Talk:Stigler diet

The Diet
Is it worth pointing out that the article says the diet has 15 foodstuffs in it, but the table only mentions 5? RomanSpa (talk) 04:22, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

What was his motivation / philosophy?
Was this a mind experiment, a mathematical problem or was it aimed at diets.

I assume that optimization problems like this was known in economics (and many other fields) and he was just looking for general ways to solve or investigate these problems. Doing basic research. And I think that the diet was just a conceptual problem of his choice, that everybody would be able to understand.

While the name “Stigler Diet” was applied after the experiment by outsiders, according to Stigler, “No one recommends these diets for anyone, let alone everyone.” The Stigler diet has been much ridiculed for its lack of variety and palatability, however his methodology has received praise and is considered to be some of the earliest work in linear programming.

The above section leaves the impression that he was actually researching in diets, but the methodology was a positive side effect. I think that the methodology was his focus, and the diet was just a conceptual problem he picked.

192.38.5.154 (talk) 20:50, 23 February 2011 (UTC)