8/4/2023 0 Comments Inside cashew plant![]() ![]() I couldn’t imagine him binge-eating anything and told him as much. All clever stuff, but I got the feeling he was somehow a different breed from the rest of us, being slim and wise and sensible in all matters. I once interviewed him about his book concerning what we eat and how we individually process certain food types differently. But first prize has to go to: “Drink ‘thousands of varieties of wine’ to boost immunity and improve mental health.” Whaaat? “Professor Tim Spector says wine is good for improving gut health and is high in polyphenols, a group of natural defence chemicals.”Īh yes, Professor Spector. ![]() Not even a “may” or a “claim” to keep it honest. How about: “Beer is GOOD for you! Scientists claim two pints a day may slash your risk of dementia”? And extra marks here for a quite ghastly second mention just below it: “Drinking two pints a day slashed risk of the memory-robbing condition by a third.” Memory-robbing condition? Oh, please.Īlso highly commended: “Cheers! Drinking beer makes you happier and healthier than if you are teetotal, scientists confirm.” Confirm, mark you. A quick search for similar stuff put out there in the last year or so by our mainstream media yielded some beauties. And the headline above was quite responsibly written. “Don’t you remember the study that showed …?” etc etc. The problem is that there are drinkers and industry PRs and libertarian anti-“nanny state” culture warriors who will be dredging up this story to drop into conversations many years from now. “I knew it! I told you so! Drinking helps me deal with stress, ergo it eases the strain on my poor ticker, therefore I’ll live longer and more happily.” I’ll file this fact away along with that one about red wine being good for you, as good as a health drink. But who needs that level of detail? If I’m so minded, there’s as much information in the headline as I’m ever going to want or need to support my long-cherished pet theory about drinking. Once the study’s methodology and conclusions are outlined, it’s clear that the whole thing falls into the category of quite interesting, rather than this changes everything. They will turn a blind eye to the facts of the story, although even the headline itself, with its “may” and its “study finds”, suggests this scientific revelation isn’t quite the slam dunk we might be hoping for. ![]() Consider a typical headline to a story covered with great enthusiasm by many major news organisations this week: “Moderate alcohol consumption may lower stress, reduce heart disease risk, study finds.” Enthusiastic drinkers, drowning in a dark sea of health warnings, will cling on to such words as stricken sailors might hold on to the hull of their capsized boat. I t’s amazing how easy it is to persuade us that what we want to be true is true. ![]()
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