Ovadia alleges Seven Countries Study used ‘handpicked’ countries from a larger dataset

What was said

"And Ancel Keys had done a study, a very famous study in the history of connecting saturated fat and dietary cholesterol to heart disease. It was called the Seven Countries Study. And there's a famous figure where he lines up the amount of saturated fat that countries consumed and their incidence of heart disease. Mm-hmm. Right, and it's a straight line, it looks perfect. What was later discovered is Ancel Keys had data from 21 countries, and handpicked the 7 countries that fit on the line."

In discussing the origins of the idea that saturated fat and cholesterol drive heart disease, Ovadia cites Ancel Keys’ Seven Countries Study and says that, although Keys had data from 21 countries, he selected seven that fit a straight-line relationship between saturated fat consumption and heart-disease incidence.