It seems that every week there's a new food scare in the newspapers. Pretty much everything you eat has featured in a food scare at some point. So what's left that we can eat?
Well, in short, everything.
Science and the press have never got on. In fact, the two are frequently opposites. A good indicator of bad science is when it appears in the press before it has been properly published and evaluated in the scientific journals.
Stop believing what you see in the press. Especially when it comes to science.
Almost everything in science is scary when it's reported in newspapers.
You can take any food substance and it can be proven that too much of it will seriously harm your health. You can die from drinking too much water. So should you stop drinking water?
Of course not.
You can overdose on several vitamins. So should you cut down on your fruit and vegetables?
Of course not.
But I'm not saying that you should just start eating whatever you want. That's not good science!
Of course, you should be getting your five a day. Don't eat too much food that's high in cholesterol. All those usual things that you hear from doctors and people that actually know what they're talking about.
You don't have to cut out high cholesterol food altogether, just don't eat so much that it gives you high cholesterol. In the same way that you don't cut out water, you just don't drink so much that it kills you.
The key to a healthy diet is variety. A little bit of steak isn't going to kill you. And neither is a little bit of whatever the latest food scare is.
If you find that you're eating a lot of the same types of food, you're probably not doing your health much good. Even without a food scare. Get a bit more variety.
Make sure that your plate doesn't contain too much of any single food. "Meat and two veg" isn't good for your health. Try "meat and five veg" instead. The same overall quantity of food, just smaller amounts of each portion.
Dietary variety is one of the few things that all dieticians and nutritionists agree on, so make it the basis of your diet.
