Comments on: Turn Your Company’s “Negatives” into Selling Points

By: james

james — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:24:57 +0000

My wife and i have been eating coconut oil for some time. We believe that it has helped her metabolism.

By: C.S.Radhakrishnan

C.S.Radhakrishnan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:59:54 +0000

1. Statistics is an invaluable tool in presenting arguments, but one need to remember that it is a double edged sword, and ,at times, a great liar too!

2. The article on Coconut oil is interesting. At long last, what the coconut eating populations around the world always knew and practised is now available for the benefit of the discerning. The stigma put on the oil was a deliberate ploy of competing commercial interests and had very little to do with genuine research.

By: Kelley Herring

Kelley Herring — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:15:42 +0000

Hi Lucy,
Thanks for your (very good!) question.

You’re right. Studies involving more participants are more accurate. A study is considered “statistically significant” if there are 30 or more subjects involved (n >30). Other (more complicated) factors to consider are whether the study was conducted on humans, if there are other variables that are playing a role in the study’s outcome (concomitant variables) and the type of study (cohort, case control, meta analysis, lab studies, etc).

In my coconut oil brief, I refer to a study conducted at Vanderbilt on ten adult men, which also included a follow-up study showing similar results. Larger studies have been conducted and found the same fat-burning effects of coconut oil.

If you’re interested in learning more about the research on coconut oil and thermogenesis, check out the studies I list below on Pub Med (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez).

1. Thermogenesis in humans during overfeeding with Thermogenesis in humans during overfeeding with medium-chain triglycerides.
[Metabolism. 1989] PMID:2739575
2. Dietary medium- and long-chain triacylglycerols accelerate diet-induced
thermogenesis in humans.J Oleo Sci. 2007;56(6):283-7.
3. Effect of dietary medium- and long-chain triacylglycerols (MLCT) on accumulation
of body fat in healthy humans.Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2003;12(2):151-60.
4. Dietary medium-chain triacylglycerols suppress accumulation of body fat in a
double-blind, controlled trial in healthy men and women. [J Nutr. 2001]
PMID:11694608
5. Greater rise in fat oxidation with medium-chain triglyceride consumption relative
to long-chain triglyceride is associated with lower initial body weight and
greater loss of subcutaneous adipose tissue. [Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord.
2003] PMID:12975635

By: Lucy Belk

Lucy Belk — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:00:02 +0000

Regarding the coconut oil article: How many prople were included in the study…10?…100? 1,000? Studies that involve large numbers of participants are more accurate. How do we know if the quoted study might have involved only two people?

By: Myles Saulibio

Myles Saulibio — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:42:01 +0000

Bob Bly’s use of statistics to one’s advantage was truly a written treat from the master himself. These simple ways to capture any prospects attention -are effective at getting…and keeping customers. I’d venture to write that ETR is one of the largest if not most popular on-line success oriented web sites on the Internet today and continues to grow daily by leaps and bounds.

Best, Mahalo and Aloha

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:34:44 +0000

Wonderful to see jazz mentioned in ETR again!! P.S. Solid list of albums but don’t forget the incredible music of the late, great Oscar Peterson!… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Peterson