Former Cornell University food researcher Brian Wansink retracted another study, this time one that took aim at the "joy of cooking."
Another Food Research Questioned
The study, which was published in 2009 by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, assessed recipes in cookbooks to examine its link to obesity. It concluded that recipes in the past 70 years have increased nearly 40 percent in calories per serving.
However, on Tuesday, Dec. 4, the journal published a notice of retraction on the study "The Joy of Cooking Too Much: 70 Years Calorie Increases In Classic Recipe."
"In response to Annals' query regarding a Cornell University investigation of Brian Wansink's work, we received a letter from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research dated 27 September 2018 that stated, 'This investigation has concluded that Professor Wansink committed academic misconduct in his research and scholarship," the notice published on the website read.
The journal also contacted the authors of the study to vouch for the validity of their research. The popular food researcher provided reanalysis of the data.
Wansink claimed that they reran the files and received the same conclusions but with different numbers. The journal said that almost every number in the reanalysis was different what the study that was published.
"In light of the inability to reproduce the published results, the editors cannot be confident in the integrity of the work reported in this article," the journal said.
Academic Research Controversy
Wansink is a prominent food researcher whose work helped shape the dietary guidelines of the United States. His studies have been widely cited for years.
However, in 2016, the validity of his body of work was questioned after he had published a blog post congratulating a student for turning negative results into positive conclusions. Since then, several of his published works have been corrected and retracted due to inconsistencies, exaggerations, and self-plagiarism.
"The Joy of Cooking Too Much: 70 Years Calorie Increases In Classic Recipe" is the second study by Wansink to be retracted by the Annals this week. On Dec. 2, the journal also issued a notice of retraction for "Meal Size, Not Body Size, Explains Errors in Estimating the Calorie Content of Meals," which was published in 2006.
