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If you've settled down to watch this with a nice cuppa, | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
you'll be particularly interested in one of the stories we're investigating today. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
You will, because we're going to get to the bottom of some overboiled, | 0:00:07 | 0:00:11 | |
and in some cases rather frightening, stories that | 0:00:11 | 0:00:13 | |
the papers just love to repeat, even though not all of them are true. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
Every day we're bombarded | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
with conflicting information | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
about our favourite foods. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:23 | |
One minute we're told something's good for us, the next it's not, | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
and we're left feeling guilty about what we're eating. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
Well, we've been wading through the confusion | 0:00:35 | 0:00:38 | |
to separate the scare stories from the truth, | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
so you can choose YOUR food with confidence. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
Hello. We're very glad you've been able to join us | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
for Food: Truth Or Scare. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:56 | |
Now, this is a programme | 0:00:56 | 0:00:57 | |
that scrutinises some of the more terrifying headlines | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
that might just prompt you | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
into giving up things that you love to eat. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
All too often, you know, they don't give you the full story, | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
-but we're here to set the record straight. -And just as well, | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
because if you believed all the headlines we'll be looking at today, | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
you could be making big changes to your diet | 0:01:13 | 0:01:15 | |
for all the wrong reasons. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:16 | |
Because while we do still tend to be influenced by what we read in | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
the papers, some reports do get the latest research a bit muddled | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
and end up giving us the totally wrong message. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
Which is not good. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:27 | |
So as we unpick all of that, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
you might welcome the news to come out of today's programme, | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
and in one case it's no exaggeration to say it could save lives. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:37 | |
Coming up... | 0:01:38 | 0:01:39 | |
We drink millions of cups of tea and coffee every single day, | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
but which of the two is better for us? | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
And for those who just can't get enough, | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
could it be doing more harm than good? | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
It's a pick-me-up. It keeps me going through the day | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
and especially winter, you can't do without tea. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
And we reveal the food often touted as a cure for cancer, | 0:01:55 | 0:01:59 | |
when, in fact, it's a lot more dangerous. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
It will also kill your normal cells as well as your cancer cells | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
and people have died of cyanide poisoning taking these, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:08 | |
so they're extremely dangerous. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
Right, Gloria, I'm going to interrupt your cup of tea with | 0:02:14 | 0:02:16 | |
a quick question for you. How much tea and coffee do you drink? | 0:02:16 | 0:02:20 | |
Now, you're sitting there asking | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
an Irishwoman how many cups of tea that she drinks every day! | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
You have watched me drinking tea right throughout this programme. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
-I never drink coffee. -OK. -I don't like it. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
It gives me a headache. So I only drink tea, and lots of it. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
Right, OK, well, I must admit, I do rely on caffeine | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
to get me through those early mornings and long days, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
and while I don't think I could live without my cup of coffee, | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
I have felt a bit worried after seeing those headlines | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
that say caffeine is addictive | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
or even that too much of it can lead to cancer, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
so I wanted to find out if I really need to be concerned, and if I do, | 0:02:48 | 0:02:53 | |
whether I'd be better off switching to a different brew. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
We've long been considered a nation of tea drinkers | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
and whether we go for Earl Grey or builder's, | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
we're each said to get through hundreds of mugs of it every year. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:09 | |
But these days it's actually coffee we drink the most, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
and that's usually the only brew you'll find in my mug. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
This is the first of about five or six cups of coffee | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
I'll drink most days, | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
but you don't have to look too far to find some headlines | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
telling us that caffeine is bad for us, or worse still, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
even addictive, and it's not just coffee - tea's in the frame too. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
The headlines are pretty confusing. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
Some say our daily drinking habit | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
could be really bad for us and even cause cancer, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
but the same papers also report the exact opposite - | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
that tea and coffee can actually fight cancer | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
as well as slash the risk of heart disease and protect your liver. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
So after reading those headlines, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
I now have no idea if I drink too much coffee | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
or even if I should be drinking more, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
and the shoppers I spoke to couldn't help me make up my mind. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
-So I see you've both got a cup of tea. -Caffeine free. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
Is that what made you choose that? | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
I tend to be caffeine free. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
It gives me sort of the jitters, even a small amount in tea. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
Do you drink much tea and coffee? | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
I tend to have between 15 and 20 cups a day. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
15 to 20 cups a day? | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
Do you think that level of tea drinking is safe | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
or healthy or unhealthy? | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
I haven't had a day off in 20-plus years, so that must say something. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
Do you drink much tea? | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
Yeah, I've got into fruit teas a lot recently | 0:04:29 | 0:04:31 | |
-because I've given up caffeine. -You've given up caffeine? -Yeah. -Why? | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
Because I found it was giving me quite bad heart palpitations. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:38 | |
What is too much tea and coffee, or is there such a thing? | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
Coffee, I don't know, two a day... Two caffeinated coffees, like, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:44 | |
you know, because it's stronger. Tea's not as caffeinated, right? | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
-Or I assume it's not. -I don't know. -I feel like it's not. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
You can have a tea before bed and you'd still be able to sleep, | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
whereas I think if I had a coffee before bed, I'd be like... | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
Our tea drinkers are right. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:58 | |
