Generalizations are generally risky.

But too often, celebrity doctors focus too much on the hypothetical and not enough on the things that actually make people barf.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show, and Dr. Mike Roizen, chief medical officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute wrote in a recent column that food safety is a big concern for North Americans.

OK.

The good doctors’ idea of food safety is to ban agricultural use of antibiotics and clean up other aspects of the “food-pollution” problem such as growth hormones, artificial dyes and pesticides.

There are risks and benefits to any agricultural technology, meaning they require careful consideration and use.

The antibiotic apocalypse has been just about to happen since the Swann report of 1969.

The pesticide pestilence has been imminent since Silent Spring of 1962, renewed with Alar in 1989.

Food coloring?

Cry wolf.

People pick their poisons. Sometimes those choices are informed by data, sometimes by preference and learned behavior.

I have my own risk-benefit schizophrenia, as do most folks. So it’d be hypocritical to tell people what to choose or do. My job is to provide information in a compelling manner and adults can choose while protecting their kids.

Sanctimonious doctors sidestepping data in pursuit of ratings doesn’t help anyone.