Who the Hell Bankrolled That Study? 

Those damm Canadians:

A steady diet of spam -- the electronic variety -- can be good for you.

Researchers split a group of more than 2,100 Canadians into two groups. One group got emails that promoted healthy lifestyles, the other got none.

"These were informative and motivational messages sent weekly for 12 weeks," explained study leader Ron Plotnikoff of the University of Alberta.

The emails promoted the benefits of a good diet and physical activity.

Those who were effectively spammed, as a group, saw their mean body mass index (BMI) go down, meaning it improved. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Overall BMI rose for the control group, which did not get the emails.
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"We need to improve the population's health," he told LiveScience. "Also we need more creative ways to reach the 'hard to reach' groups."

Ohhh... I get it. Spam is annoying, unless it's our healthy lifestyle message that is part of the spam, then we'll consider it benefitial and you should be forced to see it. I can't wait for the next bill in Congress which gives the government the right to spam anyone in the country with "approved messages" touting the new food pyramid because it will help the country fight obesity.

So what does this study say about all the people who are bombarded with penis enlargement advertisments and emails about porn? If we could only control what went into spam... unfortunately we don't live in that scientifically controlled world, we live in this real one. Why don't scientists study things that would actually benefit people in the real world?