Letters to the Editor
-
I don't think it's spooky
I think it's terrific. In order to change the world, you have to know how it works. That means controlled studies. If you just gave a protein shake to everybody in a village, there would be no way of knowing if positive results came from the nutrition, the calories, or even the interaction with the researcher (people in studies behave differently). By creating a "control" group (people who got non-protein fortified shakes), they turned this into a research study that provides insight into how we can better distribute nutritional resources to hungry people. Keep in mind, they didn't starve anybody, or suject anybody to suffering - one group got what they would have otherwise had, but under controlled conditions, the other got more.
The really spooky part is that we haven't done more to act on this research. We know that providing protein supplements during the first 2 years of person's life are critical... so why aren't we doing it?