"Neil Jones" wrote in message
...
Franz Heymann wrote:


"sw" wrote in message
...
Over the years I have grown tomatoes and had good success,
however I
have
now been told that they are linked to the arthritic feeling I get
in
my
hands. I stopped eating them and the feeling went away so there
must be
some truth in the matter. (Mores the pity as I love a freshly
picked
tomato)

Can anyone suggest a crop that I can grow next year that will
take
up a
similar amount of space and be just as nice picked and eaten
straight off
the plant?

This is what the arthritis foundation says.
http://www.arthritis.org/resources
arthritistoday/1999_archives/1999_09_10elimination_diets.asp



Tomatoes.

My wife is 78 and I am 80. We both eat tomatoes and red peppers
daily
as major components of our diet. Neither of us suffers from any
arthritis.
My neighbour is 78 and his wife is 75. They both love tomatoes
and he
cultivates them intensively in his greenhouse. Neither of them
have
ever complained about arthritis.

This isn't very good logic as far as I can see. I think it is
unliekly that
Tomatoes have a major part in arthritis but your argument is rather
like.
The famous Great aunt hypothesis and smoking.

I did not attempt any logical deduction in that statement. I made a
very straightforward statement of fact. Yes, it is anecdotal
evidence. Nevertheless, a cluster with 0 out of 4 does have a wee
bit of statistical significane.

"They say Smoking causes cancer but I had a great aunt who smoked 60
a day
and lived to 90"

A single incidence like that has almost zero statistical value.

ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE IS NOT EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE!

That's trivially right. Why did you shout it?

You have too small a sample to be sure of anything.

That is correct. But whoever wishes to, may add it to whatever sized
sample they already possess.

Franz