On Instagram @AndreaHardyRD, I talk all about hazard and risk and the difference between the two.
Please – tell me more about all the ‘dangers’ that lurk in our food… ????????#scicommunity⠀
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Get this… you can design an experiment where you expose cell cultures to high levels of anything and GASP – it damages them. ⠀
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Or better yet? Mega-dose animal models and see what diseases develop.
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And – these experiments have purpose (often to assess toxicity & mechanism of action). But! it’s certainly not to tell you to absolutely avoid that thing 100% or bad things will happen. Because the dose makes the poison.⠀
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I get it. The fact that something could have a risk is scary. But, if exposure is so minimized to the point where you have a better chance of winning the lottery AND getting struck by lightening simultaneously than harm coming to you AND has a significant benefit – does it make sense to take?⠀
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We: get out of bed every day. Risky.????️⠀
We: toast our bread (and eat cancer causing acrylamides).???? ⠀
We: put our contacts in at the risk of getting an infection. ????️⠀
We: Get in our car – a very significant risk! ????⠀
We: drink hot coffee – (didn’t you know hot liquids are listed as a probable carcinogen?)☕⠀
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???????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????. We make risk-based decisions every day – because we can see the immediate benefit, and aren’t emotionally tied to it. But it becomes scary when we don’t understand the risk/benefit and our emotions are targeted. ❣️⠀
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When we create fear, moralistically frame food decisions (ie. dirty dozen, clean fifteen) and push all or nothing messages around hazards without discussing risk – we are driving emotion-based decision making that scare people into assuming a BIG risk when there is none.⠀
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You’re allowed to choose which risks you take. ???????????? – ????????????’???? ???????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????????????????? ???? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????? ???? ???????????????????????????????????? ????????????????.⠀
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I like to say my #1 job as a dietitian is to get people to take food a little less seriously, because of all the misinformation out there.⠀
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If I could wish one thing for you, it would be to feel calmer about your food decisions and ignore all the crazy noise out there!
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