FWIW I think it was a fair question.

Hmm… I thought I’d read the paper, but it turned out I got confused by an abstract with multiple sections. I thought it was very short. My mistake

So I can’t say whether the authors addressed whether the low carbohydrate group was selecting for people already known to be at risk.

This finding reminds me of the studies that found people who drank a little alcohol lived longer than those who drank no alcohol. Further investigation finds that the no alcohol group included reformed alcoholics, who has already done enough damage to their systems to shorten their life expectancy, and this extra group was enough to skew the figures.

So I think we need to ask: are there reasons to think taking <40% of calories as carbs is selecting for a group with shorter life expectancy? Maybe - anorexia would be one, although I’ve no idea of its prevalence among Japanese men.

The paper makes no mention of considering this sort of thing. edit: correction because I can’t read the paper.

My tips:

1. let dice make decisions, and don’t try to explain them. Quickly number reasonable targets in a standard way (I do left to right, top to bottom), roll a die and move on. Get it down to less than five seconds.

2. it’s better to be quick than to be optimal. Get the attack out and move on.

3. enemy spell casters have three or four rounds to live. Mostly they fire their biggest blast in the first round or two, and then they’re trying to escape. Maybe they buff an ally or two, but that’s advanced strategy.

4. You handle a combat one step at a time. Work your way down the list, and each time its the same simple decision: which attack? which target? what result?

5. Sometimes combat in D&D is a grind. Go easy on yourself. Keep calling out the results, and the players will understand.

6. Six players is a lot. Delegate work to them, especially when they cause it (e.g. bane, or damage that ticks after their turn. ) it will keep them engaged.