Oct 31 2007
Cancer and diet reporting from the BBC
The BBC is doing its best to mock the requests made by the World Cancer Research Fund:
[The recommendations] include not gaining weight as an adult, avoiding sugary drinks and alcohol, and not eating bacon or ham. Everyone must also aim to be as thin as possible without becoming underweight.
The report of course has nothing to say about being as thin as possible. Instead, it’s the BBC who are taking this very unsubtle view of the BMI-cancer relationship. There is no ‘safety zone’ that exists between 18.5 and 25 on the BMI scale. It’s a gentle J-shaped curve which really is representative of a higher risk for people near the top end of the range than those near the bottom.
The recommendations are pretty comprehensive when you read the report [PDF] (the link the BBC provide was broken when I last looked). For all the major cancers there are breakdowns for effects of different food types, culled from the huge library of cancer research. The article here strips all this nuance and evidence and presents suggestions as commandments — I would even go so far as saying “deliberately”. These are also headlines on the BBC website at the moment:
- That’s enough: Are the latest cancer warnings asking too much of us?
- “These days, health advice changes from week to week,” London Lass
They cite the statistic that two thirds of all cancers are “not thought to be related to lifestyle” even though the more important message is the one third that can be affected by lifestyle changes.