Truly Bizarre Risk From Eating Hamburgers: what do you think?

Truly Bizarre Risk From Eating Hamburgers
Parents, beware! Children who eat hamburgers just once a week are twice as likely to develop asthma and wheezing problems, Foodconsumer.org reports of a new study from New Zealand.
Specifically, kids who eat one hamburger a week are 75 percent more likely to have asthma and 100 percent more likely to have wheezing problems.
It's not just hamburgers. Many foods you might purchase at a fast-food restaurant, including soda pop, were found to increase the risk of asthma, according to the researchers at the Wellington Asthma Research Group based at the Wellington Medical School in New Zealand.
The conclusions were drawn from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, a research project that involved 1,321 children between the ages of 10 and 12. Diet and asthma symptoms were recorded.
The results are surprising: Compared with children who never ate hamburgers, those who ate them frequently had a much higher risk of experiencing asthma symptoms. The more hamburgers a child ate, the higher the incidence of asthma.

Why hamburgers? It could be the high salt content that boosts the risk of asthma, according to study leader Dr. Kristen Wickens. Asthma has long been suspected to be the result of the high-fat western diet, higher standard of living and decreased physical activity.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2003 asthma in the United States caused:
• 12.7 million doctor visits
• 1.2 million hospital outpatient visits
• 1.9 million emergency department visits
• 484,000 hospitalizations
• 4,261 deaths
The study findings were published in the journal Allergy.

Maybe the reason is the nature of the kids who don't eat 1 hamburger a week.
Likely a very health diet and good habits for a group that doesn't eat hamburgers at all.
Also may be more rural population, which has less asthma perhaps.

But its also possible this is just a correlation factor and not the cause.
Maybe the real cause is French fries which those who eat a fast food hamburger also consume.

is being alive.

And it's not worth sitting around worrying about what's the next dangerous food, drink, etc. that's going to kill us.

The reason so many kids have so many food allergies and chronic asthma conditions is because their immune systems are not being properly introduced to irritants and bacteria and viruses and all the things to which they must become resistant.

We've made little Milquetoasts of the kids, under the guise of "protecting" them. Kids need to play in the dirt - without helmets, uniforms, coaches, parents on the sidelines, and leagues - and just be allowed to grow up as small people, not as hothouse flowers.

Now, get me my cigarettes and bourbon..................

She told me about most of her friends who darn near put their kids inside a bubble...to protect them! She disagreed with them, and they told her she was nuts, but I agree with you and her. The human body does build it's own immune system, but to do that, it must be xposed to small amounts of many things.

A similar things happens when Drs. prescribe antibiotics for EVERYTHING! All of a sudden, someone gets sick and the antibiotics don't work any more.

everywhere in the environment. I won't even touch the antibiotic comment at this point, BUT if everyone ever prescribed an antibiotic took it for the full amount of time prescribed (the full 7 or 14 days) there would be much less MDR bacteria. ALSO, do not discount the fact that poor access to health care resources and being poor is a potential cause of bacterial resistance. It is not uncommon in some communities to be able to buy one or two pills "on the streets" because that is all that can be afforded. Let's not also foget that at least 20 million people die a year of bacterial infections that have never seen an antibiotic because those individuals/governments won't or cannot provide the drugs. They are often busy buying arms or padding their palaces.

Kids that only interact with other kids in "safe" situations, under supervision (i.e. school, play groups, team events, scouting, church) don't develop the emotional negotiation skills that they need later in life, and when later confronted with situations where they need to negotiate and compromise, have difficulty doing so.

Doesn't it just make sense? I mean, mothers used to have "chickenpox parties," when one kid got the disease, all the other mothers would bring their little ones over to get infected - deliberately - so that the kids would have the antibodies. Good old common sense trumps these morons who should never have been allowed to breed.

Don't even get me started on antibiotics. I have a lot of friends who are physicians, and we fight about their reluctant "giving in" to parents who actually demand antibiotics when their kids have a cold - which is viral and normal. Another example of those people who shouldn't have been allowed to breed. Those kids are going to have one hell of a time in this life.

I thought the anthrax scare, when everyone started taking Cipro - a really heavy-duty antibiotic - was probably bin Laden's finest idea. So many people took so much of that stuff - for no good reason - they're screwed if and when they ever really need it.

People lack common sense, but they compensate for it with an overabundance of fear and stupidity.

