"risk" news and stories

According to some recently updated info on Snopes.com, the answer may be yes. Putting a jar of water and tea bags in the sun will get the water hot, up to about 130° F, but not nearly hot enough to kill any bacteria in the water or the tea itself (that happens at around 195° F). Apparently the caffeine in black tea may help to stave off bacteria for a little while, but it isn't a guarantee. Some suggestions for you sun tea brewing daredevils include: start with a scrubbed, bleached vessel for brewing; don't leave the tea in the sun for more than four hours; don't make more than you can use in a day; refrigerate it immediately; and toss it if it gets "thick or syrupy." Also, don't use any excessively cheery jars that would make getting sick all the more ironic.

A Canadian study showed a link between beer drinking and an increased risk of lung cancer. Non-beer drinkers had no increased risk, while wine drinkers actually had a decreased risk of lung cancer. The researchers, who did their work in the province of Quebec, obtained "very good smoking information on subjects, so [they] were able to filter out cigarette smoking [as a cause]."

The problems with the study as it is presented are twofold. The first is that the researchers noticed that wine drinkers had a healthier diet than beer drinkers, something other studies have shown. Diet could play a large role in overall health, including the likelihood of developing cancer.

The second problem is that even if the beer drinkers who smoked cigarettes were accounted for, they did not account for the amount of second-hand smoke that the drinkers might have been exposed to. Quebec does not have a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, though one may take effect as early as May 31st, 2006, and beer tends to be a more popular drink than wine in bars and nightclubs. All subjects would have to be exposed to the exact same amount of smoke for conclusive evidence that it was the beer alone that raised their risk.

Source

The results of a four year study of over 15,000 Americans shows that fewer people are eating "risky" foods associated with E. Coli, salmonella and other foodborne diseases. The number of people eating foods such as undercooked meat, raw oysters and seafood and runny eggs dropped by about 10 percent between 1998 and 2002, according to the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet. Men ages 18 to 64 were almost 10 percent more likely to eat risky foods than women of the same age. For some reason, people 18 years and younger with compromised immune systems were more likely to eat risky foods. The most commonly eaten food on the list was runny eggs, reported FoodConsumer.org.

Despite the fact that study results were released this week indicating that eating a strictly low fat diet will not lower the likelihood of developing cancer or heart disease, companies do not anticipate a decrease in the demand for low fat products.

All that the 8 year study of over 40,000 women proves is that there is no link between a strictly low fat diet and the onset of these diseases. By strictly low fat, I mean that the diets of the study participants did not take into account anything other than the fact that they followed a diet made up of less than 30% calories from fat. They could have had higher than the daily recommended number of calories, never exercised or simply been genetically predisposed to the diseases. In other words, while the low fat diets were not shown to lower the risk factors, they did not raise them.

So, should you still watch the amount of fat you eat?