Third of health workers think coffee causes cancer, despite no evidence of such a link

From the Food & Health Skeptic: Good to see the WCRF being a bit skeptical this time. They still talk nonsense about diet, though. [And Dr Ray is spot on here. There is absolutely no credible evidence that lack of exercise or dietary factors increase your risks of getting cancer. Well, not unless you count pseudo-scientific epidemiological junk as evidence!] Health professionals are less likely to be clued up than the public, with 36 per cent thinking coffee can cause the disease compared with 12 per cent of the general population. The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) commissioned the survey of 143 NHS workers, including nurses, health visitors and GPs. However, health professionals did score highly on knowing that poor diet increases risk of cancer (81 per cent), compared with 63 per cent for the general public. Overall, 79 per cent of workers were aware that being overweight increases the risk of cancer, compared with 60 per cent of the public, and 78 per cent knew of the link with alcohol, compared with 51 per cent of the public. But the percentage who were aware that not exercising increases the risk of cancer dropped to 64 per cent among NHS workers and 47 per cent of the public. Silvia Pastorino, health professionals publications manager for the WCRF, said the survey was small but revealed some health workers are still not aware what lifestyle factors increase the risk. She said: "There is no strong evidence that coffee increases the risk of cancer. "In fact, we often suggest drinking unsweetened tea or coffee as an alternative to sugary drinks. "While I am not surprised that many of the general public are not aware of this, it is worrying to think this may also be the case for some health professionals." SOURCE

Posted via email from Garth's posterous