MAYBE THE SCIENCE ISN’T AS SETTLED AS YOU’D LIKE: How the Media Got a Study About Vegetarianism Really, Really Wrong.

“Our claim is that, to put it simply: you need to have a diet that is matched to your genes,” Ye explained. “For those individuals that carry the ‘vegetarian allele,’ our suggestion is to stick to the vegetarian diet because that’s what your ancestors ate and that’s what your ancestors adapted to. Too much meat or vegetable oil is not good for these people, because those foods also contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.”

But somehow, this study about a gene variant that means some people might be better off eating a vegetarian diet was misinterpreted to mean that eating vegetarian will cause your genes to mutate and lead to a higher risk of colon cancer.

“There was a cascade of misinformation,” said Nathaniel Comfort, the Baruch Blumberg professor of astrobiology at the Library of Congress and NASA who blogs about hype and misconceptions in genetic research. “The way this happened is through a kind of informational entropy.”

Only 17% of those with European ancestry carry the vegetarianism allele, so I’m going to play it safe and grill a massive ribeye tonight.