Health & Family Addicted to Diet Drinks

This (doing your own research) is dangerous these days, having full access to Dr Google, you can easily convince yourself that, for example, coffee is great for you, but you can as easily convince yourself that coffee is a real poison... Same goes for anything really, gluten free bad vs good, alcohol bad vs good and yes, even smoking can be beneficial to you if that is what you want to believe (an association between smoking and a lower incidence of Parkinson's disease has been observed in a number of studies...).

This ability of everybody doing their own research has led to the issue of children not being vaccinated these days...

 

pubmed

 

Yes, you would think that is a safe option, but not always. Do you know how scientific articles get accepted for publication? Not all research published in scientific journals has adequate controls included (unintentionally in most cases) or results analysed and interpreted without bias but still gets published...

 

People can inform themselves and then make their own decisions. Yes everyone can find something on the net to prove or disprove the same theory. Heck professionals can get it wrong too, people need to take some responsibilty about what they put in their body and not rely on the fact that just because it's in the supermarket it's safe.

 

Actually, I do know how scientific articles get accepted for publication. Further, I know how research projects get approved in the first place. I studied the theory of how knowledge is made at Uni. Very interesting. This explains why researchers can follow each other up dead ends in research. A case example is the non-existent link between aluminium and Alzheimer's. This link was well established in the research:

Aluminum and Alzheimer's disease: after a century of controversy, is there a plausible link? - PubMed - NCBI

but later unilaterally debunked:

Aluminium & Alzheimer's › News in Science (ABC Science)

If you want to read more about how knowledge is made, Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is a good place to start. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) - Learning Theories

Anyway, the point of pubmed is not to find one article to support your view. It's about the body of knowledge. Your example for example, coffee is great for you and/or coffee is a real poison. I would go into pubmed and start looking at coffee studies in the last 10 years. Then start reading some reviews and meta-analyses. Only after reviewing a large number of papers, review and meta-analyses could I form some kind of view on the health benefits or detriments of coffee. Even then it would likely be dose dependent which I would have to note as I reviewed the literature.

An important note is that this body of knowledge is not fixed, so views about coffee formed today maybe refined in a year as further studied are published adding to the body of knowledge. This is why dietary advice is often wrong. Because the health professionals can't keep up with the tsunami of research being published each year, they provide advice that is out of date.

 

Doing some research is better than none. It gives you an understanding to make choices rather than an "educated"person telling you. Heck would you Jab yourself or newborn with some unknown drug with unknown consequences and not do some prior research

 

How's the weather up your way?
Cyclone party underway with full strength coke?

 

Agree with you, after all this (research) is what I do for living. Now, general public, are they likely to do pubmed research the way you (nicely) described or are they going to simply consult Dr Google?

 

Cyclone Debbie..

pinkboy

 

I think Dr Google. But I think news articles are a lot more influential. A journalist can completely misrepresent the finding of some particular study but the public will buy the story and repeat the finding to their circle of friends. It's a bit ridiculous really. Australians used to be famous for calling BS when they saw it. But it seems we have become quite gullible.

Oh, and since you are a researcher, perhaps you can shed some light on how research is funded. My understanding is the research funding model is fundamentally flawed and can be quite biased, political, partisan or whatever when selecting which research projects get funded and which do not get funded. That's my impression anyway but I could be completely wrong about that.

 

My research is funded by NH&MRC and other sources of government and/or university funding. Most of medical research in Australia is funded this way afaik

 

i trust google to a high degree

unless its something controversial such as scientology or vaccines which are very subjective,

if I read so many articles that say the same thing, ill probably avoid it unless I absolutely need it

years ago, I use to use mouthwash daily, loved that stuff, however I randomly read an article about mouth cancer, and although there were some people that said it was safe, there didnt seem to be any evidence either or not, so I stopped using it and have never used it since

maybe im being very dangerous in my actions and my family

 

Go buy a soda stream and find a lemon or lime tree.
I make soda water in my soda stream and it's the bees knees. I'll add slices or just juice from the lemons/lime and it's really refreshing.
You'll save a fortune and cut down on the chemicals
PS yes I do have pepsi max or coke life about once a week so I'm not perfect either

 

im going to sound like a complete hypocrit but I dont like soda water that much too.

I tend to stick to still water or caffeiene and sugar free tea

 

(OK it's a hoax poster)

 

Hey, I'm with you!

Plain water, sugarless black tea and limit of two cups of coffee a day max. Hate soda water.

No more than two cups of coffee, preferably before 3pm, or I am wide awake till 2am......
Marg

 

so you have caffeine free black tea or caffeneitned?

addmitedly when I was young I could sleep whil drinking a can of coke,

now if I have one an hour or two before sleep I cant sleep

 

Have standard, I guess caffeinated. Unless I am at my son's and have decaf from his fancy machine!

I find it easy to stick to the 2 cup of coffee limit. The consequences of having more are simply not worth it.

I always have very weak tea, so not a problem.

Hang in there...you can do it!
Marg

 

I didn't either but then I needed to increase my water intake and it made it easier . You'll find me at the pub ordering their finest pint of soda water with a slice of lime.

 

Do they charge you for a soft drink though?? It might be more cost effective to order a free water and politley ask for a slice of lemon
I found the kids broke the bank getting a soda water with cordial at the pub, get a free water with splash of cordial allows me more beers! oh i miss monday mornings looking after the kids!!