Wednesday 2 January 2013

Petulant Outbursts Of The Week

Both emailed in by Bob E.

1. From The Independent:

It sounds too good to be true, coming at the end of the season of excess, but after one of the largest reviews of research ever conducted, doctors say that carrying a few extra pounds may actually reduce the risk of premature death...

Tam Fry, spokesman for the UK National Obesity Forum*, said: "Katherine Flegal is an extremely good researcher and I would respect her. But I am flabbergasted. The sum total of medical expert opinion cannot have got it so wrong. The consequences of people taking this research and deciding 'let's eat and be merry' will be catastrophic.


* The NOF is not a fakecharity, it is a Big Pharma lobbying front. According to Bob E, "This rubbishing is not, as you might think, based on Tam's deep knowledge of all things scientific and biological, because that is just about a round "zero" seeing as Tam gravitated towards the NOF after a 25 year career in TV production."

2. From The Telegraph:

Government alcohol guidelines that were "plucked out of the air" wrongly suggest that we can drink almost daily with no ill-effects, say doctors...

Dr Nick Sheron, a liver specialist at Southampton University, said: "The problem I have with the Government advice is that is normalises the fact that it’s OK to have a drink on a daily basis, when that’s really not the case."

Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for England, is currently reviewing the evidence on the risks of drinking, said a Department of Health spokesman. She said: "The health risks from alcohol rise as you drink more and there is some evidence that small amounts of alcohol can reduce some health risks. To look at whether the system is still helpful to people, the Chief Medical Officer is set to review the alcohol consumption guidelines."

6 comments:

Old BE said...

All of the health nonsense is very healthy IMHO because more and more people will realise that you have to decide for yourself.

BE

Mark Wadsworth said...

BE, if you read on, then you realise that Fry has pissed on his own chips. He says "Ah yes, fatties might live longer but they have unhappier lives" to which I would respond "Yes, and non-smokers live longer and they also have unhappier lives".

Bayard said...

This sort of thing always makes me think of the cartoon of two aged and decrepit men sitting in an OAP home. One is saying to the other, "Just to think, if I hadn't given up smoking, drinking and sex, I'd have missed out on all this".

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, the German* version of that joke is like this:

Tow old ladies sitting on a park bench. One says "You know, I've never had a serious illness in my life, hardly go to the doctors, never broken a limb, never had to take tablets for anything."

The other responds "Oh that's awful, what do you talk about all day long?"

* A nation of hypochondriacs.

Lysistrata said...

And then there's the old Jewish joke...
David and Sarah are a couple in their late 80s who eventually die together.

Reaching Heaven, they are shown a beautiful house and garden with a heated swimming pool. David asks: whose is this? The reply from God comes - this is all yours, it's free, this is Heaven.

They are then shown an enormous feast of every wonderful food and every wonderful drink you could imagine, with free cigars and cocktail cigarettes in abundance.. They ask: whose is this? It looks wonderful, but bad for your health. God replies: it is all yours, and it won't affect your health: this is Heaven.

David turns to Sarah and says:
'If it weren't for your fucking nagging and having to eat Granola and jog every day, we could both have been here 15 years ago."

Anonymous said...

Lysistrata, not bad, but as depictions of Jewish Heaven go it's not a patch on Curb.

http://youtu.be/aaSDjckr3nk