Understanding Health Risks: Fact vs. Fiction

You might have been told by a doctor that you are at risk for a concerning health condition, such as cancer or a heart attack. Or you might have read something about “reducing your risk.” What do such statements mean? You can make the best decisions if you understand what a health “risk factor” is and what it is not.

A risk factor increases the chance that you can predict if someone (including yourself!) will develop a specific undesirable health outcome. That is because the risk factor makes the undesirable outcome more likely.

An example will help you understand this. Imagine I told you there are two people, Person A and Person B. That’s all you know. One of them is developing heart disease, and you have to predict which one. With no information to go on, you will randomly choose A or B.

Next, you find out A smoked cigarettes for 30 years, and B never smoked. You know that smoking is a risk factor for heart disease. That additional fact will likely lead you to guess that A is the one developing this disease. And you will probably be right but you won’t always be right.

That’s because there are many risk factors for heart disease (and most other diseases). And there are protective factors as well. Protective factors, such as a whole food, plant-based diet, decrease the chance of developing an undesirable health outcome. So you would need to know more about A and B to make the most accurate prediction of which one is developing heart disease. Still, knowing about the smoking is an excellent place to start.

This understanding will help you make better decisions. A friend may tell you a story about their Uncle Joe, who smoked for fifty years, ate nothing but fried chicken, and never exercised. But Uncle Joe lived to be 100. Yet Uncle Jim, who was a model of healthy habits, was overcome by heart disease at age 55.

It’s tempting, but unwise, to make health decisions based on these kinds of stories, which don’t represent how the world usually works. Risk and protective factors are discovered by careful scientific study – not by selective examples of random people.

Some don’t pay attention to this, saying such factors don’t guarantee results 100% of the time and so can be safely ignored. This is like saying that if you have $1,000 cash, it does not matter if you put it in an insured bank account or leave it in a cardboard box on the street. Either way you might lose the money – or not! But one choice is clearly protective, while the other is obviously risky.

Diets based on whole plant foods have been shown in a mountain of published research studies to be protective factors against most major diseases that are causes of death in developed countries. Choosing whole plant foods – such as veggies, whole grains, beans, and fruit – is an easy way to increase the likelihood you will have health outcomes you want.

If you’re in San Diego, you can start reducing your health risks today with Plant Based Meals delicious whole-food, plant-based choices. Your food is delivered fresh, never frozen, for outstanding taste and maximum nutrition. Their tempting selection of meals changes weekly. Eating whole food, plant-based has never been more convenient.

Post written by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. She is a nutrition educator and speaker.

This is an educational article and does not provide medical advice. Results cannot be guaranteed, and may vary from person to person.