The risks of eating and drinking

Every day we are confronted with all kinds of hazards, many of which are inevitable. Consuming food and drinks is crucial for sustaining our lives but, unfortunately, is also associated with many possible and often fatal health dangers. These risks should not be taken lightly. This is reflected in the present rise in obesity-related diseases across the world’s developed countries. A trend that causes experts from the World Health Organization to worry about an increasing epidemic of overweight ( WHO/FAO, 2003). In the same way, health professionals in the public are more worried about the dramatic rise in coronary heart and diabetes ailments that are the result of an unhealthy and dangerous diet. Food is a source of many dangers to health, and acknowledging these could greatly improve the health of humans.

…obesity has been a major cause of death in the USA and is just behind smoking.

The extent to which people perceive and recognize the dangers of food and use this information to influence their eating and drinking habits and drinking habits is of major research significance. The article we present here will discuss the most important sources of health hazards and then discuss the implications for consumers’ perceptions about these risks. This article discusses general research that examines how people see risks and examines the motives for the apparent misperceptions of risk. We would also like to stress that in the face of a lack of scientific understanding, the concerns of consumers may be based on fact and that scientists and policymakers ought to examine the underlying causes of the beliefs of consumers to prevent future food- and drink-related health as well as policy issues.

An exhaustive list of all the hazards that come with drinking or eating is clearly outside the subject in this piece. Additionally, the type and intensity of dangers associated with food and drinks are often based on the time of consumption and the culture. For example, the absence of drinking water that is clean and free from microbial contamination is not a major health issue within the UK. However, it was a concern just 150 years ago and persists to be a problem across a large portion of the world’s developing. This is why we concentrate on the most common dangers in the food supply today with a focus on UK examples, but they may be relevant to other countries as well.

As per the UK Food Standards Agency (2000), the majority of cases of food poisoning caused by microbial contamination are caused by five different types of bacteria. These include Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia Coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium Perfringens. At least 81,000 cases of food poisoning were microbial within the UK in 2000 in 2000, with Campylobacter as well as Salmonella being responsible in 63,000 and 17,000 instances, respectively. The symptoms usually manifest within 12 to 36 hours and typically are abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. In general, bacterial contamination causes between 100 and 200 deaths per year, mainly in children as young as older. However, the true amount of foodborne illnesses could be much higher since many instances are not reported and/or uncovered. A prime example of severe food-borne illnesses is the infection of cattle with bovine-spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) as well as the consequent risk that comes with developing variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) which is a fatal human disease with no cure known to date that has accounted for around 100 deaths within the UK in the past.

Recent instances of chemical contamination of food items include the high amount of mercury in fish and high levels of the well-known carcinogen acrylamide that is introduced during the cooking process in some food items like chips and crisps. In the same way, grilling certain foods generates carcinogenic dioxins and nitroso compounds. In addition, contamination of food products by physical substances, like glass and metal, wood, insects, and many other things is a serious issue for food processors as well as packagers.

A lot of foods are laden with colorants, flavorings, preservatives, antioxidants, and preservatives. Some of these have been linked with negative health risks. Aspartame, a common sweetener, has been linked to ailments such as brain tumors as well as Parkinson’s disease, multiple-sclerosis as well as Alzheimer’s disease, attention deficit disorder, and arthritis ( Chivers, 2000). Sulphite, a preservative, can trigger asthma as well as urticaria (Allergy Clinic 2003). Another preservative, butylated-hydroxytoluene (BHT), while not toxic by itself, could be in contact with other substances and increase the risk of developing cancer ( Magnuson, 1997).