What makes some studies controversial and others not in the eyes of the media?
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In this case, “controversial” means “useless, but we’re going to run with it anyway.” Saccharine? Aspartame, Acesulphamine, who cares?
If you were designing a study to demonstrate that something was dangerous, wouldn’t you make sure everyone in the non-control group were using it? If for nothing else to prevent watering down your results? But if you know your methodology will produce false positives and you’re fishing for headlines, hey, why not worry as many people as possible?