I was going through some of the stuff on this here site last night.

I came across a brain-fart what I wrote last month that mentioned that air makes you fat.

Now this intrigued me even though I had written it and presumably had read the source of this fascinating piece ot tripe, but the memory being what it is, I had forgotten all about it.  The item that caught my eye last night was a paragraph –

Laboratory mice offered some of the earliest concrete clues that the effects of air pollution may penetrate far beyond the lungs. Their breeder at the Ohio State University, Qinghua Sun, had been interested in studying why city-dwellers seem to be at a particularly high risk of heart disease compared to country folk. Lifestyle, of course, could be one reason: in most major cities a fast food chain is rarely more than a block away, for instance, which might encourage unhealthy eating. Nevertheless, he wondered if another answer may be hanging, invisibly, in the air we breathe.

Now here we have a comparison of heart disease between urban and rural dwellers, and surprisingly [*cough*] urbanites are more prone to heart disease than their rural cousins.  Quelle surprise?  Surely it most be a case of stating the bleeding obvious that cities aren't good for the heart?  They are full of noise and stress.  You have to be constantly on the look out for pedestrians and traffic.  If you're not walking you're probably stuck in an office [not noted for their relaxation qualities].  Everywhere you go there are distractions, noise, traffic, fumes and advertisements flashing at you, whereas in the country the only thing likely to flash at you is the local pervert, and the only noise is the odd cow lowing.  In the city your brain is constantly in top gear and you are at a very high level of stress.  Stress = heart disease.

But for some reason that he must have plucked from the orbit of Pluto, all that good "researcher" can think of is that there are more fast food chains in the city.  What the fuck?  His logic apparently is that the very presence of fast food chains leads to heart disease?  Is this the first actual recorded incidence of second hand obesity?

Our "expert" [he must be an expert if he is quoted by the BBC?] must think that somehow a fast food outlet emanates some kind of strange magnetic field that draws everyone kicking and screaming into their local McDonalds where they feel compelled to stuff themselves with grease? 

We used to have a chipper in the village but they obviously hadn't installed that force field as I think I was in there only once and that was out of curiosity.  The place has long gone now.  And if we did happen to have a McDonalds or some other burger chain in the village [God forbid] I wouldn't go in there.  And if I were to be forced in against my will I wouldn't have a burger because I don't much like the things.  So where does our "expert" get his idea that the mere presence of a fast food outlet leads to heart disease?

This is modern "research" folks.  You completely ignore all the obvious factors, throw in a few strange and ridiculous ideas and come up with a conclusion that "the air makes you fat".

Ain't science wonderful?