After the cigarette manufacturers, it has become the turn the food processors
to suffer the attacks of those would have us lead a healthy life. Sometimes
you have the feeling almost everything you eat is liable to damage brain,
clog your arteries, ulcerate your stomach, or impact your intestine. On the other hand,
it is certainly true that there is nothing reading the list of ingredients on the
back of a cereal packet or a pot of jam to put you off your breakfast.
One dietician writes of pork pies as follows: "People wouldn't buy a pork pie if
chemicals had not been designed into them. A pork pie contain as much
as 50 per cent of highly saturated fat is bad for the heart and arteries.
A perfectly good pork pie could be made from reasonable ingredients but it is cheaper
to make it additives because less meat is then needed. The additives in the pie
do little harm in themselves. The fat is made acceptable by a perfectly safe emulsifier.
Added colour makes the fat look like meat. The additives in it deceive our senses and
persuade us to eat too much fat. Even if the additives themselves are considered to be
relatively safe, the nutritional consequences appalling."
Since a study by Johns Hopkins Medical Centre, Baltimore, in the mid-eighties, coffee
has been on everyone's blacklist. According to the study: "Regardless of the measure of
coffee consumption used, analyses found heavy coffee drinkers were almost three
times more likely to have coronary disease than were non-drinkers. Even one or two cups
of coffee a day appear to be associated a small extra risk of heart disease - a one-third
increase over non-drinkers." The one piece of good news appears to be that the risk decreases
rapidly once a person stops drinking coffee.
Few arguments create greater passion among medical experts than the supposed link
between diet heart disease. Some doctors, however, refuse to accept any connection between
the two. They have argued that diets which cut back on dairy produce, although unlikely
to cause physical harm, could lead to malnutrition, particularly among children. They are
appalled that breakfast, that traditional British meal, should under attack by the spectre
of disease. Come between some doctors and their bacon and eggs and feelings will run high.
The nutritionists have fought back. They remain convinced sugary, fatty foods lead to
preventable ill health. One doctor argues that a fibre-rich diet is only of to those who
suffer from diabetes. Rubbish, say the nutritionists, and go on to point out that "over one
third of British adults are constipated. At least one in seven takes laxatives. And dietary
fibre is of proven value in the treatment of constipation."
Yet another doctor argues that dental decay really be seen as a disease which results
from a lack of fluoride. What we need to do is clean our teeth like crazy, have them coated
with sealants, and take fluorides daily. The nutritionist blasts back by pointing that
you might as well say that headaches are caused by a lack of aspirin.
What we do know is that nutrition does affect health. Too little food and too much food are
both bad for you. In Britain, poor boys to be two inches shorter on average than rich boys.