Rumor A: Drinking milk causes cancer.
Truth: There is no reliable scientific proof to this — milk is still a healthy food.
The rumor that milk and dairy products cause cancer has been widely circulated among the public, and a recent paper titled "Dairy Intake and Cancer Risk in Adults" seems to give this claim a measure of "scientific" proof.
The study was conducted on 500,000 Chinese people over an 11 year period. The data showed a significant positive association between dairy intake and the risk of cancer — those who consumed dairy products regularly had a higher overall risk of developing cancer. At the same time, the study data also pointed out the health benefits of drinking milk.
"There have been studies on whether milk is carcinogenic in academic circles at home and abroad, and researchers generally believe that drinking milk is beneficial to the human body. Up to now, there is no reliable scientific basis for the claim that milk causes cancer, while its benefits are clear," said professor Wang Huaqing, director of the Oncology Diagnostic and Treatment Center of Tianjin People's Hospital, in an interview with Science and Technology Daily, adding that milk and dairy products are still recommended to the public as high-quality food in the nutritional dietary guidelines of most countries in the world.
According to Wang, the key to a healthy diet is a balanced diet. "It's best for people to eat more than 12 kinds of food every day and 25 kinds every week. We should not demonize or deify a certain type of food. In our dietary structure, the calcium intake of residents is generally insufficient, so the recently released Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022) recommends a daily intake of 300 ml to 500 ml of milk or corresponding dairy products," he said.
Rumor B: Enoki mushrooms contain formaldehyde.
Truth: The pungent smell is produced by the enoki mushroom itself.
Enoki mushroom is a popular mushroom product, but recently, there are some "scientific" articles such as one saying, "It has a bad smell and contains formaldehyde, and the vegetable vendor never eats it himself" circulating on WeChat moments. According to the article, the common enoki mushroom in the vegetable market contains formaldehyde, which not only hurts the liver and kidney, but also causes cancer.
Professor Ban Litong at Tianjin Agricultural University told Science and Technology Daily that the pungent odor is not caused by the addition of formaldehyde, but the change in temperature during transportation results in the enoki mushroom switching from aerobic respiration to anaerobic respiration and then produces volatile aldehyde gas.
Some netizens said that adding formaldehyde to enoki mushrooms is for bleaching. In response, Ban said the enoki mushroom was indeed yellow originally, and the reason why it turned white was not the result of bleaching with formaldehyde. "Today, most of the enoki mushrooms on the market are new varieties originating from Japan. Japanese researchers found a genetic mutation in the yellow enoki mushroom, and then kept it for breeding. The white enoki mushroom not only has a good color, but also grows fast and neatly," he said.
China's Food Safety Law and Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Law clearly stipulates that formaldehyde shall not be used as processing aids for food production. That is to say, it's illegal to add formaldehyde to food in any way.