Health & Eating
I’m loving the theme of this week’s bumper copy of My Weekly because in the melee of consumerism, plain, simple, sensible messages about health and wellbeing get buried. Why is this? My theory is because sound, practical advice isn’t headline grabbing, it doesn’t sell books, DVD’s, promote YouTube sites or have scroll stopping Instagram seduction. Yet the sage advice steeped in science and social studies if followed by all would go some way to ‘Saving’ the NHS.
About a year ago an American magazine showed us a photograph of a packed Florida beach taken in the 70’s everyone was having a good time in the water, sunbathing, eating food from picnics, playing games. They then showed us a second picture taken recently from the same vantage point, with the question, Spot the difference. Well, everyone’s hair was definitely shorter, logos were everywhere, especially on clothes, but the most obvious and terrifying was the size of the people. In the first shot you’d be hard pushed to find anyone vastly overweight yet in the second it portrayed harshly the US’s biggest killer: obesity. What used to be the American disease is now ours with current figures showing 63.9% of us being dangerously overweight or clinically obese. Tomes have been written on how the problem has manifested, but in the theme of our subject this week lets delve into history. We’ve all heard the phrase “You are what you eat”, well those exact words were coined by American radio presenter, health food osteopathic physician Victor Lindlahr. In You Are What You Eat’ writer, and 1940 he wrote a book entitled ‘ selling over half a million copies. He was attacked at the time with his low carb diet referred to as nutritional, which ought not to be on anyone’s shelves. Ironically this was the same year McDonalds opened its door for the first time. I wish I could tell you something enlightening but the bottom line when it comes to our general health is what we’ve known all along – its largely to do with the food we eat, the amount we move, the number of indulgencies we allow ourselves and lifestyle choices we make. We can lay the blame on so many doorsteps temptation via advertising being the most popular but to be brutally honest it comes down to us and our ability to say ‘no don’t be daft that’s not good for me, you don’t have my best interests at heart just your bank account in fact lets go a stage further you don’t even have the farmers, growers or animals interests at heart!’ We have the best of everything and yet the worst of everything. quackery
Did you know for the first time in world history more people are dying from overeating than starvation, every time I read that fact, I want to cry at what man has done to itself. So, let’s make sure in 2023 we rise above the hype and remind ourselves we’ve been on the planet for long enough to know what is good for us and what isn’t.
Love,
Anthea X
PS Don’t forget wine is just a bunch of grapes made easier to digest, good for the soul and arguably one of our 5 a day!!