a few similar "red" juices like pomegranate) has all the same benefits as the red wine, minus the liver problems.

Somehow, this is a hard pill to swallow for my listeners, who are more looking after an acceptable justification/excuses than their health!