Italiano
Have you ever heard that this or that food is carcinogenic?
Probably, you’ve heard it said about so many foods that you hardly pay any attention to it anymore, right?
Well, in 2013 scientists J.D. Schoenfeld and J.P. Ioannidis published a study in “The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” which was titled: “Is everything we eat associated with cancer? A systematic cookbook review“.
Basically, they took, on a random basis, some recipes from a website and selected 50 ingredients from them.
The first discovery?
Forty of these had at least one article dedicated to the subject.
Of thirty-six, there was at least one study that said they increased or decreased the risk of getting cancer (of 4 it is admitted that there was not enough data).
For some of them, some studies even “demonstrated” both their positive and negative effects.
Just to name the most popular: coffee, eggs, corn, lemon, milk, potatoes, cheese…
So, can we assume that every article that criticizes or praises a given food should be taken as truthful?
Or as potential fake news?
We can’t believe in science?
Not exactly.
Here we are dealing with numbers that are misunderstood and misused.
As the authors explain: “the vast majority of these claims were based on weak statistical evidence”.
And also “There was no standardized, consistent selection of exposure contrasts for the reported risks”.
Furthermore, the foods for which the most studies have been found are the most popular ones, consumed daily. Which makes it a very difficult task to “isolate” them to find a correlation.
Ah, one more thing: the authors make no mention of “quantities”, but simply identify the food and its degree of danger. If I may express my opinion, I don’t think this is a negligible detail.
Bottom line: it is wrong to say that science is always right.
Science is an ever-evolving process that gradually brings us closer to the truth, through experiments and empirical methods, but what scientists consider correct at a given time can always be reversed in the future.
So, listen to the science, but also stay updated!
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