A mug of ordinary tea has about three quarters of the caffeine | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
that's in the same sized mug of instant coffee. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
I drink about five cups of coffee a day but I worry that might be | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
too much. I've arranged to meet GP Dr Aisha Sharif... | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
-Hello. -How are you? | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
Very well, thank you. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:15 | |
'..who's quick to tell me | 0:05:15 | 0:05:16 | |
'there's no need to be quite so cautious about caffeine.' | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
For most normal, healthy adults, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
we don't specify a limit to the caffeine. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
Obviously, for pregnant ladies, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
there is some guidance and we say 200 milligrams is safe. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:33 | |
With too much caffeine linked to low birth weight and an increased | 0:05:33 | 0:05:38 | |
risk of miscarriage, pregnant women are advised to drink no more than a | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
couple of cups of instant coffee or just under three cups of tea a day. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:46 | |
For the rest of us, though, there's no official limit, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
and because our bodies all react differently to caffeine, | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
there's no hard and fast rule for how much it will take | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
for any side effects to kick in. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
There are problems with drinking large volumes of caffeine. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
You may be having a bit too much stimulation, so you may be finding | 0:06:01 | 0:06:05 | |
that your heart races and a huge problem for me as a GP is insomnia. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
So lack of sleep, what does that do to people? | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
Well, I think it starts to... If you have got some anxiety problems, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
it can heighten your anxiety. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
If you are susceptible to having certain heart conditions, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
for example, we have quite a rare condition called SVT, | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
which is where the heart starts to race faster than it should, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
which can be potentially dangerous for certain people. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
Experts say our bodies and brains | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
naturally regulate the amount of caffeine we drink, | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
and we're actually very good at stopping when we've had enough, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
and while some people say that caffeine gives them the shakes, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
Aisha says that that's just a short-term effect | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
and there's no long-term harm. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
So she finds all those scaremongering headlines laughable. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
"Are you addicted to coffee? | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
"Doctors are now treating | 0:06:56 | 0:06:57 | |
-"caffeine-use disorders with therapy." -Yes! | 0:06:57 | 0:07:01 | |
I've yet to meet a doctor who's actually doing that. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
I don't find that that's a huge problem, certainly where I work. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
"Are you a secret caffeine addict? | 0:07:08 | 0:07:10 | |
"The health dangers of drinking too much tea and coffee." | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
-I think that's overplaying a very safe drink. -Is it addictive, though? | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
Is caffeine an addictive substance? | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
Most common-sense feeling on that is, yes, you do desire a cup | 0:07:19 | 0:07:24 | |
when you've been used to drinking a cup in the morning | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
and people do notice they get headaches and feel sluggish | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
when they stop drinking coffee. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
But that's a reasonably short-term... | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
Exactly, one or two days and it's out of your system. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
So my five or six cups, you're telling me that | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
that's perfectly safe and I'm absolutely fine to continue with it? | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
Absolutely safe, yeah. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
So, if we're safe to ignore those terrifying headlines, what about | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
the ones that tell us that tea and coffee can do us all manner of good? | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
I want to find out if there's any truth to those too. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
So I'm going to stage my very own battle of the brews. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
I'll fight the corner for coffee, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:02 | |
but I need someone to head up Team Tea. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
-Hello! -Hello. How are you? | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
-I'm very well, thank you. I'm not here for a haircut, though. -OK. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
But I do hear you make a mean cup of tea. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
I'm going to make you one, then, and you can tell me if that is true. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
Yes, please, yeah. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
-Just like me, nice and strong. -OK. -Thank you very much. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
'Lady Job runs this hair salon in South London, and like many of us, | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
'she can't get through a working day without a few brews.' | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
What's the secret to a good cup of tea? | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
The secret to a good cup of tea, to be honest with you, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
brew very well, not too strong, though, and a bit of biscuit. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
So how many cups of tea would you say you drink every day? | 0:08:39 | 0:08:44 | |
Do I need to tell you that? Um... | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
I think maybe something like a minimum of five. It might be more. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
More than five? How many more than five? | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
Confession, maybe around seven. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
'Clearly tea is an essential part of Lady's day. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
'In fact, she reckons she couldn't live without it.' | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
-So what do you think tea's good for? -It's a pick-me-up. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
It keeps me going through the day | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
and especially winter, you can't do without tea. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
I actually read somewhere that caffeine is good for the hair. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
-Hair? -Yes. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:16 | |
Well, you're drinking lots of tea and you've got fantastic hair. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
-So I think there might be something in that. -Oh, well, what can I say? | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
'So, with Lady drinking even more tea than I do coffee, | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
'which of us is making the better choice? | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
'I've arranged for the pair of us to meet Professor Gary Williamson. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
'He's an expert in how our bodies are affected by the food we eat | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
'and he's been studying tea, coffee and caffeine for years.' | 0:09:37 | 0:09:42 | |
So, Gary, the lovely Lady here is a huge tea fan. I'm a big coffee fan. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:48 | |
We both drink enough of it to sink a battleship. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
Whose drink is healthiest? | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
Well, it's not really as simple as which one is the most healthy | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
because it really depends on what health parameter, | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
what health impact you're going for. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
Tea and coffee, they're both quite healthy. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:06 | |
So let's see how many of those headlines about health benefits | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
are true, starting with one saying | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
