"Five a day" and healthy eating.

Latest research seems to go back and forward on healthy eating. 5 a day of fruit/veg seems to be regarded universally as beneficial for your health. There was some recent talk about increasing the recommended dose to 7 a day. However new worldwide research has apparently concluded 5 a day is right and that there is no additional beneficial effect by consuming more. I assume the reality is - your body benefits from a certain amount but excess is discarded as waste!

My point on this issue is the quality of the fruit and veg we consume.

Seasonality in vegetables are pretty much a thing of the past - particularly if you shop in supermarkets. there is nothing you cannot buy all year round - be it strawberries, lettuce or new potatoes - it is all there. How is this possible?

Some of it of course is imported from more favourable climes, but much of it is "forced" in UK (or Spanish) football pitch sized glass houses - fed by artificial light and hydroponics. I am sure much of the salad we consume has never seen soil - it is grown in water with a mix of chemicals. It is also cloned and hybridized to produce a standard product, grown (forced) quickly for profit and of course likely to have been regularly sprayed with bug retardants!

So with this is mind am I happy with my 5 or 7 a day?

I grow quite a lot of my own veg - and some fruit. I am lucky enough to have an allotment. I fertilise it with compost made by me, horse manure collected by me and seaweed gathered by me from the beach. I am entirely an organic grower - not a single chemical used.

But it is hard time consuming work. Of course it is massively seasonal and I acknowledge  produce would be lost without the use of a freezer but there are other and more traditional drying and storing methods.

Personally I have no doubt the effort is worth it. In many instances it does taste better, there is also the considerable satisfaction of growing your own food - but perhaps the main thing is I understand how it was grown and that it is unadulterated.

The reality is however that most people do not have the time or the opportunity to grow their own. Even someone like me struggles to grow more than 50% of what we consume.

So what to do?

My thought is to buy seasonal and local if you can. Much less salad in the winter - winter greens instead. I could make a list - but I am not going to - research it yourself. Having said all of that I would not beat myself up over it. As long as some of what I am eating is pretty decent I am massively better off than the junk food brigade.

Bin Laden - has he won - he is certainly winning.

Bin Laden's motives and strategy are well understood but despite this understanding the world seems unable to resist his vision and he is clearly winning if not quite won.The world is becoming an even more brutal vicious place as a result.

Bin Laden wanted to live in a world run by Sharia Law.

He called for violent Jihad against 4 stated enemies of Islam -  America and the West (and anyone who supports them), Jews, Shia Muslims, and Israel (to be eliminated).

Bin Laden's ideology included the concept that civilians, including women and children, are legitimate targets of jihad.

Bin Laden's overall strategy against much larger enemies such as the Soviet Union and United States was to lure them into a long war of attrition in Muslim countries, attracting large numbers of jihadists who would never surrender. He believed this would lead to economic collapse of the enemy nations. Al-Qaeda manuals clearly express this strategy. In a 2004 tape broadcast by al-Jazeera, Bin Laden spoke of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy".

Al -Queda and associated groups might be a long way from creating bankruptcy but the Jihadists are growing and Muslim Fundamentalism has real traction.

Future - Sooner or later the West will respond again because the long tentacles of Bin Laden's philosophy is only focused on our destruction. There is no stomach for overt fighting in the West right now - but Jihad will not go away and our way of life including the lives of our women and children are clearly stated as legitimate Jihad targets. 

Hatred will boil and boil. (apparently acts of anti-Semitism are increasing here in the UK). Muslim's will increasing be branded as a threat. Opinions will be polarised. Civil war is not impossible to conceive.

What is the solution - ignore Jihad it will gain momentum - success will breed success. Fight it and more young Muslims will be attracted to Jihad because of a sense they are defending their religion. A nightmare.

Swimming in the sea - extolling the pleasure!

It is early morning - warm and humid. It is going to be another scorcher.

I live by the sea on the Isle of Wight. So do 125000 other people - and of course there will be countless holidaymakers.

How many of them swim in the sea. I guess a small minority.

Why only a small minority - in my opinion the majority are missing out on one of natures simplest and most wonderful pleasures - particularly an early morning or early evening swim as the sun's beams lay across the shimmering sea.

Swimming at any time I am sure is good for you - but swimming in salt water has an extra special feeling - you are more buoyant - the salt tang in the air is lovely and the feeling of tide and ripples washing past you is so uplifting.

The key to sea swimming though is actually swimming. So many people gingerly make their way in - holding themselves rigid against the cold water - duck in and out - they have had their dip. Brave - something to talk about - but a missed opportunity. Get in and swim - the water is often warmer on the surface - you adjust and quickly forget about the intial mild shock - ha!. The whole thing is just great.

So get over the thought of crabs biting your little tootsies - it doesn't happen and if it does it is nothing. Don't threat about cleanliness - just use your sense (like avoid harbours) - choose your spot - trust the tide and the salt to do the rest. It has to be better than swimming up and down in a swimming pool maintained  by a cocktail of chemicals.

