The whole topic of cancer, and possibly breast cancer in particular, seems to attract a while load of woo (stuff that’s just flat-out fake and sometimes dangerous) and dodgy medical journalism (because newspapers are always looking for an “angle” and rarely employ journalists who know anything about the subject. Here’s a new one on diet to watch out for: Diet story
It was in the Daily Mail - my only surprise is that they didn’t manage to work house pries and Victoria Beckham into the story!
I read this diet and thought it was the biggest load of crap. Milk, Bovril and fizzy diet drinks? I think I’ll pass!
Know what you mean about house prices and VB …“Dr X who developed this diet lives in a house worth 750k and wears dresses from Victoria Beckham’s fashion collection”.
Streuth, the Mail gets worse by the minute with all the cancer rubbish they print. There is another breast cancer diet in there at the moment, supposedly developed in America. It’s the same as an NHS one over here for overweight people - I should know, I’ve been following it loosely since last year lol!
And now the sydicated news services are turning this BS into accepted truth in the minds of most of the population:
express.co.uk/posts/view/203820/2-day-a-week-diet-that-can-fight-cancer
and even respected BC research charities are passing it on:
facebook.com/breastcancercampaign#!/breastcancercampaign?v=wall
… but thousands of people, especially women, still keep on buying the Daily Mail…I despair!
I think the article originates from a regional news tv article, that was broadcast last night.
Look North was commenting on some findings provided by research organisation Genesis (which I think is in Manchester).
The nurse and moderator said that they would look into it.
I think that it is possibly genuine research, given a daily Mail slant !!!
Julie x
You quite often get a decent peice of research which gets totally mashed up by journalists. The Mail does seem to be the worst offender (Ben Goldacre on BadScience is brilliant at ripping them apart.) Still, if it had been the Express it would probably have fitted Princess Di into it somewhere.
And fizzy diet drinks? As in laced-with-aspartamine (or its various pseudonyms?) Seriously dodgy - that stuff can cause all sorts of health problems all by itself. And there’s been some research that fizzy drinks can weaken your bones - we really don’t need that when we’re on oestrogen-suppressing medication. And also some research that diet drinks actually make you put on weight.
I remember back at the tale end of the 80s they were blaming Aspartame for ovarian cancer after a study was published in Australia. I used to eat loads of Shape yoghurt back then and I stopped it. However, I seem to remember reading a few years back that the original study was rubbished, but I don’t like the thought of all those artificial additives anyway. I don’t drink things like diet Coke very often as it always makes my teeth feel funny. I stick to water or a nice cup of tea during the day. maybe a small glass of white wine or two on the weekends.
A superfit friend of ours works for Coke and says he would never drink it! Makes me wonder if he knows something. I remember as a kid back in the 60s/70s it would strip the varnish off your mum’s coffee table if you spilt it. Scary.
I must admit I was a bit perturbed by this. There was an item on the bbc North West news which touched upon the link with being overweight and getting bc. It sort of went on and off before I had time to take it in! My first thought was it is my fault I got bc because I have put weight on over the last few years. It annoys me because it makes me feel guilty (as if I haven’t got enough to contend with) and it might make other people feel it was my own fault I got bc.
I tried to look into the subject more thoroughly (even going on the bbc website) but I couldn’t find out anything more about it.
Hey ho. More guilt trips!
Love
Maude xx
Another study in the Mail today says air pollution has something to do with getting breast cancer. Well, I worked in central London for nearly 20 years where the air quality was terrible…hey ho, something else to worry about - not. As my OH always claims, just living causes death. He also says “you might as well say you got it because you have to work on a computer” because PCs get blamed for all sorts as well and we work in the web industry. I’m about to sign up to gym membership on Monday, but there have also been reports this year that exercise gives you BC - where does it stop? As far as I am concerned - enough!
I could just as easily accidentally step in front of a bus I think.
Why do women do guilt so easily? I’m sure men don’t! Yes, there are elements of lifestyles that can put you more at risk - diet, weight, smoking, drinking… But then getting run over by a bus is highly correlated with crossing the road!