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(a), (b), (d), and (e) are where he's argued that support for "breakfast is good" is methodologically weak, but then he goes and brings out (c) as an argument f

(a), (b), (d), and (e) are where he's argued that support for "breakfast is good" is methodologically weak, but then he goes and brings out (c) as an argument for his conclusion, while also being methodologically weak at the same time. You've also neglected to mention (f), where the author discusses studies that show that breakfast is beneficial to children and then handwaves both of them away: > What about the argument that children who eat breakfast behave and perform better in school? Systematic reviews find that this is often the case. and > It has been found that children who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight than children who eat two breakfasts.

ethbro 10y ago
The quote between your two selected lines > One of the reasons that breakfast seems to improve children’s learning and progress is that, unfortunately, too many don’t get enough to eat. [...] It’s not hard to imagine that children who are hungry will do better if they are nourished. Seems a pretty valid point as opposed to handwaving. Nutrition research in general has a pretty studious history of ignoring results in an attempt to support pre-existing conclusions. For support of last statement, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11444941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11444941 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-ration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-ration (side note: military nutrition has a long and interesting involvement with civilian nutrition guidelines)
jschwartzi 10y ago
In those studies, they've probably failed to control for children who qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch, which is a good proxy for children who don't get enough to eat for lunch. I suspect the correlation would go away if that were controlled for.
coldtea 10y ago
>but then he goes and brings out (c) as an argument for his conclusion, while also being methodologically weak at the same time. Here's the thing though: he has every scientific and methodological right to do so. It's those making a claim (that breakfast is good) that have to prove it. If they fail to provide evidence for their claim, those who like the author merely point out that their research is weak don't have to prove breakfast is neutral.
sathackr 10y ago
> It has been found that children who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight than children who eat two breakfasts. What if overweight children are more likely to skip breakfast?

ethbro 10y ago

The quote between your two selected lines > One of the reasons that breakfast seems to improve children’s learning and progress is that, unfortunately, too many don’t get enough to eat. [...] It’s not hard to imagine that children who are hungry will do better if they are nourished. Seems a pretty valid point as opposed to handwaving. Nutrition research in general has a pretty studious history of ignoring results in an attempt to support pre-existing conclusions. For support of last statement, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11444941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11444941 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-ration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-ration (side note: military nutrition has a long and interesting involvement with civilian nutrition guidelines)

jschwartzi 10y ago

In those studies, they've probably failed to control for children who qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch, which is a good proxy for children who don't get enough to eat for lunch. I suspect the correlation would go away if that were controlled for.

coldtea 10y ago

>but then he goes and brings out (c) as an argument for his conclusion, while also being methodologically weak at the same time. Here's the thing though: he has every scientific and methodological right to do so. It's those making a claim (that breakfast is good) that have to prove it. If they fail to provide evidence for their claim, those who like the author merely point out that their research is weak don't have to prove breakfast is neutral.

sathackr 10y ago

> It has been found that children who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight than children who eat two breakfasts. What if overweight children are more likely to skip breakfast?