Food recall surveys are unreliable

What did you have for dinner on the third Thursday of the month, two months ago?

Unless it was your birthday, I’ll bet you don’t remember.

Now what did you have for dinner every day two months ago? Ridiculous, right? But look at diet studies reported on TV and online and most of them are based on food recall surveys that ask pretty much exactly that.

• How many meals per week did you eat at least four ounces of red meat in the past year?
• How many eggs did you eat per week in the past … umm, ever?

And based on that we get headlines saying eggs are as bad for your health as smoking.

Bottom line

Don’t trust any conclusion that depends on a food recall survey.