Govt. Health Warnings. Should we take them with a pinch of salt?

[John Skelton]

It's happened already.......

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...fits-myth.html

http://hellokinsella.posterous.com/the-daily-mail-list-of-things-that-give-you-c

http://kill-or-cure.heroku.com/

I wonder which is the greater risk (in % only of course - nothing as useful as numbers): being killed by police water cannon, struck on the head by a large rump steak falling from a private jet, suffocating whilst applying talcum powder to your big toes because you have a thing about your big toes niffing a bit, or being decapitated by a copy of the Daily Mall caught up in a whirlwind? I think we should be told.

[Mr Pee]

A GP I once consulted told me that one definition of an alcoholic is someone who drinks more than his doctor.

[Lateralthinking1]

http://hellokinsella.posterous.com/t...hat-give-you-chttp://kill-or-cure.heroku.com/I wonder which is the greater risk (in % only of course - nothing as useful as numbers): being killed by police water cannon, struck on the head by a large rump steak falling from a private jet, suffocating whilst applying talcum powder to your big toes because you have a thing about your big toes niffing a bit, or being decapitated by a copy of the Daily Mall caught up in a whirlwind? I think we should be told.

The answer is none of the above. As any fool knows, the greatest of all risks is making a risk register on health available to the general public.

(I'm laughing and I'm not laughing)

[MrGongGong]

The recent horrific coach crash in Switzerland wiping out so many young kids, and the dreadful slaughter in Syria etc, makes you quickly realise just how silly is all this often conflicting 'health advice'.

I have come to the conclusion that even if I drop dead now I've been much luckier than so many others and, like Hornspieler, I'm going to celebrate that good fortune by partaking of the food and drink which I really enjoy. We are all dying anyway.

I suspect that some impressionable people are probably more likely to die prematurely worrying about getting the oft-advertised dreaded diseases than actually falling victim to these, themselves.

So it's lashings of salt on my porridge, huge rump steaks, and generous amounts of decent beer and whisky for me ... the doctors and medical scientists can do what they like.

It's interesting that on my recent stay in hospital I noticed (and asked the nurses about this as well !) that more than 50% of the people who were ill smoked. The number of people who had ridiculous amounts of sugar in their tea was astounding.
It's easy to find someone who is 98 has eaten lard everyday washed down with a couple of bottles of claret and 40 capstan full strength BUT one doesn't have to be a genius to observe who (in the main) gets ill due to poor diet.
It's also important to separate "medical advice" from what you read in the papers, bad journalism is more to blame than bad advice.........personally I DO trust the real experts , after all they did recently save my life through knowledge and skill (and not some daft misreporting in the tabloids).......

As we saw with the sacking of David Nutt , there's a lot of politics in this, I would guess that a morning spliff is statistically less harmful than the Scotty diet though i'm sure the man in the frock won't advise that

(See "Bad Science" website as mentioned before)

it really is this simple

Eat food
not too much
mostly plants


which i our case last week on my wife's birthday did include some home made bread, salad and a small tin of foie gras I bought from the producer at a market in Perigord last year !

Oh and Scotty , if you want to survive longer if you do end up in hospital the research evidence shows that you stand a better chance if you don't have anyone "praying" for you

[John Skelton]

:Oh and Scotty , if you want to survive longer if you do end up in hospital the research evidence shows that you stand a better chance if you don't have anyone "praying" for you

Why and how could it make any difference either way? Honestly, the nonsense some people believe.

I have a psychiatrist friend (no, the relationship is not professional ) who says that given sufficient data and a research grant he could prove that Chartered Accountants are x% more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder than erm Certified Accountants. And I'm sure he could.

Which isn't to say that diet isn't significant, goodness no. I do think there is a problem with the circularity of some public health research: the researchers set out knowing what it is they intend to prove. And as others have said, % doesn't tell you anything very useful without an indication of what % is of what. And, again, I can't think it's possible to isolate red meat / processed meat as causal factors from other variables: income, lifestyle generally, genetic determinants. Still, it gives the Daily Mail and the BBC something to publish as a refreshing change from turning the (metaphorical) water cannon on subversives.

[Hornspieler]

....Oh and Scotty , if you want to survive longer if you do end up in hospital the research evidence shows that you stand a better chance if you don't have anyone "praying" for you

...which is probably because they have been told something about your prospects of survival that you haven't.!

