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Comment by dekhn | Hacker News Reader

No health claim is ever proven. Even with overwhelming evidence for a claim we can't really say it's proven. At best we can say we have very high confidence, supported by a lot of data.

Further, what exactly are we supposed to believe? Should we read the NY Times or Nature and just accept that what gets published there is the absolute truth? As we know, many paradigms have been overturned over the years- sometimes requiring heroic efforts to change the status quo. Many of the health claims about cholesterol, fat intake, and other diet/nutrition have turned out to be less important that originally believed.

There are a few exceptions and even then I wouldn't call them "proof". For example, smoking causes cancer- we have enough evidence to safely conclude actual causality (multiple replicated double-blind experiments).

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As a complete non-expert, as far as I can tell, the only true agreement out there is that certain very specific substances are bad for you if you consume them too often. That's tobacco, alcohol, painkillers...and that's about it for consensus ones, with alcohol having wiggle room among the public thanks to some poor studies.

Just about every other piece of nutrition advice out there can easily be categorized as controversial. Not in the sense that one side is obviously stupid or malicious, but in the sense that both sides earnestly think they are right.

> that certain very specific substances are bad for (for the general population) if you consume them too often

There are people who smoke their entire lives, die at 90, and tobacco had nothing to do with their individual deaths or even really any tangible negative health outcomes. There are people who drink or smoke pot every day and it has nothing to do with their deaths or quality of life. There are people who have steak and eggs cooked in butter every morning with no cholesterol or cardiac problems.

As a whole, people who do these things have a statistically higher probability of having negative outcomes. On an individual basis, there is a lot of variation as to what the actually effect might be.

Poison moves this probability towards 100%.

Alcohol is bad for you regardless of the frequency, not “if you consume them too often”. It’s literally a neurotoxin and metabolic toxin aka poison.

And going to the pub once a week is terrific for your social life and mental wellbeing.

Swings and roundabouts init.

It sure is, especially when you can visit one without succumbing to peer pressure to poison yourself.

What a sanctimonious response!

Drink tea in the pub if you must, though the social lubricant of alcohol is obvious to all.

Drink and be merry my friend!

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