tea can help if you've got high cholesterol. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
That's true. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:15 | |
If you have lots of tea, there's been plenty of studies | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
to show that you can reduce some cholesterol. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
It's not going to be as much as taking drugs. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
It's not going to rescue you if you've got high cholesterol | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
but it's a subtle effect, like most things in nutrition. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
-Are you happy to hear that? -Very happy to hear that. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
'But coffee's got some pretty impressive benefits too.' | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
If you look at something like type II diabetes, actually, | 0:10:35 | 0:10:40 | |
coffee is really well protective against developing type II diabetes. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:45 | |
But tea is also good, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
-but it's not quite as good as coffee for diabetes. -OK. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
But if you look at heart disease, | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
then probably tea is a little bit better, and especially green tea | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
is particularly good for protecting against heart disease. | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
'And while your cuppa isn't going to instantly cure anything, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
'it doesn't take much to get that extra bit of protection.' | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
Once you have about three or four cups, drinking more than that | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
-is probably not going to make too much difference. -OK. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
But it's really down to your individual preference for caffeine. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
And you know some people can tolerate it better, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
some people can tolerate it less well. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
'Tea and coffee can be good for us | 0:11:23 | 0:11:24 | |
'because they both contain something called polyphenols, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
'naturally occurring chemicals known to have huge health benefits, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:32 | |
'but how many of those all-important polyphenols we get from a cuppa | 0:11:32 | 0:11:36 | |
'depends on the type of brew we choose and how we make it - | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
'whether it's decaf, filter, teabags or instant, Gary says | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
'they can all be good for us, but some are even better than others. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
'So I've asked him to help us rank the best of the best and put some | 0:11:48 | 0:11:52 | |
'of our most popular hot drinks in the order he thinks is healthiest. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:56 | |
'First up, a herbal favourite. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
'It's believed to help us get a better night's sleep, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
'so is chamomile tea actually good for us?' | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
Right, I would say that's up there with one of the best. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
That's a good one. It's got lots of polyphenols in the chamomile. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:13 | |
-It's got no caffeine... -And... -And it's got no calories. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
-No calories, no caffeine. -And lots of polyphenols. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
'As Aisha told me earlier, there's no problem with having caffeine, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
'but because it's a stimulant and some people are more sensitive | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
'to it, it's the drinks with LESS caffeine that Gary ranks highest, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
'which has a surprising impact on how he rates the coffees.' | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
-I'd put espresso probably somewhere in the middle. -Right, OK. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
'Filter coffee, which has less caffeine than espresso, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
'is a little higher.' | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
So now we've got instant coffee. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:47 | |
I would have that reasonably high. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
Not too much caffeine, plenty of polyphenols, you know, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
-relatively easy to drink and prepare. -Yeah. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
So I think I would probably put that fairly high. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
-So if we put that up there. -Yeah. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
And now we've got an instant decaf. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
-No caffeine. -No caffeine. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
-Polyphenols, still. -Polyphenols, and no calories. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
And no calories, so I would put that quite... | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
-I would pretty much have that top. -Top? | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
I would pretty much have that top. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
-Because there could be no negatives. -Because there's no negatives. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
'Coffee connoisseurs might say there are tastier cups, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
'but with plenty of polyphenols, no calories and no caffeine, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
'your mug of black decaf instant coffee would top Gary's list. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
'Some other coffees go much further down. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
'If they haven't been through a filter, | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
'they will contain more of the compounds that have been shown | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
'to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
'so that breakfast table favourite, the cafetiere, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
'is the lowest scorer so far. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
'So does all that mean Lady's favourite tea, English breakfast, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
'is destined for the top of the table?' | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
One of the problems with the breakfast tea is that | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
the polyphenols are not so easily absorbed by the body. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
It's all in there, it's all about how our body absorbs it. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
Exactly, exactly. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:00 | |
Right, OK, so we're going to put this one, unfortunately, | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
probably what's drank most in the country... | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
It's not so high. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
-Aww! -That's a shame, isn't it? That is a shame. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
-I know, it's very annoying because I love tea. -I'm sorry, Lady. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
So we keep it here. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:14 | |
'But the nation's favourite tea isn't lowest on the table. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
'It's just about level pegging with a relatively obscure one | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
'called rooibos, or redbush, which, like English breakfast tea, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
'doesn't release its polyphenols quite as easily as coffee. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
'If our table was bigger, green tea and some herbal teas would be | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
'right up there with chamomile as being super healthy. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
'But, according to Gary, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
'they're all trumped by that instant decaf coffee. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
'It's at the top of the table because it's got no caffeine, | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
'no calories and plenty of easily absorbed polyphenols. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
'It might have come out top here, | 0:14:49 | 0:14:50 | |
'but Gary says there are no losers on this table.' | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
I think we've done quite well in ordering them, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
but just remember that all of them really are quite good. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
-So, yes, we haven't gone from good to bad, we've gone from... -Good... | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
-..very good to still...good. -..to pretty good. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
'But I'm still a competitive chap, so I've got to say that | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
