Topic: Chips!
Chips!
posted Thu, 18 Aug 2005 11:21PM
pollyanna
It is hard to believe but the latest research seems to suggest that having chips when you were very young (3 to 5 years old) can cause you to have breast cancer in later life. It's more to do with what the chips are cooked in, the saturated fat.
I am taking it all with a pinch of salt (pun intended!)
They did also say that ice-cream decreased your risk of getting breast cancer later in life.
What next!
Pollyanna
Oh dear!
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:43AM
Sharen
I heard about the chip thing. Heck, I'm in trouble!!
I didn't have chips at all until I was around 10 and I used to eat icecream regularly. What sort of trouble would I have been in if it'd been the other way around?!?
Daft!!
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 09:44AM
paulineef
I don't think I was a massive chip eater!! Did they also say that if you were thinner then your chances of getting bc were lower. I was always dead skinny so what with the chip theory I must have been dead unlucky eh!!!
Luv Pauline xxx
Was this just a correlation, though?
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 09:56AM
ChristineMH
The problem with all these things is that children who got fed chips young might have been different in some way. For example, my husband overheard a woman at the local baby clinic proudly tell the health visitor that she had started her baby on finger food - chips! The woman was getting free baby formula, so probably quite poor. Meanwhile, most of my middle-class mummy friends were struggling with Annabelle Caramel's baby toddler recipes (heavy on the fruit and veg and from scratch) or buying Hipp Organic. To tell anything definitive, you would have to randomly assign children to chip-eating and abstaining, something nobody would do for ethical reasons, which is why they use mice for such things.
By the way, Pauline, thinness correlates with increased BC risk in premenopausal women! Nobody seems to know why. As with most general statements about BC, young patients just get ignored.
Isn't icecream loaded with saturated fat, too? There must be something else going on.
(No Subject)
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 10:11AM
dianes
The report also said eating brocolli slightly INCREASED the risk of BC but I thought we were all supposed to be eating sack loads of brocolli to help prevent it!
Brocolli?
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 10:21AM
bmurphy
Thanks to everyone above for telling us about this research. Does anyone have any details of where I can find this report. I have been eating brocolli in vast amounts for many years because it is supposed to prevent cancer and also because it is a valuable source of calcium and iron for those like me on vegan diets. I still developed a grade 3 bc. This research if reliable is very frightening and its findings should be made known to everyone as soon as possible simply because it apparently contradicts current healthy eating guidelines. I don't know whether or not I ate chips when I was very young. I can't remember that far back. I hope I did though - they at least taste nicer than brocolli! Best wishes - Fluffyhead.
Chips
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 10:42AM
Holeybones
My mother regularly fed me on chips cooked in lard (seldom strained and rather smelly) when I was a child, so it WAS all her fault! Cheap stodge was the norm, so there was plenty left over for my parents to blow on booze and fags. I doubt if she will suffer any guilty feelings over it somehow.
However, wasn't there another statistic that middle-class women were more likely to get breast cancer (and omitting a few social climbers like me) weren't they more likely to have eaten healthily throughout their lives?
I thought it was red wine!
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 11:57AM
scared
When I was diagnosed, the first thing I did was to look up possible causes of breast cancer and found red wine as a possible link. From that day forward, I have'nt drunk a drop (but am quite partialed to the white wine still!)I also thought brocolli was a sure winner so have been eating it by the tree load! It seems you can't win and that there is always going to be something that they can say causes this or that!
From
Not quite so scared
driving me mad
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 12:55PM
67jj
Is it just me? These reports drive me mad saying that this causes cancer or doesn't. Where is the hard evidence to back it up?
If a study that relies on anecdotal evidence of what mothers recalled feeding their daughters between the ages of 3 and 5 (and given that 80% of BC occurs in women over 50 (allegedly), we are presumably relying on the memories of women who must, on average, be in their 70s), can get this level of media coverage and people actually taking it seriously, it's a joke.
