Leafy Greens Top Risky Food List

Re:Leafy Greens Top Risky Food List by billswift on Wednesday October 07, 2009 @11:35AM (#866890)

"The 10 types of foods included in the list account for nearly 40 percent of all foodborne illness outbreaks linked to FDA-regulated foods since 1990"

"50,000 illnesses were linked to these 10 foods"

50 000 * 2.5 = 125 000 illnesses (125 000 * 40% = 50 000)

125 000 / 19 years = 6580 illnesses per year

6580 illnesses and a population of 300 million means that there will be 1case of reported food-borne illness for every 45 000 people in a year. Compared to how many cases I remember from when I was a teenager in the 1970s, this is incredibly few.

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Re:Leafy Greens Top Risky Food List by DanielStraight on Wednesday October 07, 2009 @12:46PM (#867055)

Also important, the number of people affected by unhealthy diet will be substantially higher. This is why they say there are three types of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. Risky foods, to me, are ones that are likely to give you a heart attack when you're 35. Ones that give you a 1:45000 chance of illness (to say nothing of serious complications) are quite safe.

Not to mention, we aren't exactly comparing apples to apples here. Leafy greens covers a heck of a lot more individual food items than oysters.

It just goes to show that you should never, ever take statistics at face value.

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