In his letter ‘Why fuss over WHO report?’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, November 1) Jos Edmond Zarb disputes a warning on the health threat from processed meats issued by WHO.
Zarb’s main complaint is that cutting the intake of such meats would result in “everybody staring at an empty plate at breakfast time” – a slightly outdated argument since the modern man tends to take healthy cereals for breakfast nowadays. For good measure Zarb resorts to the usual corny anecdotal approach by quoting personal ‘scientific evidence’ based on one single case: that of himself who tells us that he is still hale and hearty in spite of a lifetime of “ignoring advice that smoked products have long been acknowledged as carcinogens”. Good for him.
This harmful and misleading letter ignores the strength of modern epidemiological studies, which are based on decades of longitudinal observation, often in millions of subjects. The evidence on which the WHO warning was based, demonstrated that people who regularly ate processed meat raised their odds ratio (or ‘risk’, if you like) of becoming a statistic and succumbing to cancer.
If Zarb is so keen on sausages and processed food for breakfast, he is welcome to continue enjoying these in the same way as smokers may choose to continue smoking. What Zarb fails to understand is that such epidemiological findings do not in the least indicate that processed foods are invariably lethal. Though he is loading the dice against himself, Zarb has more than a sporting chance getting away with it and reaching ripe old age. Quite simply: it is all a matter of risk reduction.
On the other hand, most people prefer to do everything possible to live as long as possible and enjoy a good quality of life. It is, therefore, unethical and dangerous to encourage such people to disregard sound health advice based on trustworthy evidence. To maximise the potential for harm, Zarb published the same letter in two other local newspapers.
Contrary to what Zarb maintains, avoiding processed meats only imposes a minor limitation on food choices. An authentic Mediterranean cuisine is, in general, considered a healthy dietary style option; it offers a wide range of delicious dishes based on plant foods – vegetables, legumes, plenty of olive oil, fruits, nuts and cereals, fresh fish and poultry and a moderate amount of meat – all washed down with a glass or two of red wine.