When will someone stop making women feeling guilty about having caused their own cancer. As I understand it, the list includes:
underwired bras
aerosol deodorants
parabens
insufficient frust & veg
too much dairy
being overweight / underweight (depending on whether you are pre or post menopausal)
too much soya (that stuff we were all scoffing when trying to avoid dairy)
and the list goes on .............
THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT CAUSES CANCER!!!!
Okay, rant over.
Jx
a load of tosh
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 01:55PM
Molennium
I thought these research projects which rely on people's memories of what they did 30 years ago or more had been scorned. I thought everyone used to eat a lot of chips in the good old days. Mind you I don't think I consumed them much aged 3 to 5
Mole
chips for tea
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 03:48PM
ktmc
Tonight I am indulging in chips purely because of all the media reports about chips. After all I can now blame something that happened 40 yrs ago.....so why should I then follow all the "good health" advice now!
ktmc
The Times has information
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:26PM
pollyanna
Go to www (dot)timesonline(dot)co(dot)uk/article/0,,2-1740864,00.html
to read an article on it. There is also information on the Daily Mail site. It was first published in the International Journal of Cancer. I tried to find it on the site but no luck, however I might have not understood all the medical jargon.
I just realized that I misread the information about ice-cream. It is not associated with risk factors for breast cancer, rather than it decreases the risk of getting breast cancer.
I'm just waiting for the latest research which might link tea, bread or even simple water with getting BC.
Going to have some ice-cream now. I will still enjoy the occasional chip.
Pollyanna
Pollyanna
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:29PM
bmurphy
Thanks for this information. Enjoy the chip(s). Best wishes - Fluffyhead.
A little of what you fancy
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:50PM
AnneD
Can''t really do you any harm.
If you want chips, ice cream, red wine, chocolate and whatever else is deemed bad, go ahead. I can't believe that small quantities of these will do you any harm and if they make you feel better, then surely they're doing some good?
Probably best not to eat them all at the same time though.
Anne (also off for some ice cream)
xx
I love all this so much!
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:53PM
stephk
No one really knows do they - what causes the bain of all of our lives. But I love to read all the different possibilities.
My mother would never EVER have cooked me chips as a child, was very healthy far ahead of her years and now at 65 is in better shape and fitter than all her children - cycling 60 miles on a bike in a day is not out of the norm for her.
Come to think of it ice creams weren't on the menu much either, I remember as I was being dragged away from yet another ice cream van after being told the driver probably picked his nose and I wouldnt want to eat that would I? I decided that when I was old enough I would eat ice cream every day, maybe I should have stuck to that idea and never have got bc!
I do try and feed my kids healthily, but it is hard. In years to come will they be questioning their health on how I fed them?
It's all a big lottery isnt it. Broccoli is one of my favourite foods, also salmon which I understand has been thought to have some association with cancer too! Can't win can we, if we stop eating we'll all die anyway at least this way we have a chance of surviving!!
Caution in the article itself
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 07:08PM
ChristineMH
“Mothers were asked to recall their daughter’s pre-school diet after the participants’ breast cancer status was known, and it is possible that mothers of women with breast cancer recalled their daughter’s diet differently than mothers of healthy women. Other foods perceived as less healthy, such as hot dogs or ice-cream, however, were not associated with breast cancer risk.”
So, ice cream didn't reduce the odds, it just didn't make things any worse. Also, the diagnosis of breast cancer may have affected things.
(No Subject)
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 07:30PM
Melody
I do wonder where they get these ideas from - have they nothing better to do with their time?
Hi
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 07:44PM
nj
I didn't eat chips before the age of 10 either. I have never smoked, I drink in moderation, I breastfed my children, I am reasonably fit, but I still got bc. I was on the Pill for about 20 years (not continously) and failed to have my first child until I was 30, so maybe that's what swung it for me. The trouble is, no-one actually knows what causes bc, even after all these years of research, so there's probably a claim for almost anything you can think of!
Fox News
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 07:49PM
Enid
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166155,00.html
This includes some of the comments made above!
I can't tick many of the 'taditional' boxes for causes of breast cancer, but nevertheless have it!
