This article is a little longer than normal (about a 5 minute read), but it's a really important thing to understand. After years of witnessing research manipulation firsthand, this simple system helps separate legitimate research from corporate-sponsored illusions that dominate health headlines.
The acronym CRIMES represents six critical criteria that reveal whether research deserves your trust. Before any health headline influences your decisions, run the study through this framework:
1. Controlled: Was It Really Controlled?
A proper study compares two identical groups, one receiving the treatment and the other serving as a control. This seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how often studies skip this fundamental step.
Watch for studies that simply observe people's existing habits and draw conclusions. These observational studies can suggest interesting connections, but they can't prove that one thing causes another.
The headline "People Who Eat Red Meat Die Younger" might sound damning, but if the study didn't control for other lifestyle factors, smoking habits, exercise levels, or processed food consumption, the conclusion becomes meaningless.
2. Randomised: Was the Assignment Truly Random?
In legitimate research, participants get randomly assigned to different groups. This ensures that the only meaningful difference between groups is the treatment being tested.
Studies that let people choose their own groups or rely on existing populations often produce misleading results. If health-conscious people naturally gravitate toward one treatment whilst less health-conscious people end up in another group, any differences in outcomes might reflect their overall lifestyle choices rather than the specific treatment.
