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Right. The question remains though about what we mean by "known benefits". I chose caffeine as an example because I think that it's completely nontrivial to ca
by naming_the_user 2y ago
Right. The question remains though about what we mean by "known benefits".
I chose caffeine as an example because I think that it's completely nontrivial to calculate. The physical pathways of things like "well this makes that molecule do this and have some x% chance to mutate and so on and so you get cancer", or the statistical output of "well people in the coffee cohort have % higher rates of this cancer" are much easier to accurately study than things like "if you drink coffee you are 3% more likely to get into law school and therefore become significantly wealthier and probably live a longer/healthier life and we can measure that impact precisely".
It's also not at all obvious that lifespan above all else is the thing to maximise. e.g. maybe red meat reduces lifespan but makes your 20s-60s more fun because you're likely to be more muscular or whatever.
My personal feeling is that aside from really really bad things like smoking, heavy alcohol use, heroin etc the error bars are too large to make decisions purely on long-term health impact alone.
- xcrunner529 2y agoWhy are you so eager to fantasize about some "other benefit" with no evidence whatsoever of it, while evidence is presented on the harmful effects in many studies at this point. Would you think the same way about "poisons" or plastic contamination? Pollution? Correlation != causation and all of that, but as the US has increased meat consumption and processed foods colon cancer has been on the rise, including younger and younger adults.
- throw_pm23 2y agoWhy would you think the same way about the benefits of plastic contamination as the benefits of red meat? One was consumed for millions of the years, the other has been around for decades.
- xcrunner529 2y agoNot in anywhere near the amounts today due to how much work it was to hunt. And far less vegetables and fruit.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- valval 2y agoThere are plenty of benefits to eating red meat. It’s one of if not the most nutritious food we know of.
- xcrunner529 2y agoYes and is eaten at greater amounts today than our ancestors. You can have too much iron among many other things. Notice how this study talks about EXCESSIVE use.