7 ms·

If every study on tumeric, tea, chocolate, and coffee was fully accurate we'd all be immortal by now.

by piyh 9y ago

ShabbosGoy 9y ago
Aren’t we? People are living longer than ever before. The issue is in determining effect size. I’m sure some amount of all those things you mentioned is “good” in some sense, but in what quantity and for how long?
- azemetre 9y ago
  People are "living longer" because child mortality has fallen dramatically.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - croon 9y ago
    If in making those statistics one didn't account for that I'd be very disappointed, but it doesn't look like that's the case. [1][2] [1] http://life-span.healthgrove.com/l/51/50 http://life-span.healthgrove.com/l/51/50 [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK62587/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK62587/
  - klmr 9y ago
    Not only. Life expectancy has increased in every age group percentile. But the effect is obviously not due to tea, coffee and turmeric. Rather, it’s due, mainly, to (a) better general nutrition, (b) better hygiene, and (c) modern medicine, especially antibiotics and vaccines.
Tepix 9y ago
I'm doing my part!
vanderZwan 9y ago
The problem you describe is a real one, but a bit different than the other criticism raised here so far. Chocolate has the Mars Company and other Big Sugar companies behind it pushing for justifying chocolate as a "health food" in the public mind. It is very obvious that they are wiling to distort the truth for better sales; people who can ease their conscious about eating unhealthy sweets buy more chocolate[0]. There might be some real effect to eating raw cocoa, but that does not really translate to your average chocolate bar with insane amounts of fat and sugar. Tea/Coffee is kind of similar, as would be the "drink x glasses of water per day"-advice, which is a distortion of science by bottled water companies (fruits, vegetables and other food contains a ton of water already). For this reason I also don't buy that salt is safe: there are very strong vested interests in the food industry that want salt to be (considered) safe to sell more food, whereas I cannot see a comparable bias on the "eat less salt"-side. For this research the situation seems to be have some of the mentioned problems, but not to the same degree: On the one hand, that tumeric has an in-vitro effect is pretty well established. The issue is that the normal form we put on our food is probably not absorbed in a dosage that has a significant effect. However, this was a trial with a bio-available form, in a high enough dosage, so that obvious flaw is out of the picture. On the other hand, that bio-available form is a product, so the company behind it wants it to be effective. Still, Big Pharma is under more scrutiny than Big Sugar, so I have cautious hopes this might actually work out in the end (and it won't be sold in the form of calorie-rich sweets at least). Admittedly, I'm biased here: my grandmother on my mother's side, and my grandfather on my father's side both had Alzheimers (or something very similar to it at least). My parents are now their late sixties, I would really like to see them stay healthy and happy for a few more decades. [0] https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/10/18/15995478/chocolate-health-benefits-heart-disease https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/10/18/15995478/c...
- lazerpants 9y ago
  Here's a study on salt you may enjoy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29359681 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29359681
  - vanderZwan 9y ago

If every study on tumeric, tea, chocolate, and coffee was fully accurate we'd all be immortal by now.

by piyh 9y ago

If every study on tumeric, tea, chocolate, and coffee was fully accurate we'd all be immortal by now.

Aren’t we? People are living longer than ever before. The issue is in determining effect size. I’m sure some amount of all those things you mentioned is “good” in some sense, but in what quantity and for how long?

azemetre 9y ago
People are "living longer" because child mortality has fallen dramatically.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- croon 9y ago
  If in making those statistics one didn't account for that I'd be very disappointed, but it doesn't look like that's the case. [1][2] [1] http://life-span.healthgrove.com/l/51/50 http://life-span.healthgrove.com/l/51/50 [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK62587/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK62587/
- klmr 9y ago
  Not only. Life expectancy has increased in every age group percentile. But the effect is obviously not due to tea, coffee and turmeric. Rather, it’s due, mainly, to (a) better general nutrition, (b) better hygiene, and (c) modern medicine, especially antibiotics and vaccines.

Tepix 9y ago

I'm doing my part!

vanderZwan 9y ago

The problem you describe is a real one, but a bit different than the other criticism raised here so far. Chocolate has the Mars Company and other Big Sugar companies behind it pushing for justifying chocolate as a "health food" in the public mind. It is very obvious that they are wiling to distort the truth for better sales; people who can ease their conscious about eating unhealthy sweets buy more chocolate[0]. There might be some real effect to eating raw cocoa, but that does not really translate to your average chocolate bar with insane amounts of fat and sugar. Tea/Coffee is kind of similar, as would be the "drink x glasses of water per day"-advice, which is a distortion of science by bottled water companies (fruits, vegetables and other food contains a ton of water already). For this reason I also don't buy that salt is safe: there are very strong vested interests in the food industry that want salt to be (considered) safe to sell more food, whereas I cannot see a comparable bias on the "eat less salt"-side. For this research the situation seems to be have some of the mentioned problems, but not to the same degree: On the one hand, that tumeric has an in-vitro effect is pretty well established. The issue is that the normal form we put on our food is probably not absorbed in a dosage that has a significant effect. However, this was a trial with a bio-available form, in a high enough dosage, so that obvious flaw is out of the picture. On the other hand, that bio-available form is a product, so the company behind it wants it to be effective. Still, Big Pharma is under more scrutiny than Big Sugar, so I have cautious hopes this might actually work out in the end (and it won't be sold in the form of calorie-rich sweets at least). Admittedly, I'm biased here: my grandmother on my mother's side, and my grandfather on my father's side both had Alzheimers (or something very similar to it at least). My parents are now their late sixties, I would really like to see them stay healthy and happy for a few more decades. [0] https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/10/18/15995478/chocolate-health-benefits-heart-disease https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/10/18/15995478/c...

lazerpants 9y ago
Here's a study on salt you may enjoy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29359681 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29359681
- vanderZwan 9y ago