We posted earlier about a chart showing that people in countries who take more time to eat are generally less obese than people in countries where they stuff their faces quickly. But that set of eating time data is being crunched in all sorts of ways. Over the weekend, the Times compared average eating times to countries’ GDPs, and, guess what, countries where people eat faster generally make more money, perhaps because you can be a lot more productive when you don’t take a two-hour long lunch accompanied by a few glasses of wine. So, you might be fat from eating so fast, but at least you’re rich. Is it worth it?Of course, data like this, which exists basically in a vacuum, can say anything you want. There are some post hoc ergo propter hoc issues that hang over both this interpretation and the fast-food-makes-you-fat version; none of these factors may be related at all.
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