Text 23926, 58 rader
Skriven 2009-05-10 07:33:38 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE DRUM
Ärende: Re: addiction
=====================
ML> Though the
ML> link between coffee and bladder and other cancers has been
ML> debated (yes, the first study came out from the Harvard
ML> School of Public Health in the late 1970s or early 1980s),
ML> that debate has been largely quashed in a way that is
ML> odorously reminiscent of what happened to tobacco research
ML> in the mid-20th century.

DD> Errrrrmmmmm, coffee and caffeine are NOT the same thing. 
DD> Not all caffeine is found in coffee. Tea and many "soft" 
DD> drinks also contain caffeine ... as well
DD> as several foodstuffs. Including chocolate to some degree.

Coffee is the most studied because it's long been considered
the most common caffeine delivery system.  Cola products have
always had caffeine, but the industry practice of adding it
EVERYWHERE is relatively new (A&W Cream Soda - WTF??)

I don't really think any of the studies have been "quashed."
Only the tiniest slice of medical research gets any mainstream
press at all, and that is nearly always if it's related to 
The Impending Pandemic of the Season, the heavily-publicized=
thanks-to-a-powerful-lobby Breast Cancer, Parkinson's Disease
when they can get Michael J Fox in front of a camera, and so
on.

It would be tempting from Michael's implication to infer that
some sort of industrial syndicate is, through lobbying, nefariously 
burying selected news stories, and shelving research papers,
slipping caffeine into everything we eat and drink to increase
profits at the expense of public health, but I really don't think
that's the case.  The research is out there and available especially
today with the widespread reach of the internet.

A simple Google search brings up links to huge numbers of articles
and studies - some of which are garbage from snake-oil medical
sites, but most of which are legit.  And the conclusions seem to
me to be far more contradictory than simply "debated."  One 
article, originally published in Scientific American in 2000,
cites a study that seems to indicate that the caffeine in coffee
actually helps to protect the bladder from cancers in people
who smoke.

Because caffeine is a legal and mild stimulant (mild, that is,
in the low doses in which it's commonly and naturally found) I think
the real issue here is its overavailability in a culture that seems
to think that if a DAB of something is good, a GOB of it is even
better.  


---
http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/ - Dave's Cupboard - Food and 
Restaurant Reviews; If I post it here in NCE, you'll find it 
blogged with photos at Dave's Cupboard.

http://bacon-labels.blogspot.com/ - A gallery of bacon package labels.
(The extra shelf in Dave's Cupboard.
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)