Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

This week nutrition research is often wrong, stop commenting on people’s weight loss, and this much exercise slows aging.

Next week’s Mindful Meal Challenge will start again on Monday. Sign up now to join us!

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just released their 2005 report on cancer statistics. The web-based report contains official federal government statistics for cancer incidence in 96% of the United States population and mortality statistics for 100%. This is the seventh time the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program have combined registries to offer official federal statistics on cancer incidence and mortality for a single year.

Rates of cancer incidence are reported as the number of newly reported cases per 100,000 people. In 2005, the top four most common cancer diagnoses have not changed since 2000 and represent diseases strongly associated with lifestyle factors.

The number one diagnosed cancer in the US is prostate cancer (142.4), followed by breast (117.7), lung (67.7) and colorectal (48.3) cancers. The deadliest cancer is of the lung (52.8), while the mortality rates from prostate (24.7) and breast (24.0) cancer are nearly identical. Colorectal cancer is the fourth deadliest cancer (17.4).

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US, with heart disease being the first. Though most of us associate heart disease with lifestyle factors, cancer is usually regarded more fatalistically as being random or due primarily to genetics. While genetics does play a factor in some cancer cases, vast amounts of epidemiological data indicate that lifestyle factors, particularly diet and smoking, can largely account for high cancer rates in affluent countries such as the US.

There is abundant evidence that diets high in animal products and refined carbohydrates, and low in vegetables contribute to cancers of the prostate, breast and colon. A similar dietary pattern is responsible for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. What is striking about cancer, however, is that there are no known drugs that stymie its development. Statins do not protect against cancer, nor do multivitamins.

The best diet to prevent all these diseases of affluence is a plant-based, whole foods diet.

Does fear of cancer impact your eating habits?

On Monday, January 19, the dcist printed an interview with celebrity chef and star of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain. When asked if he had any advice about food, Bourdain took the opportunity to point out that Alice Waters “annoys the living s***” out of him.

Really? Thanks, Tony, great advice.

Here is the excerpt (here is the link):

Any advice about food?

I’ll tell you. Alice Waters annoys the living s*** out of me. We’re all in the middle of a recession, like we’re all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There’s something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic. I mean I’m not crazy about our obsession with corn or ethanol and all that, but I’m a little uncomfortable with legislating good eating habits. I’m suspicious of orthodoxy, the kind of orthodoxy when it comes to what you put in your mouth. I’m a little reluctant to admit that maybe Americans are too stupid to figure out that the food we’re eating is killing us. But I don’t know if it’s time to send out special squads to close all the McDonald’s. My libertarian side is at odds with my revulsion at what we as a country have done to ourselves physically with what we’ve chosen to eat and our fast food culture. I’m really divided on that issue. It’d be great if he [Obama] served better food at the White House than what I suspect the Bushies were serving. It’s gotta be better than Nixon. He liked starting up a roaring fire, turning up the air conditioning, and eating a bowl of cottage cheese with ketchup. Anything above that is a good thing. He’s from Chicago, so he knows what good food is.

I’m not sure where to start.

Clearly Bourdain understands neither the goals nor the motives of Waters’ political activities. No one is trying to legislate good eating habits. Well, maybe someone is, but it isn’t Alice.

Waters is one of a growing number of activists that recognize the government already has too big a hand in governing what we eat, specifically through controlling what is available. Currently the federal government (i.e. tax payers) subsidize the mass production of food and products known to cause heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

Decentralizing our food supply means putting our food production back into the hands of people who grow real food rather than high-fructose corn syrup and trans fat. Why this is “unrealistic” is beyond me.

His economic argument–as if Bourdain knows anything about being poor–is equally infuriating:

“We’re all in the middle of a recession, like we’re all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market.”

It is a common misconception that eating fresh, seasonal food is prohibitively expensive. This is simply not true. Sure the produce at Whole Foods is pricey (you pay for what you get), but their dry goods are inexpensive and of high quality.

You know what’s expensive? Brasserie Les Halles.

Farmers markets are becoming more prevalent every year and local, seasonal produce is some of the highest value food you can buy. Cooking at home is far more cost effective (in price, long-term health and often time) than eating out.

Once again, thanks for the advice Tony.

Does Alice Waters annoy the s*** out of you too?