Strawberries are the dirtiest and coffee causes cancer？ April rumor inventory

　　deny/refute/spike a rumour

　　Coffee contains carcinogens; Strawberries are the "dirtiest fruits and vegetables"; Mice become masters after eating genetically modified crops; Latin dance can lead to precocious puberty … … In the past month, there are still various rumors spread on the Internet. However, how can rumor fighters make rumors prevail, so let’s put these rumors in the sun of science now.

　　Proverbs 1

　　Starbucks coffee causes cancer.

　　Recently, whether you drink coffee or not, you may have heard the so-called "Starbucks coffee causes cancer". The reason is that the judgment of the Los Angeles High Court in California shows that coffee contains acrylamide, a carcinogen, and all coffee products are required to be labeled as "carcinogenic".

　　Truth: Hong Guangyu, a senior media person in the field of food safety, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that the California court required the coffee sold in this state to be marked with a cancer warning on the grounds that acrylamide contained in coffee was classified as a "probable carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and its complete meaning should be "limited evidence of carcinogenicity to humans and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity to experimental animals". And the list of carcinogens listed by IARC refers to the strength of evidence, not to the "carcinogenic risk" of the substance.

　　Hong Guangyu explained that acrylamide is naturally formed when coffee beans are roasted, which is the key to the formation of coffee flavor, and its content in coffee is extremely low. Acrylamide does have clear evidence that it causes cancer in animals, but there is no scientific evidence and no epidemiological investigation to prove that it causes cancer when it is ingested as an ingredient in food.

　　Some experts have estimated that when the human body ingests 2.6 micrograms to 16 micrograms of acrylamide per kilogram of body weight every day, there will be a risk of cancer. According to this calculation, a coffee lover weighing 55 kilograms has a daily acrylamide tolerance of 143 micrograms. A cup of 160 ml black coffee has an average acrylamide content of 0.45 micrograms. He has to drink at least 318 cups of black coffee every day to be at risk of cancer. Therefore, ordinary people drink several cups of coffee every day, which is far from enough to reach the carcinogenic dose.

　　"Therefore, the decision of the California court is only ‘ Do it according to the law ’ It does not mean that drinking coffee in reality will cause cancer. " Hong Guangyu said.

　　Proverbs 2

　　Strawberries are the "dirtiest fruits and vegetables"

　　Recently, the Environmental Work Organization (EWG), an environmental protection agency in the United States, listed 12 kinds of the dirtiest and 15 kinds of the cleanest fruits and vegetables according to the detection results of pesticide residues in conventionally grown agricultural products by the United States Department of Agriculture. Among the dirtiest fruits and vegetables, Kusanagi ranked first for three consecutive years.

　　Truth: Lan Wei, a researcher at Fuyang Normal University who has been engaged in high-quality and efficient cultivation techniques of strawberries for many years, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that the statement that strawberries are "the dirtiest fruits and vegetables" is very one-sided. "First of all, we must clarify a concept that pesticide residues are not necessarily harmful. The fruits and vegetables we usually eat inevitably have some low-toxic and slightly toxic pesticide residues. In the process of strawberry cultivation in traditional greenhouse, some high-efficiency and low-toxicity biological pesticides with disease resistance and some easily decomposed pesticides are applied, but they are mainly applied in the early flowering stage and less in the fruit stage, and these pesticides are sprayed for 5-mdash; After 6 days, the decomposition is very fast, and the residual concentration in the fruit is very small. "

　　Yun Wuxin, a doctor majoring in food engineering, also said that EWG is an environmental protection organization in the United States. They are neither a government management department nor an academic institution, but a private organization that advocates environmental protection. The criterion for determining the safety of fruits and vegetables is not whether pesticide residues are detected, nor how many kinds of pesticide residues are detected, but whether pesticide residues exceed the standard. The detection of pesticide residues does not mean that these foods are harmful to health. It is totally meaningless to talk about harm without the amount of pesticide residues and control standards.

　　So, don’t be misled by the list of the dirtiest fruits and vegetables. In daily life, we need to remember that it is a necessary food safety habit to thoroughly clean and pay attention to hygiene, whether it is "using pesticides" or "not using pesticides".

　　Proverbs 3

　　Mice become masters after eating genetically modified crops.

　　Recently, a video posted on the Internet showed that a giant rat weighing more than 30 kilograms appeared on a farm, and four medium-sized dogs struggled with it and finally subdued it. The text forwarded with the video said: "This happened in Heilongjiang 853 Farm. After investigation, it was because rats ate genetically modified soybeans and corn. It was terrible!"

　　Truth: Jiang Tao, a senior engineer at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that the animals in the video are not mice. From the rough figure and fuzzy tail, they look like marmots, also known as woodchucks and ground squirrels. They are typical harmful animals in agriculture and animal husbandry. What can be confirmed is that this animal has nothing to do with "mice become sperm" and "genetically modified food". It is the conclusion of scientific research that eating genetically modified crops will not cause gene mutation.

　　"The nature of the gene itself, such as in what species and how much it is expressed, is mainly determined by the DNA sequence of the non-coding region of the gene. This kind of information has ‘ Dialect ’ The characteristics are very different between different species and are a natural barrier for the expression of genetic information between species. " Jiang Tao explained that the genes of transgenic plants have plant properties. If they are not properly modified in vitro and transformed into genes with animal properties, even if they are deliberately transferred into animal cells, they will not have any activity. Therefore, there will be no genetic mutation when eating genetically modified crops.

　　Proverbs 4

　　Latin dance leads to precocious puberty

　　Recently, an article entitled "9-year-old girl’s precocious puberty is ineffective." The doctor asked: Are you learning Latin dance? The article is widely spread on social media platforms. The article points out that there is a certain connection between Latin dance and children’s precocious puberty. The article explains that Latin dance is a kind of social dance, which requires strong interaction between dancers. Before and after puberty, the body is very sensitive to gender information. It may be that a healthy and ordinary action or look in the eyes of adults will start the switch in the brain during adolescence.

　　Truth: Associate Professor Wu Xi, Department of Endocrinology, Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, pointed out that there may be observation deviation in the views in this article. At present, there is no scientific research in academic circles to prove that Latin dancing is directly related to precocious puberty, and it is impossible to explain that Latin dancing can lead to precocious puberty through one-sided inquiry or individual cases. At present, it has not been found in medicine that the "switch" of sexual development can be started through sight, hearing or smell, and there is no clear causal relationship between the two.

　　According to the definition of "Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Precocious Puberty (Trial)" issued by the former Ministry of Health in 2010, precocious puberty means that boys have secondary sexual characteristics before the age of 9, and girls have secondary sexual characteristics before the age of 8 or menstrual cramps before the age of 10.

　　Wu Xi pointed out that to prevent precocious puberty, parents should not only let their children develop good eating habits and not consume too much energy, but also be careful not to let their children eat contraceptives by mistake. If you find that your child has the above symptoms, you should go to a regular hospital in time.

　　Our reporter Ma Aiping