After
running a series of tests, scientists have determined that "meat and
cheese are as bad as smoking." What they actually mean to say is that
extreme protein intake, during the mid-40's and 50's can lead to early deaths
due to cancer or other diseases. High protein intake can double your risk of
dying, and quadruple your chances of getting cancer. These proteins, however,
are only specific to proteins from animal meat, as the ones in plants seem to
not affect people like the meat does. The article itself comes from a website
called "Science Daily," a website quite renowned for its information
on scientific findings. Thus, the article itself seems quite legitimate. However,
when it comes to chances, there is nothing absolute when being described. One
might not eat protein and get cancer, or eat a lot of protein and not get
cancer. The article itself, however, is careful around this point, as it does
not place anything absolute in its claims, mentioning how meat and dairy “may”
be more dangerous than cigarettes. One flaw within the article, however, is the
lack of shown scientific procedure. While the article comes from a credible
website, it does not explain how these findings were found exactly. Of course,
there are a large number of other factors that might be playing a role in this,
such as history of cancer amongst the people, or factors in their surroundings,
such as fumes and chemicals. Of course, experiments must always go through
scientific procedure, so the living conditions of each person might have
already been taken into account by the end. In the situation that it did, the
finding itself is the use of induction, which is not the most absolute way of
knowing there is, providing some doubt to the article. In the country where I come
from, meat is the most common food there is, as people are constantly having barbecues
in their backyards. My family eats incredible amounts of meat, but there have
not been any recorded cases of cancer or any other young death, apart from some
smoking. It is possible for me then to think of my own experiences, and to
think that maybe meat is just fine for you. In any case, there might be other
factors that lead to your ultimate demise. It has also been proven that the
human being will inevitably develop cancer in their body, for men most likely
in the prostate. Is it not possible then for one to wonder what the difference
is, if they are going to get cancer anyways? The information presented is not
absolute, though it preys upon those preys upon those who are paranoid to take
head in the message they are trying to get out there. The article presents information on the
premise that, if you don’t eat protein during your mid 50’s, you won’t die an
early age. It does not mention, however, that you might get hit by a car on your
way to the salad restaurant.
When trying to come up with a claims such as this ethics need to be considered. Possibly the lack of scientific procedure is explained by the fact that strictly speaking, there might not have been a lot of procedure to follow. Scientists conducting this study are limited to simply observing results of tests done on people in that age range who may take in a slightly increased amount of cheese and or meat on a regular basis. In addition the comparison to your own family can't be directly made given that there are a multitude of other factors that impact one's health. In addition, is it almost entirely certain that human body will eventually develop cancer, whether it be in the prostate, or some other organ?
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding, this article tries to warn people that eating too much protein or dairy in your 40s and 50s will increase your chances of getting cancer or dying early. Scientists are starting to suggest that people eat less protein in their diets.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I value your approach and opinion to the claim, when reading this I may have a slightly different approach because my mother eats a lot of meat and all kinds of protein, somewhat limiting a majority protein diet. When reading the article, or your summary of it, I felt somewhat worried about my mother, of 40-50 years of age. I understand your point that the claim"if you don't eat protein during your mid 50's, you won't die during an early age has several holes in it; however, my perspective of this claim leans more to an acceptance point of view because from Biology class I know that the fertilizers that are added to plants eaten or the supplements fed to the animals of the meat market contain cancer potential chemicals in them. For example when pesticides are eroded into a body of water, microorganisms will intake them from the water, then a fish comes along and will eat that microorganism, which is eaten by another bigger fish, and a bigger fish, until it is caught and fed to humans in a restaurant or sold in a fish market. By this point the "protein" material has gone through bio-magnification where the percent of toxins in the animal has increased as it is passed down the food chain to the human's dinner plate. With seeming more cases of cancer in my family, I worry about my mother or my father who purposefully concentrate their diet around meat. This knowledge or perspective comes from a Natural Science stand-point and although the source may not have provided its readers with procedural or experimental data, it is clear that because of our personal perceptions surrounding this topic, we have different feelings regarding this article.
Good, Manny. You know exactly where to start in unpacking the claim, and you do a good job of hitting it from several perspectives. You also have a confident writing style, and your post is organized and clear. The next step would be to dig further into science as an area of knowing. Where do scientific claims come from? You mentioned induction; how exactly does that work in science. How does the scientific community establish the veracity of a claim? Is it possible for a non-expert to evaluate this kind of claim? Would it help if you were to see the published study? Did you look for it? What difference would that make to your level of certainty? These are the kinds of further questions that will help you add another layer of sophistication.
ReplyDelete