Barely a day goes by without some new ‘threat’ to our health being
announced by epidemiologists or others health campaigners. For these people – I
call them ‘healthists’ - the meaning of life appears to be the elimination of
anything enjoyable in order to achieve maximum longevity. Key to this is the
elimination of ‘risk-factors’ from our diet and our lifestyles. The key
technique used to frighten us all into abstinence is to concentrate on cancer
risks. Here an old trick is used: take a very small baseline risk and then
measure the increase to that risk that arises if you engage in ‘unhealthy’
eating or drinking. The effect of this is to give prominence and publicity to very
large percentage increases in very small baseline risks.
Here are some examples of this crack-pottery that have come to light
in the past two weeks:
Firstly, inevitably, alcohol. The ‘lower risk’ drinking guidelines are
now being examined by the Department of Health with a view to reducing them.
The reason given by the DoH is that there is “no safe level of consumption in
respect of the epidemiological risk of developing cancers”, and “the cancer
risks of drinking is a game-changer.” It is of course accepted that excessive
consumption of alcohol is causally related to a number of cancers, but the risk
is dose-related.
So, taking oral cancers as an example, what is the overall risk caused
by drinking alcohol? According to Cancer Research UK there were some 7,300 oral
cancers diagnosed in the UK in 2012. Of these tobacco smoking was identified as
the cause in 65% of cases. Alcohol consumption accounted for 30% of these –
some 2,190 cases. 30 million adults in the UK drink at least once a week. Of
those 30 million, 2,190 of them develop an alcohol-related oral cancer; that’s
0.007% of regular drinkers! And remember, these figures include very heavy
drinkers as well as moderate and light drinkers – so should we panic and
abstain? Well, about 30% of alcohol-related oral cancer sufferers do die from
this condition. So, around 657 deaths out of 30 million drinkers – 0.021%.
Every such death is a tragedy, but the actuarial risk is minute. The
proposition that anything that raises the epidemiological risk of a cancer
‘isn’t safe’ is therefore somewhat problematic. In everyday life people make
trade-offs. They don’t ask “is this product or behaviour safe?” they ask “is it
safe enough?” We do this all the time and not just in relation to food and
drink. We don’t ask is driving a motor vehicle safe; we ask is it safe enough.
In other words, do the benefits of driving justify me in taking the risks? When
we are told that tobacco smoking results in the premature death of half of all
smokers that may well deter people from starting, or persuade existing smokers
to quit. But if you were told that 0.021% of regular drinkers die from an oral
cancer, would that put you off? It is this kind of epidemiological paranoia
that leads healthists to call for abstinence and any lowering of the lower risk
drinking guidelines is but a staging post on that journey.
In addition to the cancer risks of alcohol we’re had some real
healthist gems in the past fortnight:
·
The official advice of the European Food Safety
Authority is as follows: when you make a piece of toast only toast it golden
brown, don’t burn it or you will ingest acrylamides which are carcinogenic.
Acrylamides are contained in crisps, savoury snacks, soft and crispy breads,
biscuits, cakes, crackers, cereals and coffee. Or anything nice.
·
Fry your foods in butter or lard because frying
them in vegetable oil raises your risk of cancer.
·
Less than one sausage a day increases your
cancer risk. And be sure not to cook your Sunday roasties too dark and crispy
because they contain acrylamides too!
·
Eating a steak once a week rectal cancers by
more than two fifths.
·
Less than one sausage a day raises your risk
factor for cancer.
But my favourite was cheese addiction. Cheese contains casein – a
protein which becomes super concentrated in the cheese making process and forms
morphine-like compounds. These then bind with the opioid receptors in your
brain making cheese as addictive as morphine. Pizza restaurant chains are
nothing more than drug dealers who rely on addiction for repeat business! Dr.
Neal Barnard, founder and president of the Physicians Committee of Responsible
Medicine, describes cheese as “dairy crack”.
And then we come to energy drinks.
Doctors warn that just one energy drink a day raises the risk for heart
disease even amongst young healthy adults. This is a veiled attack on caffeine,
which is of course contained in coffee. I was wondering when coffee drinking
was going to be attacked by healthists. Anything that is successful raises
their ire. My tip is that the epidemiological risks of caffeine consumption will
be the next ‘big thing’ to occupy their small minds.
Paul Chase
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