Health Warnings and Alcohol etc.

I have always been sceptical about the health warnings that the food research institutes are increasingly making. These health warnings find their way as cheap copy into the newspapers and morning radio shows and breakfast television. During broadcasts the interviewers never question the science related to the assertions. No-one ever questions how the data was collected and interpreted and what empirical evidence supports the claims. We are constantly being told that eating more than 6 grams of salt per day is dangerous to our health but where did that figure come from? What experiments have been conducted to ascertain the affect of salt on human health? I suggest that no empirical evidence has been gathered from experimentation; as to perform such an experiment would be immoral. Most of the evidence is probably an interpretation of statistics. The 6 gram warning is the result of an estimation made by a committee. What happens if I consume 6.01 grams per day would my health be seriously compromised? If I consume 5.9 grams per day will I live longer? The amount of salt that one should consume must be dependent upon your size. Could 6 grams per day be safe for a 13 stone adult male but dangerous for an eight stone female teenager? One thing is certain, if you consume no sodium chloride at all you will die. Many men who work under hard and arduous conditions lose their taste for salt and often crave salted butter and other salted products in their diet. If you spend some time under hot desert conditions you will see what I mean. The body makes adjustments to the salt required to maintain the homeostasis of the blood and it excretes excess salt. The 6 gram recommended figure is thus an arbitrary one. We are also constantly advised about how much red meat to eat. The recommendation is now 90 grams per day, but once again what happens if I eat 91 grams per day will my life expectancy be reduced? No-one can answer this question. Now there is a hotting up of the campaign for all of us to drink less alcohol. One of the research institutes claims that alcohol consumption causes 13,000 cancers per year. Where does this figure come from? Why is it 13,000 the figure may be more precise than accurate? If none of us consumed alcohol would bowel cancer, throat cancer and cancer of the oesophagus disappear entirely or would the 13,000 figure be reduced by two hundred if at all? No one knows for certain. I am equally sceptical about the blandishments to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day what happens if I eat six a day will I live longer? Will this counteract the risks of my drinking on average two glasses of wine a day and eating red meat? There are too many complexities and variables related to diet for hard and fast claims to be made. How do we know that the claim that you should drink a glass of red wine a day to protect your heart is true? For some people who have liver disease one glass a day is too much. It is obvious, in Britain and other countries,that we have health problems realted to excessive consumption of alcohol. But do the assertions of research institutes make any difference? Nobody listens to it because thay are not really credible. It is obvious that drinking one glass of wine per day will not really damage a healthy adult but drinking a bottle of scotch or its equivalent will . We have all known this for centuries if not thousands of years. There is a happy medium somewhere along the lower end of the scale but it is different for everybody. It is up to the choice of the individual to find their own happy medium. During the the first 80 years of the twentieth century there was an incredible improvement in the health of the rich nations of the world. During that time the advice was " eat and drink in moderation". Everyone knew this including the health authorities and the general population. I suspect that the real improvement to health was caused by a combination of improved diet , sanitation, the discovery of antibiotics and general vaccination programmes. Practical measures not blandishments were used to improve our health. As far as alcohol is concerned, actual measures to reduce the consumption of should be undertaken. Some such measures could include: reducing the number of off-sales outlets by withdrawing the licences of some supermarkets to sell alcohol , ban two for one promotions in pubs, off-sales outlets and clubs, deny licenses to pubs where there is a lot of problem drinking. The latter might help to improve the quality of life in many town centres. With regard to salt, if it is such a problem there is nothing to stop the government to draw up legislation to reduce the quantity of salt in processed foods. Stilton cheese being an exception. The idea that salt should be banned from fish and chip shops is stupid beyond belief. With regard to the so called excessive consumption of red meat, don't worry market forces will soon take care of this. The best advice I ever got about diet was from my mother - "EAT UP ALL YOUR VEGETABLES". The best advice I got from about my general health was "DO NOT SMOKE". She did not need a research institute to tell her that.