(Boobs) News You Can Use

The American Council on Science and Health (professional home of reason contributor Todd Seavey), offers a pair of well-rounded reports on developments in cancer prevention:

1) The FDA has give preliminary approval to a drug that "lowered breast cancer incidence by about 50 percent." The drug, which was originally intended to treat osteoporosis, was tested on women with high risk for breast cancer.

2) Meanwhile, a high fruit and veggie diet fails to work similar magic:

It's been widely accepted that such diets are generally healthful, partly because they contain supposedly anticarcinogenic substances, although questions have been raised about the diet-cancer link before this. A group of researchers at seven different clinical centers collaborated to examine this question in over 3,000 women who had been previously treated for early-stage breast cancer. [One group ate a diet ultra high in fruits and vegetables and low in fat.] In contrast, the control group was simply advised to eat the government-recommended "Five-a-Day" fruits and vegetables. The women were followed for an average of just over seven years.

There was no significant difference in their cancer outcomes--recurrence or mortality:

The take-home message for breast cancer survivors? Eating a diet with a reasonable component of fruits and vegetables is a healthful move, but pushing the consumption to extremes is unlikely to provide a benefit. This is another vote for moderation.

Take-home message for boob-bearers and those who love them: Look forward to a future with fewer bean sprouts and more pills. Sounds good to me.

Read more about the ups and downs of clinical trials in Kerry Howley's feature in the current issue.

Comments

dorf on Golf | July 27, 2007, 12:29pm | #

Look forward to a future with fewer bean sprouts and more pills. Sounds good to me.

If this sentance doesn't sum up libertarianism's left/right duality I don't know what does.

joe | July 27, 2007, 12:30pm | #

Most Americans who attempted to eat a diet "ultra-high in fruits and vegetables and low in fat" would end up on the government's "Five a Day" program.

Seriously, five a day? I'm lucky if I get five a week.

de stijl | July 27, 2007, 12:31pm | #

Do french fries count?

Half The People Who Are Going to Comment on this Thread | July 27, 2007, 12:31pm | #

see! i told ya their idn't any difference in whatcha eat! them health nazis want us to stop eating meat and soda so we can all go back to the stone age! there ain't nothin wrong with bein 300 pounds overweight, but their gonna try to make us stop eatin everything we like after they universilize health care.

Rich Ard | July 27, 2007, 12:34pm | #

Look forward to a future with fewer bean sprouts and more pills. Sounds good to me.

Thank goodness? I don't get it - do you not like bean sprouts, or love it that our imperfect bodies create opportunities for pill manufacturers?

I think we could call the latter the Silver Lining Argument.

Rich Ard | July 27, 2007, 12:36pm | #

Do french fries count?

Absent hallucinogens, no.

joe | July 27, 2007, 12:36pm | #

de stijl,

I heard from a reliable source that coffee comes from a plant.

Urkobold™ | July 27, 2007, 12:40pm | #

KATHERINE MANGU-WARD,

THE URKOBOLD WISHES TO OFFER EDITORIAL CRITICISM. THIS POSTING NEEDS AN IMAGE. SOMETHING APROPOS. SOMETHING. . .

LOBSTER GIRL.

Rick H. | July 27, 2007, 12:40pm | #

I like bean sprouts and boobs. I guess that makes me a freethinker.

de stijl | July 27, 2007, 12:46pm | #

Rick H.,

Call me a old fashioned, but I'll stick with boobs and pills.

SIV | July 27, 2007, 12:47pm | #

Humans are omniverous.
Balance out those fruits and vegetables with healthy servings of meat and dairy proteins and fats. We all love plant foods but they are just part of a healthy diet.

jimmydageek | July 27, 2007, 1:02pm | #

You know, I keep hearing about a supposed "lobster girl", but I have no idea what this is in reference to. Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks.

Warty | July 27, 2007, 1:03pm | #

I like crushed-up pills on boobs.

