The latest so-called research tells us 33,000 lives a year could be saved by the five a day gumph. That’s a remarkably precise figure, I wonder how they reached it?
The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, was based on a computer model linking food consumption with mortality from heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Ah, I see… a computer model. So it isn’t research at all, merely a guess rounded up to the nearest figure. It isn’t research done on real people, which as the Englishman points out comes to a slightly different conclusion.
The study of 500,000 Europeans joins a growing body of evidence undermining the high hopes that pushing “five-a-day” might slash Western cancer rates.
The international team of researchers estimates only around 2.5% of cancers could be averted by increasing intake.
Nice to see the Beeb publishing contradictory articles. Perhaps they forgot the earlier one, eh?
And, not only do we get the five a day cockwaffle, they manage to throw in a pinch of anti– salt nonsense too. I don’t care how much salt these people think I should have, I don’t suffer from hypertension and my kidneys are going their job just fine. This means that I can have as much salt as I like and no harm will come to me as my body will get rid of any excess that it doesn’t need. What I will not do is cravenly kowtow to the likes of CASH and go on a low salt diet – that would be dangerous.
Anyway, as far as dietary advice goes, I follow my own. I’ll eat what I damned well please and the health fascists can take a hike.
YES YES YES !!!
Longrider, the mistake these ‘five a day’ advocates make is to assume we humans are all the same. As you so rightly point out, we’re not.
Sometimes I think all the fuss made about other people’s diet is more about “Look at me! I’m important!” By people who don’t have a worthwhile skill set than anything else.
How can they quantify this rubbish with such precise figures? Even if it was true, 33,000 lives dont get saved, they get made a bit longer. Is that by 20 years or one? Its all bollocks.
I make sure of my five a day; two pints of mild, two of best bitter and a stout or porter to round off with.
According to Cancer Research UK, in the UK in 2008, there were 156,723 deaths from cancer. 2 1/2 % of that is 3918. i.e. one figure is ten times the other.
These studies are designed so that more research (and grants) are needed when they are finished.
About as accurate, honest & “Truthful” as the “safe” alchohol consumption recommendations, then ….
I just ate my five a day. Now I feel sick…..
With you on this but on the other hand, I just bought grains, fruit and veg so the principle’s good to have as much as you can stomach. But five a day?
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the whole 5-a-day thing was a made up number. There was not one jot of scientific evidence that it helped improve public health at all.