No chips for me
posted Fri, 19 Aug 2005 11:04PM
wynn
I lived with my grandparents in my preschool years. This was rural Ireland where chips had probably never been heard of at the time. My only food memories are of collecting eggs warm from the nest and eating blackberries and gooseberries off the bush.
My mother had the same sort of food and still got BC aged 53 (6 years older than when I did)
Im not paying any attention to the media reports . No matter what they say today they will reverse it tomorrow.Im living - and eating for today.
Channel 4 reveals ........
posted Sun, 21 Aug 2005 12:46PM
Holeybones
"With 101 chip shops, Hull is said to be the fattest town in Britain."
So how about a correlation study between living in Hull and breast cancer? Incidentally, I had a very nomadic childhood, but did live there myself around ages 2 to 3.
Stuff it!
posted Sun, 21 Aug 2005 09:14PM
JoanBennington
I'm off to stick on the deep fat fryer! Ok I use olive oil, but I love to put salt on home made chips! I use oodles of kitchen paper to dry them off first, for goodness sake WE NEED SOMETHING!!!!!!!
No vinegar, ketchup, mayonaise, pepper....... you see what I mean ???? Let us eat chips!!!!!
Chips?
posted Sun, 21 Aug 2005 09:37PM
lara
My mother didn't believe in chips (nor television either!), I started menstruating at 14, had my first child at 23, am short, (apparently bc is more common among taller women), am not overweight, nor ever have been, breast fed my kids until I thought I would have to go to school with them - but I got a grade 3 tumour! To be honest, I had loads of surgery as a child for dislocated hips, and I have a sneaking suspicion that all those x-rays were a bit dodgy. I also remember after having my second child, walking about in the rain a lot, after Chernobyl went up. The area where I live, because of wind and rainfall patterns, had a high level of radiation at that time. I also live near an electricity sub station..... I suppose I could go on and on...
Lara
we have
posted Sun, 21 Aug 2005 11:27PM
filly
a huge mains electricity pilon right outside our dining area. We could reach out and touch it. Makes you wonder!!! Have asked about having it moved and have been told it would cost us a fortune. Why us why not them they put it there, I got cancer,
filly xxxxx
Chips
posted Mon, 22 Aug 2005 08:54AM
Barbiemac
I'm sure I ate chips before I was 5 - working class post war baby of the fifties that I am. However we never had crisps or sweets just HUGE home cooked meals! We played outside all the time and never got fat.
I fit almost every other risk factor going -
early puberty - periods at 11
late childbirth - 1st child at 31
Taller than average - I'm 5ft 9ins
Close family member with bc under age 45 - my sister
BUT I breast fed both children for a year, don't smoke or drink not overweight and never have been.
http://www.halls.md/breast/risk.htm
On this website my risk of getting bc was calculated at 26.4%
So I don't think a few chips were the cause of my bc and I still eat them (and love them) occasionally!
B x
unhealthy diet
posted Mon, 22 Aug 2005 10:13AM
geraldine
i think if a healthy diet is maintained most of the time that it is very unlikely for a moderate amount of unhealty foods ie. chips,crisps, chocolate (although i believe dark 70%+ is supposed to have some benefits)to be the cause of BC, surely if this was the case there would be more BC in men as they tend to eat more(or at least as much as women)take-aways, junk food etc, and to drink more alchohol, and im sure we all know lots of people with very unhealthy lifestyles that never seem to get any problems.
The causes of BC are still unknown, although there do seem to be some contributory factors, but no one person will be able to avoid all of these, and i for one refuse to be scared into eliminating parts of my diet and lifestyle just because certain parts of the media say that i should!
Personally i am 5'3" tall, slighty overweight but most of this is down to the treatment i have had (and tamoxifen i still take), I am a vegetarian and have been since my teens, although i do eat a moderate amount of dairy (albeit organic)i didnt eat any chips as a child and very rarely eat any fried food now,
I think the main culprits in SOME women are probably a genetic pre-dispostion in their dna, prolonged exposure to estrogen/ostrogen (early menstruation,late childbirth etc)and maybe enviromental in some cases.