'I'm delighted to see coffee coming out ahead of Lady's favourite, tea. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:13 | |
'Of course, whichever is your preference, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
'adding milk and sugar like Lady does will mean there's more calories | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
'in your cup, and while I can't convince her to switch to coffee, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
'she IS prepared to make some sacrifices | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
'that can only make her drink healthier.' | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
Now I think what I have to do is to cut down on the milk, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
maybe reduce the amount of sugar, if that adds a calorie to it. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
-And the biscuits with it. -THEY LAUGH | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
-You have to have biscuits! -No, you do. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
Who's drinking all of this? | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:15:41 | 0:15:42 | |
-Not me. -Or who's paying for it, more to the point? Taxi! | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
Now, if there is one claim we regularly see made for what we eat, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
it's that certain foods can either cause | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
or alternatively help combat cancer. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
There can't be many things that the papers haven't linked it to - | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
foods such as red meat and sugar have been blamed for making it worse | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
and everything from chilli, green tea and broccoli | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
can apparently fight it, but I suppose the question is, | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
-how much of it is true? -Especially as in some cases | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
the same foods that one day we're told might cause cancer, | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
another day, up pops a headline saying that | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
they may be something that could actually help fend it off, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
or, better still, even possibly cure it. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
Now, sadly, we've both had cancer in our families | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
and it's very easy to see how anyone who has the condition, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:36 | |
because it's tough, will do whatever they can | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
to improve their chances against it. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
But, you know, those headlines really don't help | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
when you're looking for a definitive answer, so I wanted to find out | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
which of them might be correct | 0:16:47 | 0:16:48 | |
and which might be completely barking up the wrong tree. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
It's estimated that around half of us will get cancer at some point | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
in our lives, and although that's a very sobering figure, | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
thanks to improved treatments and better research, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
over half of those diagnosed WILL now survive. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:07 | |
But anyone who's been told they have cancer will say | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
they'll do whatever it takes to fight the disease, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
including making big changes to their lifestyle and their diet. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:17 | |
And that's something that I'm afraid I know only too well. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:21 | |
When my daughter Caron was diagnosed with cancer, | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
she searched high and low, and indeed worldwide, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
for anything that might help her deal with cancer in a better way, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
but I really want to point out that | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
she did all of that in conjunction with her orthodox medical treatment. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
In other words, with guidance from her doctors. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
Since then, of course, the internet has been flooded with | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
even more so-called health websites peddling miracle cures, | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
and open any newspaper and you'll be confronted with articles | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
claiming that some foods could help you conquer the condition. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:54 | |
You know, some of the headlines are absolutely ridiculous | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
and they contradict each other, | 0:17:57 | 0:17:58 | |
and others just seem to be too good to be true, | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
but on the other hand, inside all of us, I think, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
and particularly those dealing with cancer, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
they have that little glimmer of hope that some of it might work. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
Well, one person who's seen and indeed tried lots of the so-called | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
solutions touted by the papers is Carl Denning from Leeds. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:18 | |
Carl has battled with pancreatic cancer for four years, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
so, of course, he takes seriously | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
any claims made about foods that could help him fight the condition. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
I've tried everything from veganism to alkaline diet. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:33 | |
I've started so many different things | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
and also because there's so many different diets out there, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
you're trying to take them all on board. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
I think it's good to be open-minded about any claim. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
Being open-minded is one thing, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
but Carl says he's getting fed up with all the mixed messages. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
When you do all your research and when you read all your newspapers | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
and you get bombarded by it on social media | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
and your friends send you links and your family, | 0:18:59 | 0:19:02 | |
putting you on a diet, and people buy you the newest book | 0:19:02 | 0:19:06 | |
and by the end of it all, you get so many different mixed messages. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:11 | |
In Carl's constant search for that Holy Grail food that might help | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
beat cancer, he's compared and contrasted dozens of | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
contradictory newspaper claims and put them all into a spreadsheet | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
to see how many foods the reports agreed on. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
Unfortunately, it was a very short list. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
The only things that were really safe at the end of it all | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
were, like, yams and lemons. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
I like my food and no-one can live off yams and lemons. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:39 | |
But like me, Carl doesn't think it's right that the reports seem | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
to contradict themselves so often, and he wants to take a straw poll | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
of what shoppers in his home city of Leeds make of some of the headlines. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
"How green tea can kill cancer cells." | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
What do you think when you read an article like that? | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
I am aware that food plays a big part in the health of your body | 0:19:57 | 0:20:02 | |
and you have to be careful what you eat. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
"Yoghurt and cheese protects women from breast cancer." | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
When you read that, do you think there's any truth? | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
I don't take any notice of these headlines. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
I think any advice is worthwhile listening to | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
and some things are scary, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
but it's not there to scare you, it's there to help you. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
My gorgeous daughter Caron spent seven years battling cancer, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
