I found it amusing that as I was skimming over the news headlines tonight, two articles caught my eye right about the same time.
The first:
Mich. baseball park to offer 4,800-calorie burgers
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Well, at least the salsa is low-cal. The West Michigan Whitecaps, a minor league baseball team, will be offering up major league cholesterol, carbohydrates and calories in an enormous hamburger being added to the menu this year at the Fifth Third Ballpark.
The 4-pound, $20 burger features five beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips, all on an 8-inch sesame-seed bun. That's a lot of dough!
The Grand Rapids Press reports that anyone who eats the entire 4,800-calorie behemoth in one sitting will receive a special T-shirt. Saner fans can divide it up with a pizza cutter and share.
The Midwest League team is a Class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.
And the second:
Scientists have produced new evidence suggesting eating lots of red and processed meat damages health.
They found big meat eaters had a raised risk of death from all causes over a 10-year period.
In contrast, a higher intake of white meat was associated with a slightly reduced risk of death over the same period.
The US study, featured in Archives of Internal Medicine, was based on more than 500,000 people.
Dr Barry Popkin
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
People eating the most meat were eating about 160g of red or processed meat per day - approximately a 6oz steak.
Those who ate the least were only getting about 25g per day - approximately a small rasher of bacon.
Conversely, those who ate the highest proportion of white meat had a lower risk of overall death, and a lower risk of fatal cancer or heart disease than those who ate the lowest proportion.
The researchers calculated that 11% of deaths in men and 16% of deaths in women during the study period could have been prevented if people had decreased their red meat consumption to the level of those in the lowest intake group.
Cancer compounds
The researchers said cancer-causing compounds were formed during high-temperature cooking of meat.
Ed Yong , Cancer Research UK
Health and the attitudes we develop toward food is so complicated that I personally wouldn't even know where to start. Sadly, that the guy eating the 5k calorie hamburger just isn't going to be the same guy that reads that BBC health article. Or maybe he will be, and just not care.
I beg to differ, Ed Yong. Meet Dr. Greger.
ReplyDeleteSTART and the Veg So are bringing Dr. Greger to St. Louis on May 4th.
Michael Greger, M.D., is director of public health and animal agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States.
"Scientific studies have shown that we don't need to eat animals to be healthy. In fact the longest-living people in the world don't eat any animals at all."