When Hadza women eat more tubers, they tend to have less body fat; when they eat more meat, they tend to have more body fat — but this doesn’t mean tubers make you skinny or meat makes you fat, just that the two are linked.
Scientific Claim
Among Hadza hunter-gatherers, higher consumption of tubers is associated with lower percent body fat in women of reproductive age, while higher acquisition of meat is associated with higher percent body fat in the same group, suggesting dietary composition may influence body composition in this population.
Original Statement
“We found, controlling for region and season, women of reproductive age had a higher %BF in camps where more meat was acquired and a lower %BF where more tubers were taken.”
Evidence Quality Assessment
Claim Status
overstated
Study Design Support
Design cannot support claim
Appropriate Language Strength
association
Can only show association/correlation
Assessment Explanation
The abstract uses 'found' and implies directional relationships, but the study is observational with no control for confounders like activity levels or metabolism. Causal language is inappropriate. 'Associated with' is the correct verb strength.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Tubers as fallback foods and their impact on Hadza hunter-gatherers.
When Hadza women ate more meat, they tended to have more body fat; when they ate more tubers, they tended to have less body fat—so what they ate seemed to affect how much fat they carried.