Some years ago, I spent a night at one of Karachi’s private hospitals following a change in my battery — literally, as I had my pacemaker replaced. On the morning following the procedure, breakfast arrived in the form of a pale, anaemic looking omelette and a toast (no butter). I asked the nurse what kind of eggs had been used, and she said the yolks had been removed. Already in an irritable mood, I’m afraid I was rather short with her for having offered me such an abomination.

The reason I was so curt was that I had recently read reports about a meta-study — an aggregation of several large-scale studies — that absolved eggs from any role in raising plaque in the blood, thereby contributing to heart attacks. Since then, I have been eating a couple of eggs for breakfast on most mornings. But I do try and find eggs from free-range hens as the thought of imprisoned, battery-raised birds is very depressing.

This is just one instance of bad science causing millions to forego the simple pleasures of the table. Other examples abound. For instance, for decades we had been told that red meat was bad for us, and was to be avoided like the plague. So while we enviously eyed the guys at the next table tucking into rare fillet steak, we virtuously ordered chicken breast as it was supposed to have a lower cholesterol count.

Now you can enjoy your eggs and steak as recent scientific studies have debunked a lot of myths related to various food items

Now, for the benefit of carnivores like me, a report assures us that there is no link between red meat and heart disease or diabetes. A Harvard study looking at data from a million people, and a European study covering 450,000, have both come to the same conclusion: red meat does not pose a health risk. What is bad for you is processed meat like sausages.

When we are in Sri Lanka for much of the winter, our diet consists mostly of fish which I felt was doing my body a lot of good. So I pretended I didn’t really miss my steak. But now that this new report has come along, I will feel seriously deprived when faced with the prospect of an unending succession of fishy meals, excellent though they are. As my gosht-khor son Shakir said after spending a week with us: “I’d kill for a cheeseburger.”

The other thing central to my well-being that has been cleared recently is coffee. Doctors had spoken darkly about the link between coffee and heart disease as well as cancer. Now they admit they have been wrong all along. As I hate instant coffee as well as that horror called decaffeinated coffee, I am delighted that I can continue to drink the real stuff, not that I ever stopped.

Butter was another item that was on the medical profession’s hit list. Margarine, we were told, contained none of butter’s deadly substances, and should therefore be made a substitute. Now this bit of nonsense, too, has been turned on its head: margarine is bad for you while butter is perfectly kosher. In fact, butter lowers the bad cholesterol (LDL), and raises the good kind (HDL). Furthermore, there is no link between dairy products and obesity. So dig into the brie and the camembert without feeling guilty.

Then we were told to reduce our intake of salt as it is supposed to push up our blood pressure. Now, normal use of salt is deemed to be fine; reducing it in your diet results in such a small fall in blood pressure so as to be almost meaningless. And yet generations of high blood pressure patients have had to eat bland, tasteless food because medical researchers got it wrong.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play