Stories about how eating or drinking a particular food group will lead to people living longer and healthier lives are a staple of the media diet.
Mediawatch takes a look at two such stories that aired this week, one that claimed eating two bars of chocolate a day would reduce the risk of dying of heart disease by 25 percent and another extolling the benefits of a high fat diet.
Neither story quoted a single expert skeptical of the claims: a worrying example of the media adopting an unquestioning and almost fact free diet.
Items mentioned in the story:
- TV3 News 6pm bulletin with chocolate story
- BBC chocolate story
- Seven Sharp story on low fat diet
- Diabetes UK dietary advice for Type 2 diabetes