How business, doctors and journalists prey on your food anxieties I

So what should I do?
I CONFRONTED with a blizzard
of conflicting advice
about diet <strong>and</strong> health,
you might either go crazy
trying to follow it all or
throw up your h<strong>and</strong>s in exaspcradon,
pour yourself
another beer <strong>and</strong> slump in
front of the Tv set with a
bowl ofgreasy potato chips .
No, don't do that, either
. Here's a middle
ground : Take some of the
advice seriously . Herewith
a brief compilation of
health advice according to
~ whether it is well proven,
i in "mavbe" territory or
probably garbage .
True
∎ Smoking is bad f'or you .
Period . The evidence is
clear on this one, no matter
what the tobacco comi
pany stadsticians say .
∎ Heavy drinking is bad _
for you . Enough alcohol to
make you tipsy, if con-
~'sumed every day, will grcat-
' ly raise your chances of . .
cirrhosis, cancer <strong>and</strong>-in
many people-high
blood pressure .
∎ Sun is bad for you . Although
you needn't shield
yourself in lead foil every
time you go outside, sun_ -
block <strong>and</strong> a hat will lower
your risk of getting skin
cancer . Use ultraviolet- _ you're not a high-risk
proofsunglasses to ward off case, there is no direct evicataracts.
dence that such a dietary
change will improve your
Maybe life span .
I∎ A little alcohol-a ∎ Salt may raise your
drink a day-can lower blood pressure . Circumyour
risk of coronary ar . stantial evidence from
tery disease . <strong>How</strong>ever, cross-cultural studies sugwhether
it is wise to actt gests that it may contribon
this-correlation depends ute to hypertension . On the
on whether light drinking other h<strong>and</strong>, attempts to
increases your risk ofsome- reduce blood pressure by
day becoming a heavy , means of low-salt diets
drinker . It probably does, have been disappointing.
<strong>and</strong> that probably elimi- Here's what's probably
nates the statistical benefit going on . Some people are
of light drinking, genetically sensitive to
∎ Overeating is bad for salt <strong>and</strong> would benefit from
you . Obese people definite- a low-salt diet . A lot of
ly don't live as long as people aren't sensitive <strong>and</strong>
others . But no one has real- gain nothing . There's no
ly proved that losing easy way to know which
weight will lengthen life group you fall .into .
expectancy. Our advice : You will
∎ Saturated fats seem to probably do yourself no
contribute to hardening of harm avoiding salty
the arteries . If you are at snacks, <strong>and</strong> you might do
high risk for heart disease, some good .
maybe you should cut ∎ Fruits <strong>and</strong> vegetables
back on these foods . But if may lower your chance of
getting cancer . It could
be that vegetables contain
antioxidants, which sop
up a chemically active form
of oxygen that seems to
cause cell damage . Or it
could be that vegetables
themselves don't do a
blessed thing ; the connection
to cancer might
merely be that ~egetable
eaters consume less fat <strong>and</strong>
fat contributes to cancer.
Recent studies of the most
likely antioxidants-vitamins
C, E <strong>and</strong> A-have
produced mixed results .
Bunk
∎ There's no evidence
that eggs are bad for you .
You gain nothing by giving
them up in favor of other
forms of saturated fat .
Even researchers who endorse
the current wisdom
on saturated fat say that an
egg a day's not bad . Besides,
they contain highquality
protein <strong>and</strong>
they're cheap .
∎ It's not wise to eat margarine
. It turns out that
butter's naturally saturat
ed fat isn't as bad as the
artificial trans-fat in most
margarines .
∎ Fish oil isn't the heart
panacea it was bffled to be .
The fish/heart connection
was debunked in recent
years . No wonder :
One of the original study
groups was Greenl<strong>and</strong>ic
Eskimos, who differ from
us in a whole lot of ways
besides diet.
∎ There's no good evidence
that low-frequency
electromagnetic waves
(from power lines <strong>and</strong>
toasters) cause cancer .
∎ There's no evidence
that a cup or two a day of
coffee is bad for you .
Again <strong>and</strong> again, attempts
to deny us this humble
pleasure by means of a statistical
sun'ev have been
overturned .
∎ The EPA's conclusion
that 3,000 people a year die
from secondh<strong>and</strong> smoke
is disputed by reputable
epidemiologists . If
there's a connection between
secondh<strong>and</strong>
smoke <strong>and</strong> cancer, it's an
extremely faint one . .
-P .E .R . ~ I
Forbes . dueust 14, 1995 . " 0,4 V
0 133 A 1
133
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/agf97d00/pdf