• DougPiranha42@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    There is something weird about this plot. I think because the calories are normalized to weight and the price is normalized to calories, there is no interesting interaction between the two, looking at it feels like reading a table. You can check which food is expensive and which is calorie dense and that’s it. Perhaps it would be more interesting to look at if both calories and price were normalized to weight…

    • Carnelian@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      Just my 2c, but I think this is actually the correct way of graphing it, or at least one of the correct ways

      Price per gram is not a particularly useful metric when comparing across food types, because foods have highly variable energy density. It’s a really good metric when comparing various items of the same type, like two different brands of bagged lettuce, etc.

      But by charting the energy density on the bottom, and then the cost for that energy on the left, we have something that’s actually useful to think about. Right like if you’ve ever bought nuts and seeds, you know they’re super expensive. But by looking here we can tell at a glance that nuts and seeds as a whole are actually a great, cheap way to add calories to a meal, even to the point of being comparable to whole wheat spaghetti, which I think more people would already identify as cheap calories

      Could do the same thing for protein density/cost per protein and it would be very useful, I’d love to see that actually especially to see how some of the protein-heavy plants like peas and brussels compare to animal sources

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      Perhaps it would be more interesting to look at if both calories and price were normalized to weight…

      Slop graphs…

      The point of the original community this was based on was shit an actual statistician would look at and consider elegant.

      Someone that doesn’t have past a surface familiarity with stats, just see a graph. But they “like graphs” as a visual concept and generate weird slop graphs that do in fact transmit information, just in such an inefficient way, that you can’t help but ask

      Why even make a graph of this?

      Like you can throw literally any two things on a graph, and it’s a fucking graph. Very very low bar to entry for the whole “graph” thing.

      People got to draw a line on what they consider beautiful…

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          Slop graphs…

          Like you can throw literally any two things on a graph, and it’s a fucking graph. Very very low bar to entry for the whole “graph” thing.

          People got to draw a line on what they consider beautiful…

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              17 days ago

              Not really, I give people an opportunity to communicate in good faith…

              I took you question at face value.

              That you were legitimately confused so I tried simplifying my comment to see if that would help.

              Then you clarified you weren’t confused. You just wanted to engage so you could have an argument.

              Now I can just block your account (although, it seems you’re not the first protist on it …)

              So I guess I’ll see you on your next account. I might remember the name but if not, this took two minutes of my time

              Nowhere near exhaustive, and now it’s handled.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        It’s also completely worthless data for anyone who isn’t struggling financially to feed themselves.

        You don’t eat fruit and vegetables for caloric density. You eat them for everything else your body needs.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          It’s not “worthless” it’s two incredibly different things that have individual uses but no actual combined usage.

          So there’s zero benefit from making a graph.

          Like, I can duct tape an iPad to a football, and combine two things. But now both things are worse at their intended usages then before they were strapped together.

          This graph is an iPad taped to a football, and that is meaningless. Doesn’t make footballs and iPads meaningless

      • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
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        17 days ago

        I’ve made this comparison myself for years.

        Knowing the value of calories per dollar is definitely a useful comparison.

        Unless you’re someone who’s just plain strapped - is that you perhaps?