Churnalism to sell pomegranate-extract capsules

When former Daily Star reporter Rich Peppiatt gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry last week, he referred to the 'huge influence' of PR on tabloid 'stories':

There are more PRs than there are journalists. You get into your inbox every day dozens upon dozens upon dozens of press releases from various companies all trying to get in the paper, get their brand mentioned.

And many of them do get into the paper. Every day there are numerous 'stories' in the papers based on surveys of 2,000 people (so we're told). But, said Peppiatt:

the veracity of where that survey has come from -- is it representative, how many people were asked -- are simply not questions you're encouraged to ask. You know, you just take it at face value: "Yeah, I'm sure that will do for us." Because as I say, it's not about necessarily finding the truth of something; it's simply sort of filling the hole.

If it's not based on a survey, it's based on academic or scientific research. For example, a few weeks ago, this press release was repeated by the Express:

The paper's Nathan Rao stated:

Now a study shows an extract of it taken regularly could slow down the deterioration of the body’s DNA cells, which in turn can delay the ageing process.

Later in the article, he reported that it was an 'industry-funded study'.

The press release was designed to sell pomegranate-extract capsules PomeGreat PurePlus. The Express mentioned the product:

Commercial versions of the extract are already available in the UK from the Pomegreat PurePlus company in a capsule form or as a juice drink.

They also mentioned that the 'study' had been untaken by Dr Sergio Streitenberger at 'Spain’s Probeltebio laboratories'.

What the paper didn't say was that Streitenberger is: 

head of research

at ProbelteBio - and ProbelteBio just happens to be: 

the manufacturer of PomeGreat® PurePlus.

The Mail's Tamara Cohen also wrote up the press release uncriticially.

Chocolate and exercise

On Thursday, the Mirror reported:

The Mail said:

 And the Express claimed:

The articles began with similar claims. Jo Willey in the Express said:

Chocoholics who shun the gym can celebrate – a little bit of dark chocolate can improve health in much the same way as exercise.

Tamara Cohen in the Mail said:

Eating dark chocolate improves athletic performance just as much as exercise, a study has revealed.

In each article, it was only in the third paragraph that it was revealed that this research was based on experiments conducted on mice. At the end of the Express' article, it says:

Could this be extrapolated to humans? “It is something we hope to identify in future studies,” said Dr Malek.

So the tone of these headlines and articles isn't really justified.

Indeed, the NHS Behind the Headlines view is that the newspapers 'overreacted':

These misleading headlines refer to the findings from a small study in 25 mice. The relevance of these findings to humans is uncertain...

These findings provide evidence that giving mice epicatechin can lead to increases in their muscular performance that are similar to those obtained by regular exercise.

Contrary to the statements made in the news reports, it is unclear whether the chemical would have the same effect in humans, and further research would need to investigate this.

Also, epicatechin is found in dark chocolate, but chocolate was not tested in this research. It is unclear how much would need to be consumed to get the levels that were given to these mice, or the appropriate level of epicatechin needed to get a similar response in humans. 

In conclusion, they say:

the study does not show that eating dark chocolate is beneficial, or that it is a substitute for exercise in humans, attractive though the idea is...Such statements are not backed up by this study.