and while she did make some changes to her diet and fitness | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
to give her body the best possible chance of winning that fight, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
there's undoubtedly so much more information out there now | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
than there used to be. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
Carl and I have come to Maggie's, a national cancer charity | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
'offering support and advice on all kinds of issues, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
'including what to eat.' | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
-And this is Carl. -Nice to meet you. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:52 | |
'Catherine Zabilowicz is one of the charity's nutritional advisors | 0:20:52 | 0:20:56 | |
'and specialises in helping people who have been diagnosed with cancer | 0:20:56 | 0:21:01 | |
'to find the best possible things to eat to help their recovery.' | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
We've obviously heard how Carl has tried pretty well everything | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
and looked into all the diets, so when a person is diagnosed | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
with cancer, what are they advised to eat or not eat? | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
So research shows that we know that | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
eating a predominantly plant-based diet can be very helpful. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:20 | |
So when you're eating a good variety of your vegetables and fruit, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
you'll be getting lots of these plant chemicals | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
and we know they all have anti-cancer properties. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
So if we're eating lots of colourful fruits and vegetables, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
we're getting more of those into our body. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:34 | |
So variety, probably, is the spice of life. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
'It's a message that Carl had been given by his doctors | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
'and it led him to make a big change to his own diet | 0:21:41 | 0:21:43 | |
'by becoming a vegan.' | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
I've tried the vegan diet. I've tried non-dairy at the beginning, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
and you do seem to try to take everything on board. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
'But after a few weeks, he had to stop because he was so hungry | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
'and really wasn't enjoying it. | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
'So now, after seeing headlines linking meat to cancer, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
'in both a good and a bad way, he wants to know | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
'if it's really something he should be eating at all.' | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
We hear an awful lot about meat in all sorts of conditions, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
but in terms of cancer, what's your advice about meat in the diet? | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
Well, I'm a proponent of meat. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
I think that actually it gives us a lot of nutrients, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
good protein, particularly some meats like organ meats | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
and things like that, which we don't tend to eat so much of now. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
For people who are under treatment or have cancer, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
anaemia is often a problem, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
so meat, really, and especially organ meats, are one of the best | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
ways of actually counteracting that. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
'But not all meat comes with such a ringing endorsement, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
'and here again, it's so easy to see why people like Carl | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
'could be so confused about whether it's safe or not | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
'because in 2015 the World Health Organization revealed that | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
'processed and red meat could cause cancer.' | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
Most of the research really points | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
to the processed meats being the ones that we should avoid, | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
you know, your bacon and ham and salamis and things like that, | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
and I always say to people, "Don't eat too much meat." | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
I certainly don't recommend a high meat diet. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
-What, once or twice a week? -Yeah, exactly. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
'So while those meat headlines are backed up with science, Catherine | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
'says not every story we read is based on such solid evidence.' | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
The problem with a lot of this research is that | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
so often it's just seen a petri dish or seen in animals. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
There aren't the human trials quite often but the media picks up on that | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
and obviously runs with a sensational headline. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
Does that frustrate you? | 0:23:40 | 0:23:41 | |
Oh, it really does, because, yeah, | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
people do latch on to it and then they often get into difficulties | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
and it becomes disempowering to the person, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
and that's certainly what we don't want. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
But if someone feels positive about what they're doing, that, of course, | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
can have a huge influence and we know about the placebo effect. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
We know how strong that is | 0:24:01 | 0:24:02 | |
and I think, you know, to some extent there's an element of that | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
when we feel that we're putting the right food in our body. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
I genuinely believe that Caron lived much longer than her prognosis, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
and I believe that's because of her positivity. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
She felt that she was doing something that made her feel | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
better and stronger at that time. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
I think it makes a massive difference, that, | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
to have a real positive outlook | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
and also just keep your mind active on more positive things. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:28 | |
Totally agree, yeah. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
Whether it is just a placebo effect | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
or something more powerful, we'll never know, but I have to say | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
I'm really disappointed that more than 12 years after we lost Caron, | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
the list of foods that definitely can help | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
doesn't seem to have got much longer. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
Caron had a very, very positive attitude and she made many changes | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
to her diet and her lifestyle | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
in the hope that she could conquer her cancer | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
or at least manage it, and whereas, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
very sadly, for me, and for all our family, | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
it didn't work out like that, | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
nevertheless, when I look at some of the headlines, I can see how | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
perhaps she would have been lured in by the hope that they represent. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
And there's one food in particular that's been singled out | 0:25:05 | 0:25:08 | |
and even called a miracle cancer killer - apricot kernels. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
Now, they're found inside the stones of apricots and contain a chemical | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
that it's been reported directly attacks cancer cells. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
At the time, I remember Caron used to eat them, | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
and I can understand why, | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
