Choose the yum(美味的东西) and risk the yuk(讨厌的东西)? Scientists have given us a lot of health warnings. The advice from cancer experts for avoiding bowel(肠) cancer is "try to avoid processed(加工过的) meats such as bacon, ham, corned beef and some sausages", and women fearing breast cancer are told "there doesn't seem to be a starting point at which alcohol consumption is safe", But all these health warnings tend to have little influence on behavior, So who is being unreasonable —the scientists who give us health advice, or the public that just ignores it? The curious fact is that both might be right. The reasoning behind these health warnings seems to be this: if you do more of something pleasurable (which we shall give the name “yum”) there is a higher risk of something bad (which we shall give the name “yuk”)occurring, so you should avoid yum. But when presented with this argument you might ask two questions. First, maybe the pleasure of yum makes the risk worth taking, especially if yuk might occur a long time in the future? Second, maybe there are other benefits of yum that could cancel out the risks of the particular yuk that has been identified (确认) ? So suppose bacon sandwiches are your particular yum: research shows that 50g per day — that is a great greasy sandwich — increases your risk of bowel cancer by 20%. But this means that out of every 100 people who stuffed down that big bacon sandwich every day of their lives, the number of bowel cancers would rise from five to six. In addition, if a middle-aged woman gave up alcohol, it might reduce her risk of breast cancer, but could increase risk of some other cancers as well as heart disease. So we need to look at the whole picture before trying to get people to change what they do, since everything has benefit and harms — just think of the joggers(慢跑者) who get knocked down by cars — and people need to be able to find their own balance. Therefore, as you reach for your yum, perhaps sometimes pause a moment and realize that you are taking a gamble(赌博) on the yuk occurring, but that it may be a risk worth taking. 小题1:What is the advice given by scientists for avoiding breast cancer?
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