Do you like freshly baked bread?

Me too.

In fact, I grew up the son of a baker. So I have a lot of fond memories from my childhood around bread and baking.

So when I read the news that baked bread may be a health hazard it caught my attention.

I mean who doesn’t like the mouthwatering smell of freshly baked bread?

Here’s what the book said:

“Research shows that...

• More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread eaters.

• Fully half of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.

• In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.

• More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.

• Bread is made from a substance called “dough.” It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average person eats more bread than that in one month!

• Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low occurrence of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.

• Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water actually begged for bread after only two days.

• Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to harder items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.

• Bread has been proven to absorb water.

Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey, bread-pudding person.

• Newborn babies can choke on bread.

• Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

And, most significant of all...

...most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical correlation!”

OK, so this funny story is made up!

It’s from a great book on how to think more clearly and solve complex problems -- a skill few people ever learn.

I shared this story because it highlights an important point.

If you want to think better…

Don’t confuse correlation with causation.

We live in a world where people are bombarded with ‘facts’ that are little more than assertions wrapped up in a pleasing story…

The brain can easily be led to form conclusions that have no basis in actuality.

To create signal from noise.

Ever done this yourself?

Thankfully you can learn to think clearer by learning to use the Meta Model on your own thought process.

Try it out for yourself.

Use it too when you watch the News, read a book, listen to a podcast.

Suddenly you’ll start to see ‘bread stories’ everywhere…

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