I also posted a similar article on my Facebook. That article is located here. I now have two vegetarian friends or pseudo-friends who are, essentially, very unhappy I've posted this. One began attacking comments in the article. She was right; if you read the CBS article, the last sentence is a garbled mash of nonsense. However, I had already looked up the actual study, published here and pointed out that her objections to my link were based solely on the strength of the article and not the study itself, which she could read (and I linked it). She actually got at least her master's, if not her doctorate, in a scientific field and I thought she would be interested to read the study. I called it a "classic case of 'we have found a bunch of correlations but we cannot say a vegetarian diet caused anything we have observed, really.' "
Instead she refused to address any of the scientific shortcomings of the study, despite having what I know to be a much more solid background in statistics than I. I would have been very interested if she could actually make a real argument. Instead, she bowed out.
My other friend is simply asking if the article is a joke and calling it bullshit. She is not offering anything helpful, either.
As this has occurred I have been struck with the thought that this is perhaps a great example of the phenomena where people who already have opinions, are using what they see to back up their judgments. Anti-vacciners actually become more anti-vaccine when presented with facts about vaccines and/or the dangers of not vaccinating. My friends are refusing to look at evidence (now backed up by multiple studies; I have checked the first study's sources) because they are vegetarian and emotionally invested in the topic.
I, on the other hand, love meat, love eating meat, and recently had a bad time dating a vegan (couple of months ago). Maybe I am also just posting this article because it reflects my opinion and makes me happy. Maybe there are real flaws. But no one is bothering to point them out to me.
What do you think, Hubski?