Purely Whimsical

See anything wrong with this sentence?

“For overall mortality, 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption” to the amount consumed by the bottom one-fifth of subjects in the study, the researchers wrote.

This is why many people don’t like talking to mathematicians and computer science geeks. You see… you can’t PREVENT death. The sentence implies that if you don’t eat red meat you’ll be immortal. The correct word is POSTPONE.

Yeah, yeah, we all misspeak. And be ready for some serious teasing from the nearest logic monster the next time you do (like me). I’ll expect the same from you. (Of course I’ll completely deny I ever misspoke.)