'but, you know, I'd completely forgotten about them | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
'until I saw this headline last year, claiming that | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
'far from curing your cancer, eating them could actually kill you. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
'The question is, are they a cure or a killer? | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
'Well, I've come to see Dr Justine Alford from Cancer Research UK | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
'to determine the truth.' | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
Apricot kernels, you know, it's been hailed, really, | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
as a magic cure in some way or if you eat them it prevents cancer. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
Is there any truth in that whatsoever? | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
There's absolutely no truth in that whatsoever, unfortunately. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
In fact, not only is there no evidence that | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
apricot kernels can cure cancer, | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
there is evidence that they are very dangerous and that's because | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
apricot kernels contain an ingredient that | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
once inside your body, gets broken down into hydrogen cyanide. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
So, effectively, yes, that does kill cells, | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
but it will also kill your normal cells as well as your cancer cells | 0:26:10 | 0:26:14 | |
and people have died of cyanide poisoning taking these, | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
so they're extremely dangerous and we would never recommend that | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
people try taking apricot kernels as a treatment for their cancer | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
or for any other illness. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:24 | |
A recent surge in the popularity of apricot kernels | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
led the Food Standards Agency to warn that | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
they should not be eaten at all. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:33 | |
Now, I know my daughter Caron ate only a few each day | 0:26:33 | 0:26:35 | |
in the hope that it would help, but the news that | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
they're potentially so dangerous is chilling. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
I've got to say, though, it's great to get such a definite answer | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
on at least one food because it seems we are constantly bombarded | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
with reports that all manner of foods might be linked to cancer. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:52 | |
Just last month, for example, the Food Standards Agency warned | 0:26:52 | 0:26:56 | |
that overbrowning toast, chips and roast potatoes could mean | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
that you take in too much of a chemical that could cause cancer, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:03 | |
but where things get especially confusing is when different | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
news reports might one day suggest a particular food causes cancer | 0:27:06 | 0:27:10 | |
and then the next day says it protects against it, | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
and that very mixed message is especially the case with dairy. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
My daughter was told not to have too much dairy, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
not to have too much cow's milk. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
Well, the evidence for dairy is actually inconclusive. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
The jury's still out | 0:27:25 | 0:27:26 | |
when it comes to whether dairy can affect your risk of cancer. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
'Justine says there's only evidence that eating dairy could | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
'reduce the risk of bowel cancer and there's certainly no proof | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
'that other forms of cancer can be caused or cured by it. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
'So headlines like this may not be giving you the full picture.' | 0:27:39 | 0:27:44 | |
Justine, is there any proof whatsoever that what we eat | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
could actually help prevent cancer? | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
There have been a lot of studies into diet and cancer but | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
so far the evidence suggests that there is no specific single food | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
or drink that can prevent us from getting cancer, | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
but what you can do, through your diet, is lower the risk of | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
developing certain types of cancer. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
So while there's no proof that any food can cure cancer | 0:28:05 | 0:28:09 | |
and the jury is still out on whether some others could help | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
fight against it, eating well and feeling happy about the changes | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
you're making can have a very positive effect, | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
and back in Leeds, that's certainly the case for Carl. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
Now he's preparing for another round of chemo | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
but he's taken some of the advice he's heard on board in the hope that | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
eating the right foods might help his body cope with the treatment, | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
and he's consigned his spreadsheet of conflicting headlines to the bin. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:35 | |
My advice is, don't take everything word for word, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:40 | |
do your little bit of research, look into it. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:43 | |
The thing is, if you're going to follow a certain diet | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
and actually put more stress onto your shoulders, | 0:28:46 | 0:28:50 | |
you're going to add anxiety to your life | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
and you're already in an anxious situation, | 0:28:53 | 0:28:55 | |
so there's no point of doing that. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
If you're looking for ideas on | 0:29:05 | 0:29:06 | |
how to get more fruit and veg into your diet, as recommended | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
by experts across the series, | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
you can find plenty of simple recipes at... | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
..where you'll also find plenty more suggestions that tie in | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
with the foods and topics we're talking about all week. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
Newspapers love to tell us stories | 0:29:27 | 0:29:29 | |
about food and drink that do us all manner of harm, | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
but the scare stories don't stop there. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:34 | |
Now they're telling us what we drink FROM could be dangerous. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:38 | |
Every day, millions of us will buy one of these, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:40 | |
and when we've finished with it, instead of throwing it away, | 0:29:40 | 0:29:43 | |
we'll reuse it, filling it up from the tap, | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
but recent headlines might make you think twice as to whether | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
that's a good idea or not. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
So to test out whether reusing plastic bottles is dangerous, | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
we've enlisted the help of some guys who certainly get plenty of use | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
from theirs - Paralympian Steve Brown and his wheelchair rugby team. | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
Over the last few decades, | 0:30:03 | 0:30:05 | |
us Brits have developed a serious love affair with bottled water. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
Three billion litres of the stuff is sold every year, | 0:30:08 | 0:30:11 | |
but instead of buying a new bottle every time, | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
plenty of us will just fill up the old one from the tap. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:17 | |
But whether you're putting one in your work bag, schoolbag, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:20 | |
or, like me, your sports bag, | 0:30:20 | 0:30:22 | |
some very alarming headlines say that | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
us committed refillers | 0:30:25 | 0:30:26 | |
could be playing fast and loose with our health, | 0:30:26 | 0:30:28 | |
because some water bottles could apparently be dirtier | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
than our toilet seats. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:33 | |
I've been playing wheelchair rugby for more than a decade | 0:30:33 | 0:30:37 | |
