It wasn’t randomized, and was only single-blind, and it’s unclear whether the control group realizes that they’re being studied (which could permit deliberate manipulation by the experimental group), but it might have included an adequate number of subjects. (I’m still not convinced that the initial 10-day experiment ran long enough, but the results three years later are sufficient in my mind.)

Also, the meat and wine were being rejected strictly for religious reasons, as the problem was not that they were meat and wine, but that the meat and wine weren’t “kosher”. However, drunkenness is widely accepted as causing health problems, so it might well be that following this religious rule had a positive health effect.

I think you’ll find that this is a mistranslation initially in the Tyndale bible, which was then perpetuated in the King James Version. If you go back to the original Hebrew it does in fact read ‘ fairer and fartier in flesh’ – which makes sense if they were eating a pulse-rich diet.

It is essential to consult primary sources rather than rely on reportage.

www.news.com.au/national/mary-mackillop-saved-me-cancer-victim/story-e6frfkvr-1225818177108

Nice try for a joke but I guess it might be wasted on a lot of pseudo scientists. Perhaps if you would have printed it in greek or hebrew some people would have understood it as they would have been required to think. I prefere the translation of Luther who translated the result in 1-15:

Und nach den zehn Tagen waren sie schöner und besser bei Leibe denn alle Knaben, so von des Königs Speise aßen.

which translates it into “beauty and in good shape” as {baw-ree’baw-sawr’} could also be translated into firm fleshed albeit being fat was a sign of beauty once.

But then our modern society does not believe in a healthy diet in the early days of life but in the use of multi vitamin pills and antioxidant’s in later life. The fact that it can be too late then should be easy to comprehend when looking at the effect of antioxidants and smoking. If the primary cancer has already formed the inhibition of apoptosis by those antioxidants must lead to the progression of the cancer. At that point more “radical” treatment is needed. How’s that for a metaphor? I already postulated that back in the late 90′s but would have never been allowed to publish that as I was working for a company promoting health in antioxidants. However I would have hoped you would have picked this up in your nice bad science book. But perhaps you could not refere to a publication about the hazards and benefits of antioxidants that came out of a nutritionist journal.
www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/20/suppl_5/464S

Also, can someone explain the whole “giant sky wizard” reference to me?

2) “Christ” is a title or honorific, not a name. If you don’t buy into the “giant sky wizard” bit, you really shouldn’t use the title.

Love your book, btw. I did actually buy it

Others said, “He is the Christ.” Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”

That’s a bit western/judeo centric isn’t it?

HARLOT plc: an amalgamation of the world’s two oldest professions.
Sackett, David, Oxman, Andrew

BMJ 2003;327:1442-1445, doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7429.1442