In a letter sensationally titled "Hysterical WHO report?" (TMIS, 8 November), Edmond Zarb disputes the health warning on processed food recently issued by WHO. Mr Zarb's main complaint is that cutting the intake of such meats would result in "everybody staring at an empty plate at breakfast time" - a rather old-fashioned idea when most people today eat healthy cereals for breakfast. He also poses the banal question of "whether there is any food that does not cause cancer".

For good measure, Mr Zarb resorts to his 'scientific evidence' to prove the point. This is one single anecdotal case: Mr Zarb himself tells us that he is still hale and hearty in spite of a lifetime of 'ignoring advice that smoked products have long been acknowledged as carcinogens'.  

If Mr Zarb is so keen on sausages and processed food for breakfast, he is welcome to continue enjoying these in the same way as smokers choose to continue smoking. What Mr Zarb fails to understand is that the epidemiological findings do not in the least indicate that processed foods (or tobacco) are invariably lethal. If Mr Zarb wishes to continue eating processed food he has more than a sporting chance of getting away with it and reaching a ripe old age unharmed, but he is loading the dice against himself and raising the risks. That's all. 

On the other hand, it is unethical and dangerous to write such misguided nonsense which might encourage people to disregard health advice based on trustworthy evidence. Unlike Mr Zarb, most people prefer to do as much as reasonably possible to live longer and enjoy a good quality of life by following a healthy lifestyle and it is wrong to mislead them. To maximise the harm potential, Mr Zarb published the same letter in two other local newspapers.

Mr Zarb's assertions are based on disregarding massive evidence derived from large-scale epidemiological studies based on decades of longitudinal observation, often in millions of subjects. A classical example was the landmark epidemiological study, conducted about 60 years ago by the distinguished medical epidemiologist Sir Richard Doll. This demonstrated that smokers raised their odds ratio (or 'risk', if you like) of becoming a statistic and ultimately succumbing to cancer or suffering early death from heart disease.  

In other words, it is all a matter of risk reduction

Contrary to what Mr Zarb maintains, avoiding processed food only imposes a minor limitation on food choices. In general, the authentic Mediterranean cuisine is considered as a wholesome and healthy dietary style; it offers a wide range of delicious dishes based on plant foods - vegetables, legumes, plenty of olive oil, fruits nuts and cereals, along with (mainly) fish and poultry and, occasionally, meat - all downed with a glass or two of red wine.  

Dr G. G. Debono

Sliema