According to Statistics

I just heard a doctor on TV tell the viewing public how dangerous it is to drink soda pop. The latest warning comes from a study of many people who were stricken with pancreatic cancer, and it was determined that the cause was that they drank soda pop while they were still alive. Even two cans a week can be lethal. He said it was the sugar in the pop that did it, but the sugar in fruit juice was safe. I think the doctor owns some orange groves somewhere.

I read in the paper last week that soda pop if ingested, can help destroy the calcium in your body.

On my last visit to the clinic for a check-up, the doctor remarked, "I'm concerned about your drinking a can or two of pop every day." But my calcium test proved normal, so I don't think I

have to go on the soda pop wagon just yet.

I'll bet if you ask the recycling guys how many empty pop cans they pick up each week, you would hardly be surprised. Nation-wide it must run into the millions of aluminum cans. Of course there are many other dangers that we flirt with constantly, but only once in awhile do we have to pay for our outlandish behavior. And a lot of the time, we don't have to pay until the end of our lives. Statistics have substantiated that.

For years, I have figured that I would die from pancreatic cancer because my aunt Esther died from it, and I look a little like she did. Studies have shown that if you resemble your aunt in one thing, you will take after her in another thing. There was no study made of uncles. But, even so, I am happy to say that I did not look like either one of my uncles. They liked their drinks an awful lot stronger than pop. Both died in their sixties. Heart.

Through the years one study or another told us not to cook in aluminum pots, or we would get demented earlier than normal. Oleo margarine had some coloring in it that would do us some harm, but butter wasn't much safer. Fried chicken had some kind of a dangerous hormone in it, so hubby told me not to serve chicken anymore as no chicken was going to fool around with his hormones. I broke my wedding vow and disobeyed him and kept right on frying chicken. (actually, I baked it coated with Shake and Bake). And don't forget about the mercury in some fish. Reminds me of the time the Pope said his people could now eat meat on Fridays. So hubby made a new rule that I was supposed to obey, and that was------in order to keep the fishermen in business, we would now have fish every Friday.

No kidding! Of course, I had to break that wedding vow again. I didn't care much for that vow, anyway, and I think they quit putting it in there some time ago. They finally wised up.

The cows in Minnesota some time ago might have been eating grass laced with strontium 90 which was radio- active stuff, and very dangerous. My milk was delivered by a very nice milkman and one time I had to tell him his milk tasted awful. Secretly, I thought it might be the strontium 90, but he did some investigation and found out that his cows had gotten into a pasture and were eating some kind of weed that made the milk taste awful! They corrected that problem.

I'm glad milk doesn't come in aluminum cans or we all might age faster than normal. And of course, the baby's plastic milk bottles are suspect right now. I'm not sure what happens when babies drink milk from those bottles but everything can't be harmful! But I guess statistics prove otherwise.

Take care.