Episiarch | July 27, 2007, 1:08pm | #

I like crushed-up pills on boobs.

Seconded.

Lamar | July 27, 2007, 1:33pm | #

Where're da boobz!

Urkobold™ | July 27, 2007, 1:38pm | #

JIMMYDAMINION,

BEHOLD!

di | July 27, 2007, 1:41pm | #

I think five a day is much higher than the average American. But how, with a good conscience, could the people who made the study asks people to knowingly eat poorly.

crimethink | July 27, 2007, 1:44pm | #

Striving for five isn't that hard.

Eat a fruit with breakfast, and a fruit and a veggie with lunch and with dinner. 1+2+2 = 5.

jimmydageek | July 27, 2007, 1:46pm | #

Well, thanks, Urkobold&trade. However, now I have to anxiously wait 'til I get home from work. That, or find a way around this damned filter.

jimmydageek | July 27, 2007, 1:48pm | #

Urkobold&trade,

Apparently, HTML gets confused when you add a period after Urkobold&trade.

Strange.

Urkobold™ | July 27, 2007, 1:52pm | #

STRANGE. IT WORKS FOR THE URKOBOLD™.

MANGU-WARD! GIVE MY MINION ACCESS TO THE LOBSTER GIRL OR FACE THE URKOBOLD'S WRATH!

Robert | July 27, 2007, 1:55pm | #

Of course french fries count, they're potatoes, ain't they? What doesn't count is the type of "salad" that was illustrated by the Minnesotan language lessons record played on "A Prairie Home Companion" about 25 years ago -- chopped Jell-o & marshmallows, a simplified, fruitless version of what was called in California "ambrosia".

Hell, I've already eaten 2 small potatoes, 1 carrot, and a nectarine, and it's not even 2 PM. OTOH, that's only because that's all I've eaten, other than the Coke, and tomato sauce and Romano on the potatoes. And the tomato sauce of course counts as part of a tomato, which is why counting ketchup was never absurd.

MyTube | July 27, 2007, 2:14pm | #

Thank goodness? I don't get it - do you not like bean sprouts, or love it that our imperfect bodies create opportunities for pill manufacturers?

This is reason - where any opportunity for big business to make money is nothing but a good thing. KMW probably prays for sickness so she can help Merck and Pfizer move product.

x,y | July 27, 2007, 2:28pm | #

...offers a pair of well-rounded reports...

KMW loses the thread.

Sean Connery | July 27, 2007, 2:45pm | #

x,y,

Aye, you speak the truth. If she'd said, "offers a pair of firm and bouncy, well-rounded reports", well, that'd be a different story, wouldn't it?

Son of a! | July 27, 2007, 3:08pm | #

"I find the most erotic part of a woman is the boobies."

Weibskobold | July 27, 2007, 6:14pm | #

You're so sweet to say so. Do you think these are too big? Urky says they aren't, but he's too sweet to tell me the truth.

Anthony | July 28, 2007, 4:57pm | #

Most fruit is acidic and could feed a cancer. Vegetables with good fats like Olive Oil Almonds and Avocados would have produced a better result.

wayne | July 29, 2007, 7:51am | #

"LOBSTER GIRL."

Wowsers! Them are some nice floaties!!

Objective Observer | July 29, 2007, 3:18pm | #

When you think about it, all that boobies/tits/fun bags or whatever you want to call them are is pectoral concentrations of fatty tissue. Put in that context, the degradingness of men being fascinated by them is more clear.

wayne | July 30, 2007, 10:07am | #

"When you think about it, all that boobies/tits/fun bags or whatever you want to call them are is pectoral concentrations of fatty tissue. Put in that context, the degradingness of men being fascinated by them is more clear."

We have re-education camps for misfits like you.

Urkobold™ | July 30, 2007, 10:45am | #

CLEARLY THE POSTING OF SOMEONE WHO HASN'T GOT 'EM--EITHER TO PLAY WITH OR, WELL, TO PLAY WITH.