6 ms·
Wasabi linked to "substantial" boost in memory, Japanese study finds
- petesoper 3y agoThe paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/21/4608 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/21/4608
- cxcorp 3y ago> A wasabi company, Kinjirushi Co., provided funding, though the researchers say the company had no role in the study itself. I'm sure.
- astrange 3y agoThis is obnoxious. You cannot disprove a scientific study by pointing at who funded it, and a properly constructed one won't be able to hide bad results since it'd be preregistered.
- glimshe 3y agoHe doesn't have the burden of disproving it, the study has the burden of proving its claims. I consider studies funded by an interested party as weak evidence at best - perhaps enough to encourage an independent party to conduct another study.
- ethanbond 3y ago> perhaps enough to encourage an independent party to conduct another study. Is that an option that’s on the table? Or do we have to take the information we’re able to get and just interpret it critically?
- astrange 3y agoI think people do crowdfunding for studies sometimes, but doing it just for a replication sounds like a waste.
- DeIlliad 3y agoProving or disproving a claim is the purpose of a study. At this point, it's out of the researchers hands and up to other research teams to replicate the research and confirm or deny the results.
- astrange 3y agoAll medicines in the US are approved using studies funded by the company that submitted them. There's a simple reason for that - nobody else would care enough to do it. If you can't read a study well enough to tell if the methods it uses are good, that's your problem.
- kazinator 3y agoEven a study that never took place could specify methods that look great on paper. You pretty much have to repeat the study yourself to see whether you get the same results. All studies like this are "believe us when we say that we did this, and observed that". If you're paid by X, and the result is favorable to X, then I don't believe you as much.
- thsksbd 3y agoNo, you cant disprove a study by the source of funding;Truth doesnt care who funds it. But its also not obnoxious not to be helplessly naive that you don't scrutinize sources using effective heuristics.
- astrange 3y agoIt's not an effective heuristic. Overly online cynical people are just obsessed with the idea that everything is a conspiracy that can be undone by "following the money". Bad science reporting is common, but it's more common for the reporters to just misread what a study says. Besides, this is nutrition science, where what's actually happening is scientists are conspiring against big ice cream by refusing to tell you that it's good for you. (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/05/ice-cream-bad-for-you-health-study/673487/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/05/ice-cre...)
- hulitu 3y ago> No, you cant disprove a study by the source of funding;Truth doesnt care who funds it. But the lie does care.
- kazinator 3y agoYes you can. Identification of a conflict-of-interest bias is different from argumentum ad hominem.
- perihelions 3y agoAlso relevant: - "In 2018, Buckley and the other nine senior members of the editorial board resigned, claiming that MDPI "pressured them to accept manuscripts of mediocre quality and importance." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrients_(journal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrients_(journal) https://www.science.org/content/article/open-access-editors-resign-after-alleged-pressure-publish-mediocre-papers https://www.science.org/content/article/open-access-editors-... (This is the journal that accepted the OP study).
- TapWaterBandit 3y agoEven before reading this I definitely got vibes of "Wine makers find drinking red wine has benefits" or "Starbucks finds that coffee is the ultimate health drink" etc.
- connicpu 3y ago"1-2 glasses of wine a few days a week associated with better health outcomes" was true, but it leaves out "1-2 glasses of wine a few days a week associated with wealth". There's some correlations there, but neither statement is pointing the finger at the causation.
- thsksbd 3y agoAlso teetotalers, as a group, includes people who don't drink because an undiagnosed underlying health issue makes them feel ill when they imbibe. Maybe a latent hepatitis-b infection.
- wnevets 3y agoSome how I was able to guess this was the case without having any prior knowledge of this study.
- kazinator 3y agoFunding of the study is a role in the study itself, since it is the study itself that requires the actual money.
- keyle 3y agoIt's true, you never forget that time you put too much wasabi on... /s
- 7e 3y agoIf you eat something really pungent, your brain should indeed have mechanisms to prevent you from eating it again. It could be poisonous.
- eikenberry 3y agoIs this only wasabi or does it cover the horseradish based green stuff we get in the US?
- MPSimmons 3y agoHorseradish only contains trace amounts :-(
- willk 3y agoDon’t confuse the wasabi that we get in the States for actual wasabi. Nicer restaurants will have it, but you’ll probably have to ask for it.
- cxcorp 3y agoThe article mentions that it's "usually white horseradish, dyed green", and that the real thing "can cost more per pound than even the choice tuna it sits on." Would be interesting to verifiably taste real wasabi. Who knows, maybe I've never actually even tasted the real thing?
- appplication 3y agoI’ve found real wasabi to actually be a bit milder than some of the horseradish imitators. I suppose I always assumed it’d be even stronger, but that hasn’t been the case in my experience.
- dfxm12 3y agoIf you don't see the sushi chef grinding a little green root fresh on a wasabi grinder and adding a little bit to your rice, it's safe to assume it's not Japanese wasabi.
- tayo42 3y agoIf you have a Japanese food market near you they might have it. Some specialty grocers can carry it too. If you happen to be in the bay area iirc there's a Wasabi farm in half moon bay.
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y agoI've had it, in Tokyo. They give you a root, and a grater. Tastes milder than what we get, here. I have heard that it is impossible to domesticate (has to be harvested wild, on certain mountains). However, I watched a program, where a guy in Hawai'i said he'd figured out how to domesticate it. Haven't heard much about that, though.
- 3y ago
- smegsicle 3y agovia a chemical apparently not in regular horseradish aka western wasabi aka most wasabi
- neom 3y agoLast time this was discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38132218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38132218
- AlbertCory 3y agoLeft unexamined is: what other substances are linked to boosts in memory? You'd assume that, of the 1000's of substances we eat, by randomness about half have a positive or no effect, and the other half have a negative effect. How about ketchup? Jalapeños? Oyster sauce? Curry powder? Probably some foods have an even larger positive effect. I'd imagine no one's tested those.
- molticrystal 3y agoEating would probably cause a lot of bias thus destroying the randomness. Starting with our taste buds which causes avoidance, the digestion system that will break things down so many substances will end up similar despite their differences before hand, and the blood brain barrier which many things can't get past. Then there is dosage, substances can have wildly different effects or none at all depending on how much you give and how long they are given. Dosage would probably be among the bigger issues, if oyster sauce contained a substance that got past those barriers just how much would you have to imbibe to get a positive or negative effect, and would the other ingredients at that level start causing side effects, interference, or otherwise mask the substance.
- AlbertCory 3y agoThey weren't serving it with food. It was a capsule by itself, at bedtime. don't fixate on oyster sauce; I just picked something at random. However, the larger point remains: this "study" is garbage. There are probably people who'll start buying "wasabi" and feel all healthy & virtuous, so there's your placebo effect right there.
- sinuhe69 3y agoIf the effects is true, I don’t think it is necessarily due to any particular substance in the wasabi. If the simple smelling of pleasant fragrances can boost the memory performance by 260% [1], I believe other pungent substances can have a similar effect, too! :D [1] https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/how-simple-fragrance-method-can-produce-major-memory-boost https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/how-simple-fragr...
- purplezooey 3y agoIt's true, after I ate some, I felt like I was no longer playing ketchup.
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago@dang this is a dupe - I submitted this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38553735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38553735
- fakedang 3y agoEat wasabi blob, enjoy memorable life event. Great success.