HS

[salymap]

...which is probably because they have been told something about your prospects of survival that you haven't.!


HS

Words fail me, luckily. You must live on fish - good for the brain.

[anotherbob]

I thought a true gentleman was a man who knew how to play the banjo* but didn't.

*substitute bagpipes, harpsichord or any other instrument which on continued hearing does you harm.

I think one of the finer definitions of a gentleman was suggested by Jonathan Miller in one of the Beyond The Fringe sketches.....
"There's that marvellous unpunctuated motto over the lavatory saying, "Gentlemen lift the seat". What exactly does this mean? Is it a sociological description — a definition of a gentleman which I can either take or leave? Or perhaps it's a Loyal Toast?

[Lateralthinking1]

Mr GongGong

I like your post because it brings out truths. The statistics in this area are very dodgy. I read somewhere in an official report that the average age of death in 1950 was 50 something. I just know that is wrong. Common sense tells me. Still, longevity increased hugely while smoking, sugar, salt and so on were taken to by the public like never before. Normally I'm one who avoids anything as concrete as science to support my arguments (!) but I'm having a bit of a DNA week. My gut feeling is that all the things listed above and more have greater adverse impacts on some people. In other words, some of it really is down to genetics. Hopefully, DNA will provide a language in which advice can become more tailored to individuals.

Sometimes I am not sure what the Government wants. It seems to want people to be run into the ground before pension age and at the same time it wants everybody to live to over a hundred. There is no clear vision and that, apart from arguments against overt interference, is a good reason to leave it to personal choice. The phrase happy medium comes to mind. I am all for giving people access to all the information on websites. But the idea now that all the calories are to be included on menus. It's a step too far. Life is stressful enough, not to say polluted in many ways. Soon no one will be able to escape from it and relax. What is it? 30% of GP visits currently about stress etc?

David Nutt is in a different category for me. I won't say much because I know that peoples' feelings on classification run high. But my fundamental problem with him is that if any of his conclusions were ever to be taken on board, they would not be permitted to be phased in. It isn't fair on people to move the goalposts radically on what is already lawful, particularly where addictions are concerned. Smoking could easily have been banned everywhere for anyone born after 1990 and for everyone in all restaurants. Not giving landlords choice on whether to have a smoking area for people born before 1990 also went too far in my view. And while I hear the arguments about cannabis, to then make that lawful would be an unacceptable rubbing of salt in the wound.

[MrGongGong]

Strangely I found that at "Cafe Fatal" in Budapest , which serves the most coronary inducing food I have ever encountered including the legendary "Farmers Plate" orgy of pork in all its forms ........ listed the calorific value of items on the menu some 10 years ago , so "goose liver in it's own fat" had an astounding number after it , all this in an environment of compulsory smoking

Some people really are stupid and need to be protected from their own stupidity, I would suggest that having a branch of Burger King in the foyer of the hospital (as there is at Addenbrookes in Cambridge ) is NOT the way to go.
I don't think the government "wants" anything apart from them and their mates to do well !

As for David Nutt, I mentioned him because it's a clear example of politics over-riding sense , as the Olympic sponsorship is as well, cannabis probably wont kill you but it will make...... oh well

can't be

arsed

look at that swan !



Apathetic and demotivated

[Lateralthinking1]

Is Cafe Fatal twinned with Over De Flames?

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/857428-200-challenge-to-eat-britains-biggest-burger-a-mere-13-464-calories

[Serial_Apologist]

Is Cafe Fatal twinned with Over De Flames?

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/857428-...3-464-calories

That must be a very small child!

[scottycelt]

.. Honestly, the nonsense some people believe..

I think that is a sentiment that could well unite every single member of this forum ... well said, John!

[MrGongGong]

I think that is a sentiment that could well unite every single member of this forum ... well said, John!

Virgin Birth for example scotty, or even the bit where the bearded one gets the energise treatment that you know so well

http://www.templeton.org/pdfs/articles/060331NYTimes_Benson.pdf

[scottycelt]

Virgin Birth for example scotty, or even the bit where the bearded one gets the energise treatment that you know so well

http://www.templeton.org/pdfs/articl...mes_Benson.pdf

Thanks for the link to the very latest six-year old and totally meaningless 'scientific' revelations, Mr GG ...