Life is full of risks -- some real and some statistical. Most of the risks claimed by observational studies fall into the statistical category. By "statistical," I mean "imaginary." For instance, a study published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine (online) entitled "Vegetarian Dietary Patterns and the Risk of Colorectal Cancers" suggests that eating a vegetarian diet will reduce a person's risk of getting colon cancer by over 20% . Or to put it the other way around, regularly eating red meat … [Read more...]
Rounding up more of the usual suspects: soy
In my last post, I speculated about my sensitivity to wheat, noting that having virtually eliminated wheat from my diet, I have also eliminated chronic digestion problems that seemed to be getting worse as I aged. It was easy to finger wheat, which has a growing reputation as a bad dietary player for many people. Both the gluten and lectin families of proteins in wheat have been connected to health problems that fall under the heading of "inflammation." In the post, I considered a couple … [Read more...]