Addictive nut is driving record rates of cancer

I wanted to try some when I visited my gf in Taiwan more than a decade ago. She looked at me like I'm crazy and that ended there.

I did try kava in small Fijian island with no running water. It didn't do anything to me, but one of the guys there said "It's like a fine New Zealand wine"...

It has been synthesised. It's a mild stimulant but has a not-so-great toxicity profile. Probably best to leave it with the fibre you need to chew through.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecoline

Link from article: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac...

Figure 22: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cms/asset/30b954...

A less exciting title might be: "highest rates of oral cancers found in place where people habitually chew known carcinogen".

it is a newspaper. It gives no information whatsoever. Just speculations.

The only connection in that article to "the west" is a brief reference to two American doctors, one a surgeon who worked in Papua New Guinea and the second a cancer researcher at the University of Hawaii. The bulk of the article is about the struggles Papua New Guinea (and other non-western places) are having with an addictive substance.

I can find no mention of energy drinks in the article.

"Yeah, take the bezel nuts away and replace it with energy drinks... Seems hypocritical to me."

These nuts have been known to cause cancer for decades. It's much different than products, like energy drinks, that indirectly might cause health issues.