For instance i live down-wind of Hinkley Point power station and no-one can convince me this is not a factor, i see the plant across the river where i walk my dogs everyday and we have had a lot of press coverage about radiation exposure from the mud flats, and cancer clusters (particulary BC)in the area, and although my ONC has dissmissed it i am not persuaded that this has no bearing on mine and my sister's BC, particulary as she was born here and had BC at 26, whereas I was 7 before we moved here and didnt have BC untill i was 47, my third sister who moved away at 18 has had no problems with BC.
so i have to conclude that a few chips occasionaly are the least of my worries!
Geraldine xx
Just another way to blame Mums
posted Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:29PM
pollyd
Hi,
My mum phoned me in tears after hearing that report. She was blaming herself for my cancer as she let me have chips once a week between the ages of 3-5 yrs. As a Lancashire lass, mine weren't even cooked in vegatable oil - it was dripping!! Sadly, it seems that Mums come in for a lot of blame as far as children and their outcome/behaviour/health is concerned - as if we aren't able to feel enough guilt on our own about our kids the media and so called 'studies' heap loads more on us and our Mums.
I rarely eat chips now - middle age spread dictates I'm afraid, but I did have some when I heard that report, and after I had reassured Mum that she was a great Mum, and always did her best for me and that it was NOT her fault - she had chips too!!
So put that in you chip pan and fry it researchers!
Love Polly ;0)
Catching up in fury!
posted Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:05PM
JaneRA
Just back from a short break in France and catching up on the posts. 67jj I so agree with you...and Mole too.
I remain utterly appalled at the tosh, nonsense, guilt inducing trash which is hurled at people with cancer and women with breast cancer in particular.
Too tired to write any more now..but I feel a new thread coming on
Jane
(No Subject)
posted Tue, 23 Aug 2005 12:03AM
~Dee~
Well..
I've never really liked chips, and never ahd them when I was young.
I wasn't much of an ice cream fan either.. maybe that's where my problem lies!
Started periods at 15
I'm 5'5"
No family history
Never smoked
rarely drink alcohol
However, I don't have children
According to the breast risk calculater thingmy, I had less than 0.2% risk of developing breast cancer at my age (29).
Lucky me, eh!
More guilt
posted Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:07PM
Cathg
Hi when I saw the front pages of the Daily Mail I just laughed but was also angry. Don't they realise the distress these articles cause. Last time I had BC five years ago they reckoned working on computer screens overnight made you more at risk of BC now its chips. I ahve also just read a book which says I should give up perfume, deodorants, dairy products, alcohol, chocolate etc etc. My BC has returned for the second time against all the odds and I have accepted that there is no rhyme or reason for this. I could spend all my time avoiding stuff but I intend to enjoy my life and have fun.
I think someone should write to these newspapers and tell them to shut up. I do not need any more GUILT!!!
Statistics
posted Tue, 23 Aug 2005 06:43PM
greatwestern
There is only one statistic you can rely on 100% - if you were born, at some point during the next 100 years (or maybe more?) you will die!
Statistics prove nothing and keep a lot of people employed and probably paid a lot of money - let's all enjoy our chips, our ice-cream, our broccoli when we feel like them. I suffered guilt when I was diagnosed and that is something no-one needs at a time like that. My philosophy now is life's a beach (with lots of sun) and then you die!
(Of course, the sun isn't good for you either.....) ;-)
Ice-cream and veg
posted Tue, 23 Aug 2005 07:11PM
JenniferHulford
I'm sure Heston Blumenthal could rustle up a lovely broccoli ice-cream, I've seen him do watercress and horse-radish!
Jennifer.
Mothers and Chips
posted Tue, 23 Aug 2005 07:22PM
JoanBennington
God help our mothers and the guilt they will feel over this if they are still living! Imagine the little trat they gave us as a child as condemed us to a life living with bc. Will SOMEBODY please do a survey which shows all the good things they did for us? Fresh veg, few pesticides, decent meat with fewer hormones great eggs - really free range? But why shoud the elusive "they" do this, it wouldn't make the headlines.
This kind of c**p pi**es me right off.