I ironically, got this e-mail this week - I think it applies if you switch diseases.

After an exhaustive review of the research literature, here's the final
word
on nutrition and health:

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
3. Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks
than
us.
4. Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart
attacks than us.
5. Germans drink beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer
heart attacks than us.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is
apparently
what kills you.

But don't worry, your Government is trying to correct this problem.

mmm.... corn!

Please furnish the reference. I could not find it when I looked up the AJCN journal online. Thanks

Did you click on the word "abstract"? EL

Can't wait for summer tomatoes. A couple of us are trying to grow them from pots, since the soil here is too sandy.

As for food choices, I too am moderate on the amount of red meat that I eat and try to eat more fruits and veggies. Its kinda hard for me because there's not many fruits that I like, but I'm trying to expand my horizons there.

Who paid for this study?

Always a good question to ask. Although if there doesn't seem to be a way for the drug companies to benefit, I feel better. EL

There's a classic Shel Silverstein country-western song, "Food Blues," sung by Bobby Bare who points out that just about anything you eat or drink is potentially hazardous to your health. Red Meat can cause cancer, vegetables have pesticide, fish contains mercruy, etc., etc. Fortunately, Bare concludes to a cheerful guitar riff, there's always rye whiskey and good red wine.

There's no way to tell if the study is worthy based upon the info in the abstract.

A recent study has discovered that saliva causes cancer but only when swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time. All I know for sure is when I ate White Castle hamburgers and onion rings on a regular basis I did not have colon cancer. After moving to Baltimore and going without them for three years I got colon cancer. Therefore it follows that White Castle hamburgers and onion rings prevent colon cancer.

Oh, as with all studies, it is true if you believe it to be true and false if you believe it to be false.

So, all the meat eaters can rejoice that science has finally validated our lifestyles. And all the vegans can dismiss the study as some nefarious plot of pseudo-science that was no doubt underwritten by the Cattleman's Association.

And with that, I'm off to go watch some Fox News.

One study proves nothing. It's only by repeated study that science truly spreads the scope of knowledge. But then, knowing this would make for fewer sensationist newspaper stories.

Oh, as with all studies, it is true if you believe it to be true and false if you believe it to be false.

No, there can be no information drawn from an abtract that doesn't describe the methods and data in detail. Without full disclosure this amounts to nothing at all. The actual paper is not available to the public.

Next.

If anyone really wants to read it, the Health Sciences library down on Greene St should have a copy. Open to the public (may ask for ID or to sign in) until 8pm.

But hey, speaking (NOT!) of a shameless plug for an American Cancer Society benefit, check out:

Taste for Life

Wine tasting and great food, with all proceeds going to ACS. And hey, Clarksville isn't that far away.

Look for the guy running the auction, that will be Mr. Zevonista!

I have the actual research paper and am reviewing it now. It uses the exact same techniques that I have used so I can easily review it. At first glance (I AM SHOCKED) the abstract is very misleading.

The study is total garbage. No meaningful conclusions can be drawn from it like almost almost dietary studies GIGO

Oh, as with all studies, it is true if you believe it to be true and false if you believe it to be false.

Nope. It is false if I say so and there is no such thing as true, just evidence. This is false and misleading. Oooh, my belly hurts. FYI this is me in a good mood but in pain. Still better than last Friday.

I read the article and it doesn't appear they asked the subjects how long they were vegetarians, just whether they were vegetarians. For instance, I have been one for only 4 years, and would be lumped in with life long vegetarians. I don't see how they could draw conclusions without normalizing for length of time as a vegetarian ( I may have just missed it).

It's even worse than that Rages. They asked them if they were vegetarians only at the beginning of the study and never afterwards. There are about ten other major flaws. Crapola.

My husband dared me to try broccoli for the first time one Thanksgiving. Two weeks later I was diagnosed with colon cancer.

Coincidence? I think not.

you could study this type of stuff forever and never get conclusive evidence of any food causing cancer or any other disease. normally it's not the food itself, but the quantity and regularity of consumtion. (sp?)
almost anything in moderation is good for you (key word being moderation). drinking too much water at one time will kill you. too muck fatty red meat is bad while some red meat is necessary.
we are omnivores and when we were in our infantsy as a species we ate seeds, weeds, any meat we could catch, fish, berries, etc. to say now that we can't handle moderate amounts of any of that stuff is silly. you choose to be a vegan because you don't want to eat red meat for whatever reason. not because it's bad for you.
too much salt is bad for you, but, our bodies are made up of salt water and we can not go very long without some sodium chloride.
in closing, it's the amount of what you eat that determines your health. you really should eat a well balanced diet. making sure the "bread" part doesn't include too much refined flour. that has pretty much no food value.

None of these nutrition studies have decent raw data to start with, so no meaningful conclusions can be made. Here's the open secret in research circles: all nutrition studies are crap. If proper data were collected at great great expense then some decent analysis could be done, but that has never happened nor is it likely to. Everything you think you know about nutrition and disease risk is false. Dump it all.

The study found that _vegetarians,_ not _vegans,_ had higher rates of colorectal cancer. It would be interesting to see an analysis of vegans compared to vegetarians -- I'd be willing to bet that, if the study is accurate, it's the dairy and eggs doing the vegetarians in.

First of all the study is invalid so it didn't find anything. Also, your logic is flawed. Vegetarians includes vegans. That should make the group more healthy not less on average according to your logic.

What is the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan?

Don't they both eschew (love that word here) meat?

Fl Rob, I think some vegetarians still eat eggs and drink milk but others "eschew" those products as well. I'm not sure of the actual semantics though.

Fl Rob & Joyce - some vegetarians eat fish. Some eat chicken and just eschew red meat. Like Protestantism, it's a wide range. (With the most "hard core" generally condeming the more liberal)

Some people that call themselves vegetarians eat chicken and fish and seafood (and bacon). I have met people who call themselves vegans who basically just don't eat beef or pork unless it's really tasty or they feel like it. Vegan is the new Marxist, as in it's fasionable among suburban white girls in theory but not in practice.

Vegetarians like Protestants, well no doubt both groups would have their own prohibitions against transubstantiation.

Intriguing point for any thoughtful Catholic vegetarians out there. That sort of makes meat eating sacred doesn't it? Animal sacrifice is integral to the Jewish religion. It's the sacred obligation to sacrifice an animal once a year (once they get that temple rebuilt). Isn't the last obstaclefinding a red bull to slaughter? It's a real problem,for a Jew to rationalize vegetarianism. Remember the story of Abel and Cain? God hates vegetarians. Meat meat meat.

one more technical problem might be Dome of the Rock, Owl. I'm just sayin...

Yeah, well a nation already occupied by Palestinians didn't stop them now did it? Land stealing and religious/cultural rape have biblical precedents (bye bye Caananites) anyway so I'm more worried about the red bull.

There was a FASCINATING article in the New Yorker about 7-8 years ago about the weird alliance between born-again yahoo Pentacostal Mississippi cow breeders and messianic Israeli maniacs and their joint quest to breeed a perfect red bull. Really. And I suppose then bring about armagideon.

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