Task: Fact Verification
Input (English): Paragraph: No mention of possible costs for leptin; no mention of costs of other methods of weight maintenance. The story presented as a benefit that leptin increased number of calories used during low level activity. But it fails to mention that at higher levels of energy expenditure, this effect was not observed. No mention of any possible harms. What, if anything, happened after the study subjects stopped receiving leptin injections? The piece does inform the reader that this was a study that examined too few people and that the 10 weeks was too short a time period to determine whether continuous leptin injection was a feasible way to keep weight off. Weight loss is framed as starvation. The study this piece was based on fed the study subjects 800 kcal/day which is more akin to starvation than dieting. It makes the piece less relevant to the dieting process. The story provided a quote only from the lead investigator of the study; the story includes no input from any other independent source. No mention of any other weight loss maintenance methods. Doesn’t mention that there is no FDA approval for the use of leptin in maintenance of weight loss. Doesn’t mention that leptin is a purely experimental treatment – a hormone discovered in 1969. Claim: Fat Hormone May Trick the Body to Help It Keep Extra Pounds Off
Output (English): 0