In summary
* JOT in the title of this note stands for “Just One Thing.” Monday notes typically do a thorough rebuttal of a paper. Often this is needed, but sometimes there is such a glaring issue that we need only highlight that one thing.
* This week’s note reviews an epidemiological study from January 2026, which claimed that higher adherence to the Eat-Lancet (plant-based) diet was associated with lower diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).
* The “Just One Thing” can be spotted by going straight to the characteristics table, as I advise you to do when opening any epidemiological paper.
* This characteristics table was presented differently to any that I can recall. It presented the characteristics of those who developed CKD during the study vs those who didn’t.
* In doing so, the differences in the diet of those who developed CKD vs those who didn’t was crystal clear. It gave us our “Just One Thing.”
* The layout of the characteristics table was also very useful to see the baseline health markers of those who developed CKD vs those who didn’t. There were two particularly that explained why some people went on to develop CKD. Spoiler alert – it wasn’t anything to do with the EAT-Lancet diet.
Introduction
Typically, Monday notes do a deep and comprehensive dive into a paper. For example, this note in October 2023 listed 14 significant issues with a paper that generated claims “red meat increases the risk of type 2 diabetes” (Ref 1). The mere idea that an ancient food with zero carbohydrate can cause a modern disease related to carbohydrate intake needed a definitive rebuttal. Sometimes, however, one observation can undermine a paper.
Zoe
Source link