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There’s scant evidence that healthy foods prevent cancer or fatty foods cause it

startribune.com

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Re: There’s scant evidence that healthy foods prevent cancer or fatty foods cause it

#21

Post by teichman »

This newspaper article states "In 2007, a major follow-up [to the 1997 AICR report] all but reversed the findings." They don't cite the study or provide a link, but it's almost certainly the 2007 AICR report.

Fortunately you can take a look for yourself [0]. The published research findings are pretty much the opposite of the Star Tribune's claims that eating healthy has no effect on cancer.

These are the AICR recommendations:

    Be as lean as possible without becoming underweight.
    Be physically active for at least 30 minutes every day.
    Avoid sugary drinks. Limit consumption of energy-dense foods.
    Eat more of a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes such as beans.
    Limit consumption of red meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) and avoid processed meats.
    If consumed at all, limit alcoholic drinks to 2 for men and 1 for women a day.
    Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt (sodium).
    Don't use supplements to protect against cancer.
[0] http://www.aicr.org/research/research_science_expert_report....

Edit: formatting.

Re: There’s scant evidence that healthy foods prevent cancer or fatty foods cause it

#26

Post by Malarkey73 »

This article (and some people here) seem to be mixing up the conclusion that particular so-called "super foods" are viewed with skepticism by oncologists. And a poor high fat high sugar diet is very clearly associated with cancer, diabetes and heart disease. In between these is a grey area of whether a slightly more healthy than merely adequate balanced diet is good.

Its pretty clear though that poor diet is associated with cancer.

Re: There’s scant evidence that healthy foods prevent cancer or fatty foods cause it

#27

Post by glenra »

yaketysax wrote: post #10

I don't understand what's being reported on here. "The reason for the change was more thorough epidemiology. The earlier studies tended to be "retrospective," relying on people to remember dietary details from the distant past." So what? Which are the studies that are invalid? If none of them are invalid, then why disregard any information they might give us? 4000 studies with similar observations is not "scant evide…

In a "retrospective" study, you look at the past - for instance, you interview people and ask them what they recall eating over the last year, and see how that tracks with their current health condition. But memories are faulty and selective and easily influenced, so you might be operating from bad data. And the associations you find could be spurious for other reasons. So you can quickly reach some conclusions with this type of study, but they might just reinforce what people already believed rather than tell you what is actually true.

In a "prospective" study, you look at the present - for instance, you could ask a group of people to keep a food journal, measure their health at regular intervals, encourage some of them to make some changes, and see if the advice ends up making them healthier. The advantage is that you have MUCH more accurate data. The disadvantage is: (a) you have to wait many years before you can reach any conclusions, (b) most of the time the conclusion you discover is that the advice didn't help.

Retrospective studies can generate hypotheses but you have to TEST those hypotheses with prospective studies.

Re: There’s scant evidence that healthy foods prevent cancer or fatty foods cause it

#28

Post by relampago »

websitescenes wrote: post #23

No evidence, sources or credibility. Sorry but this article is just silly. This is an old world corporate fed point of view that is obviously incorrect.

What's with a news source promoting misinformation?

Re: There’s scant evidence that healthy foods prevent cancer or fatty foods cause it

#29

Post by yaketysax »

glenra wrote: post #27
yaketysax wrote: post #10

I don't understand what's being reported on here. "The reason for the change was more thorough epidemiology. The earlier studies tended to be "retrospective," relying on people to remember dietary details from the distant past." So what? Which are the studies that are invalid? If none of them are invalid, then why disregard any information they might give us? 4000 studies with similar observations is not "scant evide…

In a "retrospective" study, you look at the past - for instance, you interview people and ask them what they recall eating over the last year, and see how that tracks with their current health condition. But memories are faulty and selective and easily influenced, so you might be operating from bad data. And the associations you find could be spurious for other reasons. So you can quickly reach some conclusions with…

Ah ok. Had no idea how far back people were expected to remember. A few days might be fine. A year seems crazy.

Also I don't know why the author put prospective and retrospective in quotes. "Prospective study" and "retrospective study" are terms.

Re: There’s scant evidence that healthy foods prevent cancer or fatty foods cause it

#30

Post by relampago »

fthssht wrote: post #18

Certain kinds of fat are likely healthy. Certain population s of indigenous people thrived on high fat diets.

No mention of the demonization of fat and promotion of artificial sweeteners and additives promoted and used to "fix" the fat problem.
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