Researchers at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center are currently feeding gossypol, a cancer-fighting substance found in cotton, to chickens. The idea is that if they feed it to chickens and then we eat the chicken and eggs, we will then have the perfect cancer-fighting food. What absolute lunacy!

We all know that around two thirds of cancers are caused by life style choices - too much red meat, obesity, excessive alcohol, smoking and inactivity increase our risk of cancer. We also know that the foods that help us prevent and recover from cancer are fresh vegetables and fruit, especially those high in antioxidants and phytochemicals. More importantly, there are not any foods which originate from animals which are thought to contain ingredients which fight cancer; quite the contrary - red meat is strongly associated with cancers such as bowel and breast.

It is also important to remember that the vast majority of chickens are reared intensively which means they are fat, unhealthy birds full of antibiotics. To add gossypol to chicken feed and then promote the eggs and flesh of these sick birds as healthy and cancer-fighting would be nothing short of a disaster for our health.

It is not necessary to create the perfect cancer-fighting food. They already exist. What is needed is education, not research. This is seriously the craziest thing I have ever heard, it’s not April 1 is it?