Does the Paleo diet work? The Paleo diet allows only for foods that humans
typically consumed over the last 2.5 million years, excluding those
agriculture-type foods that arose during the last 10,000 years or so.
Researchers randomly divided 500 volunteers into two equal-sized groups. One
group spent 6 months on the Paleo diet. The other group received a pamphlet
about controlling portion sizes. Randomized treatment assignment was
performed, and at the beginning of the study, the average difference in
weights between the two groups was about 0. After the study, the Paleo group
had lost on average 7 pounds with a standard deviation of 20 pounds while the
control group had lost on average 5 pounds with a standard deviation of 12
pounds.
(a) The \(95 \%\) confidence interval for the difference between the two
population parameters (Paleo
\- control) is given as (-0.891,4.891) . Interpret this interval in the
context of the data.
(b) Based on this confidence interval, do the data provide convincing evidence
that the Paleo diet is more effective for weight loss than the pamphlet
(control)? Explain your reasoning.
(c) Without explicitly performing the hypothesis test, do you think that if
the Paleo group had lost 8 instead of 7 pounds on average, and everything else
was the same, the results would then indicate a significant difference between
the treatment and control groups? Explain your reasoning.