It's rare that I write a blog post directly in response to things I see on my Twitter feed. A lot happens in the news every day, and there are many people, far more qualified than me, who write articles informing us, explaining things to us, and offering up their opinions on the various things happening in the world.
However, I've decided to make an exception this week, because I am fed up of seeing articles pop up telling me that if I eat a certain food, it could lead to cancer.
My Mum had cancer. My Mum died from cancer. Mum was a normal weight, she didn't have the 'cancer gene', she never smoked, never got drunk, ate relatively healthily (she was fairly convinced chocolate could cure all of life's problems, but balanced it out with all the other major food groups so it was all good), she exercised, wasn't overly sleep-deprived the majority of the time, she never used sun beds, rarely got sunburned (not content with suncream, we went one-step further in our family and wore long-sleeved tops when it was particularly hot (ginger genes!)), she never used drugs, in fact I don't think pre-cancer she was even on any prescriptions bar an inhaler. She still developed cancer aged 49. It still came back aged 51. She still died aged 53.
Mum was obviously unlucky, and I'm not saying that all of the science linking various cancers to various lifestyle factors is wrong - far from it. There are clear links between sun damage and skin cancer, alcohol and liver cancer, smoking and lung cancer etc. (for more on scientifically proven links, check out the cancer research 'causes' page). Most weeks Mum, a palliative medicine consultant, would come home from work and tell us smoking horror stories - I think if any of us had ever come home with a whiff of smoke on us, she would probably have temporarily disowned us.
That being said, there are some, quite frankly, bizarre claims flying around at the moment, and they're just not helpful.
The three I've seen this week are: burned toast can cause cancer, potatoes can cause cancer, and toothpaste can cause cancer. All have some scientific link between food item (for the purposes of this blog, toothpaste is a food), and cancer. None have proven the link in humans.
There are so many food controversies surrounding cancer; often the same food is listed as a cure and a cause, depending on the study. It's just not helpful.
Perhaps there is a very, very small link between an ingredient in toothpaste and cancer (in rats) - but I'd go out on a limb and say that it's probably more damaging to your health to never clean your teeth, than to use a blob of toothpaste twice a day. (After all, unhealthy gums has been linked to heart disease, so we're clearly all stuffed either way, and might as well die with nice teeth than no teeth!).
We're all going to die of something at some point. As someone said to me on Twitter the other day: life causes cancer. None of us are going to live forever. Every single one of us is going to die at some point, of something, or in the words of John Cleese: 'life is a terminal disease'.
Mum died, arguably, before her time, and I clearly remember asking her once she was diagnosed as terminal whether she was angry that it was happening. Her response? God had given her so many days, and she'd lived those days to the full. (She was religious, but change 'God' for 'life', or the religious figure of your choice, and it still works). She was definitely stronger and more dignified than I think I'd be in that situation - I think I'd be annoyed, upset, and pretty angry - but Mum was right, she really did live every day to the full.
Which would you rather - surviving until 103 but never really living, being scared of everything you touch (and never having crispy potatoes or slightly over-done hot-cross buns), or dying at 53 having lived a full and happy life? I know which one I'd choose.
Until there is solid evidence that burning your toast, cleaning your teeth, and having some gravy-drowned roast potatoes with your Sunday dinner causes cancer, I suggest you take these articles (and any others with equally tenuous links) with a pinch of salt and carry on living your life. Life is short - make sure you live it, don't just survive it.