and my trusty water bottle comes with me wherever I go. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
If we drop the ball, we don't beat ourselves up | 0:30:42 | 0:30:45 | |
and complain and hit our wheels, cos it gets us nowhere. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:47 | |
'For the team I coach, their water bottles are as much | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
'a part of their kit as their gloves and their shirts, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:53 | |
'but I, for one, don't wash my water bottle every time I wash my strip.' | 0:30:53 | 0:30:58 | |
Right, so, who, like me, refills their water bottles? | 0:30:58 | 0:31:01 | |
-Andy? -Yeah, I've had mine a couple of weeks. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
-Yeah, you refill your water bottles? Tim? -I refill. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
-David? -I refill. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
-Omar? -Yes. -Harry? | 0:31:08 | 0:31:10 | |
-I don't, mate, no. -You don't? -I get a new bottle every time, yeah. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
'But according to some of the papers, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:15 | |
'those of us who don't wash our water bottles could risk suffering | 0:31:15 | 0:31:19 | |
'a nasty bout of food poisoning.' | 0:31:19 | 0:31:21 | |
"How your plastic water bottle | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
"could be harbouring more germs than a dog bowl." | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
The amount of times I get licked and him picking up my bottle for me... | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
You and your dog share the germs? | 0:31:30 | 0:31:32 | |
It's probably... We've probably got the same amount of germs. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
The same germs. Yeah, beautiful. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:37 | |
'Tim's possibly the worst offender here. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
'He says he's not washed his bottle for around a month, | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
'and worse still, his helper dog regularly picks it up in his mouth.' | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
So not only do I lick the end of it | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
but it does get the dog's saliva on it as well. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:55 | |
And your bottle has ultimately | 0:31:55 | 0:31:56 | |
-been on the floor in the process as well. -Yes. | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
'OK, so that sounds disgusting | 0:32:00 | 0:32:02 | |
'but does it mean Tim's water bottle is harbouring | 0:32:02 | 0:32:04 | |
'any more dangerous bacteria than the rest of the team's? | 0:32:04 | 0:32:08 | |
'Well, to find out if there's any truth to those scare stories, | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
'we're going to run some tests.' | 0:32:11 | 0:32:14 | |
Guys, what I'd like to do is send our water bottles off for analysis | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
and see if they really are as dirty as dog bowls. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
'I'm bagging up the bottles and taking them away. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:24 | |
'Omar, Harry and Ben's are all brand-new. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
'But the rest of us refill our bottles without washing them. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
'I can't wait to see what the tests make of this lot, especially Tim's.' | 0:32:30 | 0:32:34 | |
'I'm taking these sealed bags to London Metropolitan University | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
'for testing by microbiologist Dr Paul Matewele. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:45 | |
'He'll be checking the levels of bacteria lurking inside and | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
'around the tops of the bottles.' | 0:32:48 | 0:32:50 | |
Paul, thank you very much for inviting me down this afternoon. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
I've brought my own bottle along with all my team-mates' bottles. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
What are you expecting to find? | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
I'm expecting to find | 0:32:59 | 0:33:01 | |
some microorganisms that you get from the gut. | 0:33:01 | 0:33:05 | |
'There could be a cocktail of bacteria lurking inside | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
'some of these bottles, and they might cause anything from | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
'a dicky tummy to serious abdominal pains and even worse. | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
'I had never imagined I might pick up something like that | 0:33:14 | 0:33:18 | |
'from my water bottle.' | 0:33:18 | 0:33:19 | |
One of my team-mates, and I'll leave you to find out which one, | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
has got a helper dog and when he drops his bottle, | 0:33:23 | 0:33:27 | |
his dog picks the bottle up for him and passes it back to him. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:31 | |
Oh, my goodness. In that case, we'll expect to see... | 0:33:31 | 0:33:35 | |
We all have bacteria, | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
but the animals also have their own bacteria, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:40 | |
so that one, I'm expecting to see loads of dog bacteria... | 0:33:40 | 0:33:45 | |
..that you'll find in the mouth of a dog. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:49 | |
'Of course, as well as bacteria that could lead to | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
'a bad bout of gastroenteritis, | 0:33:53 | 0:33:55 | |
'Dr Matewele's tests might uncover some not so nasty bugs too.' | 0:33:55 | 0:34:00 | |
What about those wives' tales around, | 0:34:00 | 0:34:02 | |
"Well, a few germs don't hurt you," and all that kind of thing? | 0:34:02 | 0:34:06 | |
Surely that would be the same for the bottles. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
In theory, it's quite a good thing to be exposed, | 0:34:09 | 0:34:13 | |
for the body to be exposed to bacteria, | 0:34:13 | 0:34:15 | |
because it builds up your immune system, | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
but there is a critical number | 0:34:18 | 0:34:22 | |
and if it goes beyond that critical number, | 0:34:22 | 0:34:24 | |
then probably we need to worry | 0:34:24 | 0:34:26 | |
because the immune system can't cope with that. | 0:34:26 | 0:34:28 | |
So to put that into context, | 0:34:28 | 0:34:30 | |
my water bottle could be sitting in my car for two days, three days, | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
I could fill it up and there wouldn't be a problem, | 0:34:34 | 0:34:37 | |
but if I went back to that maybe five days or six days later, | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
then the bacteria's built up to a point where it does cause an issue. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:43 | |
-Absolutely. -Well... | 0:34:43 | 0:34:45 | |
I think I look forward to finding out but I'm not sure, Doctor. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:49 | |
Thank you very much and I will see you in a couple of weeks. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:53 | |
After that conversation, I dread to think what Dr Matewele might find. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:59 | |
But while I leave him to run those tests, there's a whole raft | 0:34:59 | 0:35:02 | |
of other news stories suggesting an even more serious health threat. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:06 | |
Some have even claimed that | 0:35:06 | 0:35:08 | |
drinking from plastic bottles can cause cancer. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:11 | |
I'm going to try something here. | 0:35:11 | 0:35:13 | |
I'm going to type in "water bottle cancer" and let's see what comes up. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:17 | |
"Plastic bottles and food containers, cancer..." | 0:35:19 | 0:35:22 | |
"Cancer, water bottles, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:24 | |
"the plastic plague." | 0:35:24 | 0:35:26 | |
"Exposure to chemicals in plastic." There's loads. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:30 | |
These online stories all relate to | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
the plastic that some water bottles are made from, which contain | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
chemicals known as BPAs. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:37 | |
It's been suggested that | 0:35:37 | 0:35:39 | |
if these bottles are used over and over again, | 0:35:39 | 0:35:41 | |
the BPAs can dangerously contaminate the water. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:45 | |
Now, these sorts of headlines | 0:35:45 | 0:35:47 | |
have been getting a lot of attention on social media, | 0:35:47 | 0:35:49 | |
shares and comments. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:51 | |
And while it's never wise to believe everything you read online, | 0:35:51 | 0:35:55 | |
some of these stories come from reputable publications, | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
so there's no wonder the message is getting through to some people. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
I read that if you use water bottles too much over again, | 0:36:02 | 0:36:04 | |
they give you cancer. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:05 | |
I did believe the stories about cancer and water bottles | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
but I can't remember why and I'm still not clear today. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
But are any of these scare stories actually true? | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
