Food scares and miscellaneous items Index

These days there seems to be one scare after another. If it isn't BSE in cattle causing CJD in humans, it's pesticides in vegetables causing cancer. Here are some that have hit the headlines with what the evidence really says about them, as many are merely scare-mongering, while others might be worth taking seriously.

I have tried to be objective about them but you can make up your own mind.

Is having a flu jab really worthwhile?

Magnesium chloride has a documented history of efficacy for a wide range of conditions from cancer to chilblains — and with no adverse side effects.

So You Can Die of a Broken Heart

CJD, BSE, and Foot & Mouth disease: Who or what is really to blame?

BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease This is an article I wrote for The Oxford Times in December 1995. Although it's now getting old, it is still relevant as no further new evidence linking CJD in humans with BSE in cattle has been been produced in that time.

You walk into a supermarket. On the delicatessen counter there are some sausages whose label reads: 'not less than 100% meat'; in other words, there is nothing in them other than meat. But it also reads: 'contains herbs, preservative and colour' so, quite obviously, it must be less than 100% meat . It's fraud — and it's legal.

Many people believe that if a food is 'natural', it is safe and better for them. But the health food industry is in a far from healthy state, at least as far as the customer is concerned. For it has its deadly side.

In the western world, tap water is about as safe as it can be and it is relatively cheap. Yet many people are prepared to pay up to 1,500 times as much when the same stuff comes in a bottle. In this paper we will consider this phenomenon.

The implications of cooking foods and methods used

Alternative medicine Your money and your life?

Study: Homoeopathy Study finds that Homeopathy Is No Better Than A Placebo.

Study: Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health