Apples - 1 comment

What strikes me so often about BBC "health" articles is that they're generally so confused and illogical as to be incomprehensible. On that basis the sane strategy has to be to ignore them completely, and to take your news on developments in nutrition from authoritative sources.

Take Apple juice 'may prevent asthma':

Children who drink plenty of apple juice may be less likely to develop asthma symptoms, say scientists.

Actually, that's "might", but let's proceed gingerly.

Children who drank apple juice at least once a day were half as likely to suffer from wheezing as those drinking it less than once a month, it found.

Eating fresh apples themselves gave no apparent benefits, the study concluded.

And yet, fast-forwarding to the end...

Dr Mike Thomas, an Asthma UK researcher at the University of Aberdeen, said that the study was further evidence of the protective effect of apples.

Continuing...

He said: "There is some evidence that a healthy diet rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins is good for asthma.

Was it these that were being tested? Surely a logical leap.

It is yet another reason why we should be encouraging a healthy diet."

And another. If apples play, as I'm sure they do, a tiny positive role as a contributor to (though also a consequence of) a healthy diet, why the need to defend them on the basis of incredible asthma-related benefits? Moreover, if the benefits of apple-products are primarily asthma-related, why muddy the waters by talking about what foods are good for general health? And since when has concentrated apple juice (rather than the fruits themselves) been identified a mainstay of a healthy diet?

No doubt there are scientists who can answer these questions, but reading these silly articles will get you no closer to hearing what they have to say.

Mobile phone masts, and other incredible statistics - no comments

Says Rhod, via The Independent:

Two giant mobile phone companies are to move a mast at a primary school, after parents claimed their children fell sick [...]

I've long thought the "mobile phone mast health scandal" issue, that spreads from area to area rather like a circus - or a plague - was one of those classic situations where anxious parents' specious and unscientific claims were whipped up by ignorant journalists and ambitious local opposition politicians, with impressive-sounding statistics only being properly scrutinised after the political tornado had passed. Perhaps I've missed a subtlety somewhere along the line.

Their results showed 56 per cent of the children and 86 per cent of the staff had problems sleeping, 54 per cent and 59 per cent respectively were getting headaches and migraines, and 46 per cent and 95 per cent respectively reported fatigue and numbness.

The effects of the St Edward's RC primary school's phone mast - which is in Warwickshire - must be strong indeed, as I can attest to having experienced all of the mentioned symptoms during the 11 years covered, none of which could possibly be explained by other factors: everything from headaches, migraines, to insomnia, dizziness, and nausea. I've even heard "strange hums and clicks", but then I do like Autechre. It appears that staff are far more susceptible (95%, compared to 46%, are honest enough to declare this fact) to "fatigue and numbness". As the son of two teachers, I couldn't possibly comment on this scientific conundrum...

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Meanwhile, the BBC reveal that England cricket captain legend, Michael Vaughan, has successfully called a coin-toss six times in succession. Broadsheet science editors were "stumped" by this seeming mathematical impossibility until a Tipton resident revealed to the world's press that he owned a "powerful magnet", squeezed his eyes closed, and walked in circles around his sitting-room, humming loudly, and with his fingers crossed, while each toss was made, in order to achieve the desired result for England.