I read a newspaper most days and then try to complete the easy crossword puzzle every evening. This is to aid my fight against dementia! I flip through the news and there are often articles on health and exercise. I sometimes watch television programmes relating to the same as I am interested in keeping myself as healthy as possible, as you’ve probably guessed!
Donald Trump introduced the term ‘fake news’. That is one way of getting out of situations when you are guilty or, in my case, trying to make sense of all the conflicting articles!
Years ago, when i lived in South Africa, someone somewhere decided that cabbage was carcinogenic! We subsequently never ate cabbage for years. Slightly burnt toast was the next hapless victim but my mother ignored this decree. She is eighty nine and still doesn’t have cancer.
Cooking spray, vegetable oil and even olive oil have warnings attached. You can’t cook with butter because it will raise your cholesterol and you’ll have a heart attack or stroke. If you have a Sunday roast it comes with dire warnings. Make sure that your vegetables don’t get too crispy or, heaven forbid, burn even slightly because that will significantly raise your risk of getting cancer.
Then we get to alcohol. This gets even more confusing! The first government guideline I can remember advised twenty eight units for men and twenty one for women. This was lowered to twenty one units for men and fourteen for women with at least two alcohol free days every week. Women should not have more than two small glasses of wine a day, which is two units so how can we be allowed fourteen units a week, two alcohol free days and not have any ‘binge’ days?
Then we got new government guidelines suggesting only seven units a week for both men and women! One female member of parliament has told us that every glass of wine we drink we have to understand that it will significantly raise our risk of getting breast cancer!
I have read a number of articles on dementia. In most of them it advises drinking a glass of read wine every night as part of a healthy diet. This will significantly reduce our risk of getting this awful disease! In the same newspaper and on the same day I read that the new government guidelines now suggest being teetotal is the only way to increase our life expectancy!
The diet that we are told is the best in the world is the Mediterranean one! They use a lot of olive oil which we have been told is carcinogenic if it gets even slightly burnt. They also drink a lot of wine! Perhaps their stress levels are lower and their weather significantly better than ours so maybe this could also play a part in their longevity? Or am I being precocious?
When it comes to exercise more confusion reigns! We have been told that road running is hazardous to knees and people my age should totally avoid it! On Monday I watched a programme that turned this directive on its head! Did you know that road running is actually very beneficial to knees and this has been scientifically proven!
I could write reams on this topic! I’m fortunately not as gullible as I was in my youth! I do enjoy good wine and roasts. I don’t have either every day. Moderation has become my new mantra. For me, doing the exercises I enjoy, keeping my weight at an achievable level and not depriving myself of any treats is the way to go!
I could get ridden over by a bus having never experienced a delicious Shiraz or a rare ribeye steak! Life is too short! I don’t have a crystal ball! I don’t want one! I just want a good quality of life. Don’t we all? 👠
Jenny Burrell 