Letters to the Magazine

Jennifer F. Greenly, M.S., R.D., L.D.N. Winston-Salem WomanCare, PA Winston-Salem, N.C.

Thanks to Barbara Kantrowitz and Claudia Kalb for a clear explanation of the madness in health reporting that has many of my college students just opting out of a healthy lifestyle altogether: "It's too confusing. How does anyone really know what to do?" It is interesting to me that when studies don't reflect what they're supposed to, they might be considered invalid rather than the premise's being re-evaluated, which is what scientists are supposed to do. When the study of women who failed to lose very much weight on diets of 1,400 versus 1,700 calories a day produced undesired results, it didn't seem to occur to one of the study's reviewers that there might be something we don't know about women's bodies. As usual, the women's self-reporting was blamed. After all, it's probably all in their heads.

Shirley A. Fessel, CounselorOptions/Fresh StartKansas City, Mo.

While medical research and science have, over the past century, given us tremendous benefits (insulin for diabetics, antibiotics, transplant surgery and more) that have greatly extended the lives of people with life-threatening diseases, fad diets have never been and will never be the answer. For most of us, the essential truths about being and staying healthy are things we should have learned at our mother's knee: don't smoke, eat your vegetables, watch your weight and get some regular fresh air and exercise. A healthy lifestyle is something you live all the time, not something you try for a couple of months.

Francisco J. Prieto M.D., PresidentAmerican Diabetes AssociationSacramento Sierra Chapter Elk Grove, Calif.

Your front cover asks how the media collides with science. It is not the media that collides, but a medium. As long as we insist on using terminology derived from Latin, we should follow the standard of that language for plurals: one medium, two media. Your headline should have read, confused? From fat to calcium, how the media collide with science.