On Tue, 21 Nov 2000, Richard Archer wrote:

>
> [...CJD conspiracy theory snipped...]
>

Most people have no difficulty differentiating a conspiracy from a
neurological disease.

>
> 80 people in what... 10 years?
>

This is known as the incubation period. A worrying feature of new variant CJD
is the greatly reduced incubation period, resulting in many children dying.

>
> How many people have died in the last 10 years from eating foods
> recommended by doctors, dietitians and cereal lobbies?
>

A great many, I suspect, but this has nothing to do with CJD.

>
> I could probably name 10 people I knew personally who would probably
> still be alive if they followed a Paleo diet.
>

And I could name 80 people who would still be alive if they hadn't eaten
infected beef.

>
> "could be". The expected number of deaths from the disease in the UK
> is less than 6000 [figure from that web site you referred to].
>

The latest study is based on an analysis of 2000 tissue samples taken from
hospitals across the UK. So the website figure is out of date. So what ?

>
> You have more chance of getting run down crossing the street than
> dying from CJD.
>

The fact that a totally unrelated event has a lower probability of occurring
tells us nothing about the disease, and is once again irrelevant.

>
> Personally, I will take my chances with beef products along with a
> wide variety of other meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
>

Have you made an honest appraisal of the data and come to an informed
decision, or are the implications for your particular diet too unthinkable and
so you have chosen to ignore the problem ?

>
> If you believe all the stuff on the web site you referred to (which
> appears to be run by a single individual), what on earth do you eat?
> The site says wild animals are going mad at a shocking rate, it says
> there is no barrier to cross-species contagion, says sheep and pigs
> already have some form of CJD. You cannot eat any meat from land
> animals and cannot eat farmed fish (because they are often fed
> bonemeal). What about plants grown on land fertilised with
> blood-and-bone?
>

The link was offered as a reference only.

>
> Most everyone on this list has come to realise that what you read in
> the popular press and even in medical journals often bears little
> resemblance to truth. So called "scientific studies" can be produced
> to prove any point you care to name.
>

Most everyone on this list has come to realise that the interests of big
agro-business rarely coincides with the well being of the individual. There are
many bad scientific studies about, and there are many good ones also.

>
> If we all believed "the latest study" regarding diet we would all be
> happily chowing down on bread, margarine and potato deep fried in
> trans-fatty acids. We would all fall over dead from a heart attack or
>

Fortunately, most people on this list are more discerning.

> If there is any lesson to be learned from the CJD scare it is that
> all animals should be fed biologically appropriate foods. And humans
> are just another animal -- bring on a paleo diet!
>

If there is any lesson to be learned from the CJD scare it is that people
shouldn't eat prion infected meat.

Andy.