You got one smart DIL, friend.

but your right,too much oversight and not enough oversight for our kids. Yes I did play around in the dirt,played ball without protection,often stuck my fingers in my mouth or up my nose and I did steal my mom's cigarettes's when I was 12 and snuck a few drinks. Was I ever sick..

A close friend of mine had asthma as a kid. He certainly wasn't bubble-ized, so he had his fair exposure to contaminants. When he was in his teens he went to specialist who cured him by finding whatever he was allergic to and building up his immunity by--as you say--gradually increasing his exposure to it to build up his immunity. This is also, obviously, the way immunizations work. So yes, we can harm our kids, and adults, but protecting them too much from contaminants--and just about every other factor.

On the other hand, there is no question that certain thinks cause illness or breakdowns in our bodies, and that no amount of conditioning will fix them. Many substances are toxic, carcingenic, etc. We have higher levels of contaminants in our air and soil and water and food than at any point in history. We also consume things that were never consumed until modern times, like white flour and high fructose corn syrup. We also consume things in quantities never before consumed--sugar, beef, meat in general. These major changes in diet and living conditions have to affect the body somehow, both positively and negatively. There can be no doubt that the average life expectancy of humans has increased, and that we are aging better. Forty is no longer the beginning of old age, sixty is no longer the threshold of decrepitude, seventy is no longer a rare age to reach. Obviously we are doing a lot right.

But heart disease, diabetes, asthma and cancer have also increased, even in younger age groups (so it's not just the result of living longer to catch more diseases we would have avoided by dying young). There's nothing wrong with investigating how these changes affect the human body. Obviously, not every kid who eats a hamburger has asthma. But if your child has asthma, it might be good to know if eating hamburgers (actually the study seems to have been more about fast food in general than just about hamburgers) has been shown to be a factor.

Obviously this study is too isolated to be taken as conclusive. But it isn't bad to understand the world we live in. Don't put your kid in a bubble, but don't feed him a diet of lead paint chips and Marlboros, either. Somewhere between the two seems wisest.

I'd say you just stated the incredibly obvious.

I really did not advocate feeding children lead paint chips and cigarettes, so maybe you just misread what I wrote.

There are, in fact, kids who have asthma, and it's not due to any kind of overprotective behavior of their parents. There are people who die of cancer without ever having indulged in risky behavior.

Sometimes people just get sick and die. That's inescapable, but Westerners have a hard time forgetting that they can't control every little thing.

In the meantime, I'd urge you to cut back on the paint chips. Can't be too careful, you know.

I was responding to your comment "And it's not worth sitting around worrying about what's the next dangerous food, drink, etc. that's going to kill us," which, while not advocating eating lead chips, certainly advocated not worrying about what we eat. So maybe my post stated the obvious, but only because it did not seem obvious in yours.

Peace.

I was hardly advocating not worrying about what we eat, or anything else.

I was advocating not obsessing about these things.

That was the thrust. Sorry if it wasn't clear.

Peace, indeed.

Just clarifying it in case anyone else took your words at face value.

so I believe they were clear, and only became muddied in your reading of them. Perhaps there's something there for you, something that will help you in the future.

I, also, forgive you.

read them literally, not catching the subtle irony you so cleverly wove into the message. As you suggest, I will learn from my error, and will try, in the future, to remember that the words in your post aren't necesarily what you are saying.

And, though I did not ask for forgiveness, I am always humbled to graciously receive it.

The very best forgiveness is that which is benightedly not sought. That is my gift to you.

A study by National Academy of Sciences said that 50% of the pregnancies in the last decade resulted in
birth defects or developmental conditions such as autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, eczema, mood or anxiety disorders,
asthma, or other chronic conditions. And studies document that the main cause was toxic exposures- not lack of exposures.
http://www.flcv.com/tmlbn.html
http://www.flcv.com/hgkids.html

I could list the percentage with each, but they've been posted before.
autism increase 10 fold in most states in the last decade due mainly to increased vaxinations containing high levels of
mercury thimerosal, aluminum, chloroform,etc. during that decade- see 2nd URL similar for other conditions

The kids of the last decade had their immune systems overwhelmed by high levels of toxic exposures.
I interact with doctors and clinics testing and treating them.

Where's the beef?