In fact, according to Cancer Research UK, | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
they're almost entirely unfounded | 0:36:17 | 0:36:19 | |
and started from a string of hoax e-mails and social media posts | 0:36:19 | 0:36:23 | |
designed to make it look like | 0:36:23 | 0:36:25 | |
they're backed up by scientific evidence. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:27 | |
There have been lots of hoaxes | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
about plastic bottles, specifically things like | 0:36:29 | 0:36:33 | |
leaving them in a car or freezing them or reusing plastic bottles | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
and whether that could increase a person's risk of cancer, | 0:36:36 | 0:36:39 | |
so it might be that people have received that e-mail themselves | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
or have heard about these hoaxes from their friends or family | 0:36:42 | 0:36:44 | |
and then it can be really hard to work out what's true and what's not | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
because often they try and claim | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
that they're from reputable institutions or universities, | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
but those universities have released statements saying that | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
the e-mails were not from them, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:57 | |
they don't support them and that the research really isn't there | 0:36:57 | 0:36:59 | |
to back up those claims. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
Fiona says that whilst | 0:37:01 | 0:37:03 | |
there is a slight risk that BPAs might leak into the water, | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
it's only been found to happen under extreme circumstances. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
Lots of the tests that have been done looking at plastic bottles | 0:37:10 | 0:37:13 | |
have used things like very high temperatures or storing things | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
for a very long period of time, | 0:37:17 | 0:37:19 | |
and day to day, that's not | 0:37:19 | 0:37:20 | |
something that a plastic bottle that someone's drinking from | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
is likely to be exposed to, and it's also important to remember | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
that even in those cases, the vast majority of that evidence | 0:37:26 | 0:37:29 | |
isn't showing that the levels of chemicals like BPA | 0:37:29 | 0:37:33 | |
coming from the plastic bottle into the water itself | 0:37:33 | 0:37:36 | |
is above a level that scientists consider harmful. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
So, despite those reports online and in the papers, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:43 | |
my water bottle isn't going to give me cancer, | 0:37:43 | 0:37:46 | |
but I still wonder if it could make me ill in other ways. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
It's been two weeks since | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
I took the team's bottles to Dr Matewele for testing, | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
and he's come down to our practice session to deliver the results. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
This is going to be a moment of truth, so, lads, are you ready? | 0:37:59 | 0:38:04 | |
OK, so, Omar... | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
..Harry and Ben, OK, | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
cleanest bottles in the team. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:11 | |
'No surprise there. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
'Those three all bought new bottles on the day they were tested.' | 0:38:14 | 0:38:17 | |
Third place was Andy. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:19 | |
Second was joint between myself and you, Dave. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
'Interestingly, the six-day-old bottles belonging to Andy and I | 0:38:24 | 0:38:28 | |
'had no more bacteria than Dave's two-day-old bottle. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
'They were all still perfectly safe to drink from.' | 0:38:32 | 0:38:36 | |
And dirtiest of all, Tim, was yours, pal. | 0:38:36 | 0:38:39 | |
Shocking. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:42 | |
'Tim's water bottle hadn't been cleaned for a month, and remember, | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
'his helper dog often picks it up when Tim drops it. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:49 | |
'Those things make it a breeding ground for bacteria.' | 0:38:49 | 0:38:53 | |
Well, so, Doctor, what was there? | 0:38:53 | 0:38:57 | |
All the other bottles had bacteria | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
-but Tim also had mould inside the bottle. -Mould inside the bottle? | 0:39:00 | 0:39:05 | |
Yes. Whereas everyone else's had bacteria. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
'It might sound bad but the mould in Tim's bottle was actually | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
'the same kind that grows on blue cheese, so pretty harmless, | 0:39:11 | 0:39:15 | |
'and despite his bottle having the highest number of bacteria too, | 0:39:15 | 0:39:18 | |
'Dr Matewele says that unless Tim has been ill, | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
'there's not really a problem.' | 0:39:21 | 0:39:23 | |
In terms of infection, I don't think it's something to be worried about, | 0:39:23 | 0:39:29 | |
but it's a sign that something has got to be done | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
to clean up the bottle slightly more regularly | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
than is the case at the moment. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
'The fact his bottle hasn't made him ill yet doesn't mean it won't | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
'if he doesn't wash it soon, because the tests also found | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
'low levels of other, more serious strains of bacteria.' | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
The other bacteria which were lower levels, | 0:39:51 | 0:39:55 | |
if they are allowed to climb up, those are the ones | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
that we would worry about because they are pathogenic. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:02 | |
'If it's left to fester, | 0:40:03 | 0:40:05 | |
'this pathogenic bacteria could cause some serious health problems.' | 0:40:05 | 0:40:10 | |
So if a dirty water bottle can make you ill, | 0:40:10 | 0:40:12 | |
was any of our water bottles at the sort of level | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
that you're starting to worry about that with? | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
All the bottles that I looked at, | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
at this moment in time there's nothing to worry about, | 0:40:20 | 0:40:24 | |
so it looked fine and they're not pathogenic. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
So it would seem, really, that we need to treat our water bottles | 0:40:28 | 0:40:32 | |
the same way as we treat the rest of our kit in terms of, | 0:40:32 | 0:40:35 | |
after training we wash it thoroughly, we make sure that | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
it's stored properly and we make sure we look after it | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
the way it deserves to be looked after. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
Exactly. That's the message that we seem to get from these findings. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
So, Gloria, we're both well aware that a grabby headline is great for | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
selling papers or getting someone to click on an article online. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:02 | |
That's why they do it. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:03 | |
It is indeed, but it's so easy for someone to believe what they've seen | 0:41:03 | 0:41:07 | |
without getting the full context of what's behind the research. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:11 | |
And I'm afraid it's rarely quite as simple as some of the headlines | 0:41:11 | 0:41:14 | |
would have us believe, | 0:41:14 | 0:41:15 | |
and certainly when it comes to something like cancer, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
people really will do almost anything in the hope | 0:41:18 | 0:41:20 | |
that it just might help, and you can understand that. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:23 | |
So I really trust that the official warning about how dangerous | 0:41:23 | 0:41:27 | |
those apricot kernels could be takes hold soon because | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
to me that's really a big worry. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:32 | |
And while no one food is going to cure cancer, as Gloria found, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:36 | |
there are some that can help, and you can of course find | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
recipes and ideas for some of those ingredients at... | 0:41:39 | 0:41:41 | |
But for now, though, that's just about | 0:41:44 | 0:41:46 | |
where we have to leave it for today. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:47 | |
I hope we've put your mind at rest over some of the scare stories | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
that you might have read or heard about. | 0:41:50 | 0:41:52 | |
So thank you very much indeed for your company. | 0:41:52 | 0:41:54 | |
-Until the next time, from both of us, bye-bye. -Goodbye. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 |