(Just kidding.) ;)

:)

but without double=blind tests there's no reason to make a connection. Maybe people who live in urban areas are likelier to eat fast food -- and urban areas are higher in asthma-induceing allergens. Correlation, but no connection.

Some research I was doing to cure my daughter of ear infections claimed that a body's tissues would become inflamed slightly with certain types of foods, like animal fats, white flour, high fructose corn syrup... the usual suspects. So a McDonald's meal, with meat, cheese, white bread, trans-fat fried foods and high fructose corn syrup beverages would combine all the ingredients. In a child with incomplete and smaller airway passages, sinuses, ear canals, etc, slight inflammation can cause obstruction.

Just a guess. I'm not a doctor or anything. Just a parent who read a lot of books when he observed that the pediatric treatments for ear infections weren't working on my daughter. And yes, I did change her diet and she did break the cycle of ear infections, though of course I couldn't swear that it was diet which fixed her problem, as opposed to her just outgrowing the infections, for instance.

So many things cause inflammation and lead to histamine or immunoglobulin madness in a child (or adult). Cleaning products used in a household can also, as could the foods you describe, lead to inflammation and even actual damage in some people.

Most people don't know that Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said, in 400 B.C., "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food."

I honestly believe that so many ailments common in our society today are directly related to what we devour, combined with not enough sleep.

Occam's Razor: one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.

Yes, the simplest explanation is always the correct one.

Good for you.

I guarantee the sample size was not large enough for statistical significance to have been achieved. In that age group I hope they were measuring hormone levels as well, but they weren't. It's virtually impossible to make any conclusions about food unless virtually every other food is removed as a potential confounding variable. I don't believe that you could extrapolate any results from this study to US Asthma statistics, since the variables that cause asthma (especially exposure to pollutants ) are so different. I'm not saying that hamburgers are good food, but there might just be some nasty addidtive they add to ground and packaged meats in New Zealand.

Eating hamburgers more than once a week nearly doubles the risk of asthma attacks and wheezing in children, according to research carried out on 1300 New Zealand school pupils.

Other takeaway food and fizzy drinks also increase the chances of getting asthma, doctors found.

Youngsters who eat at least one hamburger a week are 75 per cent more likely to have asthma and almost 100 per cent more likely to suffer wheezing problems, according a study published yesterday in the international scientific journal Allergy.

The investigation of the extent to which fast foods are a risk factor for asthma was led by Dr Kristen Wickens of the Wellington Asthma Research Group, based at the Wellington Medical School.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=204&ObjectID=10354170

http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/algy/fulltext.00000381-200512000-00012.htm

But Dr. Wickens' conclusion mentions salt, environmental pollutants, decreased exercise, dust mites, etc. I can only imagine what is in those hamburgers those NZ school pupils eat. If they are steroid fed cattle sourced burgers, you have one big answer right there.

As far as I am concerned high fructose corn syrup is the worst thing that has ever happened to food, other than outright contamination. It's in everything . It should not be.

My kids have NEVER eaten anything with high fructose corn syrup and they have never been sick. Both boys had a little 2 year old cholic but a little lemongrass water cleared that right up (eventually)

and i doubt we ever had hamburgers growing up in hawaii.

i never fed them to my daughter either. in all my adult life i doubt i've eaten more than a dozen of them.

Old Leftie Lawyer's points are well taken too.

According to the article they adjusted for "lifestyle factors" and weight issues. The study was done in one city, so there wouldn't have been a variation in air quality, or water quality. The study also points out a major hole in the connection between air pollution in asthma. Tokyo has high pollution and little asthma, while Scotland has little pollution and high asthma. If you think of the diets of these two areas, Tokyo has lower meat (especially beef) and bread intake, and higher vegetable intake, than the West, and Scotland is the reverse.

Of course, still not conclusive. There could be genetic factors, there could be a specific type of pollutant that Tokyo lacks that the West has. But this study is not particularly surprising to me, and I doubt it would surprise many nutritionists, who have long talked about the inflammation problems with meat, fat, and high fructose corn syrup. This study was more advanced than the average "Diet soda drinkers are overweight, so diet sodas must cause obesity" type studies. And from my own experience, I can attest that my allergies have become far less severe since I became a vegetarian, and I'm not a particularly healthy-eating vegetarian.

So, correlation or causation, the study is interesting. In case anyone needed further proof that fast food was unhealthy.