Go for it - and it is free. Signing off now - shall have a 20 minute splash - then a lovely coffee and breakfast - perfect.

#Brownlee's and Triathlon

These two baby faced brothers have conquered the Triathlon world between them. They have both been world champions, they have Olympic medals including gold and now Commonwealth medals - gold and silver. Triathlon is one of the toughest sports - no doubt technical too - but the Brownlee's make light of it.

They are two lads that love their sport. No histrionics, no complicated analysis. They just get stuck in. They train hard - eat normally - live normally. They laugh a lot. They can be serious but do not take themselves seriously. They shrug their shoulders if they lose and come back harder next time.They are a breath of fresh air. (After they won their medals yesterday in a very hot hard race - they put on their rucksacks and cycled home!)

What a contrast to many athletes - always banging on about being "healthy" or more particularly "not healthy". Over complex training regimes. Little joy. Little fun.

The Brownlee's are an example of what sport should be about. Great lads.

Global village and value for money. Economic reality.

This is GCSE level economics. Despite that many fail to grasp it. Many wilfully choose to deny it because it does not suit their agenda.

The economic reality is :-

As consumers we seek best value for money. If a product is not competitive it will not sell. This is even more apparent now with online shopping. We can easily determine price, we can quite easily make a good stab at determining quality. We shop at the supermarket - not at the corner shop - because it offers more that we want - price, quality, range - convenience.

Global village. Consumers in reality are not much bothered where something is made or produced. I'm Backing Britain campaigns can be novel but they are unsustainable and do not work. If a product can be imported to sell here and it is judged best value for money it will sell. Our producers, our companies are competing against producers and companies worldwide. We are living in a global village. China manufactures. Indian call centres. Cut flowers from Kenya! Cars and machinery from everywhere. Just about everything we need can come from abroad. Our exporters have to the best on offer in their markets.

If you put these two basic factors what do you get.

Producer companies have to be very focused on the cost of production in order to be competitive. Labour costs, regulatory costs, taxation cost are massive factors. If unit wage costs are too high, or if companies are burdened with too much red tape, or if corporate and other taxes are higher than elsewhere - the company will not be able to remain competitive. It will go out of business or as often happens - relocate elsewhere in the global village - where production costs are cheaper.

The lesson is if politicians - particular Labour - force up wage costs - put up personal and corporate tax - our companies will not be competitive. They will flounder or go elsewhere. Jobs will be lost - tax revenues will drop. Welfare state costs will increase. As an aside if any government lets its public sector out compete its private sector on wages and pensions - the country is on a road to ruin - because it is killing the source of its income - the private sector. Disaster as we have seen.

Welfare State - Mugs State (the fundamental flaw)

WELFARE STATE

Our Welfare State is based on the 1942 Beveridge Report. It proposed a series of measures to aid those who were in need of help, or in poverty and recommended that the government find ways of tackling it called "the five giants", namely: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness. It urged the government to take steps to provide citizens with adequate income, adequate health care, adequate education, adequate housing, and adequate employment, proposing that "All people of working age should pay a weekly National Insurance contribution. In return, benefits would be paid to people who were sick, unemployed, retired, or widowed."

The basic assumptions of the report were that the National Health Service would provide free health care to all citizens; a Universal Child Benefit would give benefits to parents, encouraging people to have children by enabling them to feed and support a family. The report stressed the lower costs and efficiency of universal benefits.

MUGS STATE (the fundamental flaw)

There is a fundamental flaw in the Beveridge plan or certainly there has developed one. 

The current welfare state rewards those with no assets and relatively penalises those who work hard to secure their futures.

Today we are not just giving a helping hand to those in need  - the real outcome - many choose not to work or if they have to - take minimum work.(careful not to exceed a figure that will jeopardise benefits). They don't save. They grab what they can.They enjoy it while they can.They take because they can - they don't contribute because the system does not require that they do. They know having children secures their benefits future - certainly future housing because no government is prepared to let children suffer - Sure Start etc.

They know that if they have assets they will not receive benefits. They know they will get a state pension or if they do not qualify they will get payments in some other form. They know that if they have assets the state will not pay for their elderly care. So many are profligate, scheming, often demotivated - certainly irresponsible and anti social. 

We are making them like this by being too indulgent and it is slowly bankrupting the country - both financially and perhaps more significantly - morally.  

The only way this cancer can be treated is to ensure work really pays and that the people that are helped are in real need - and that need is not a lifestyle choice. It means being tough. It means life on benefits is barely existence - the bar of "welfare" has to be significantly lowered. Not quite the workhouse - but something much less like a hotel. 

Where the system falls down is an inability to differentiate between those in real and chronic need (which we all agree justify help) and those that just can't be bothered to help themselves. Politically some see an unemployed person and readily accept it is the States fault they do not have a job and compensate accordingly. Where has personal responsibility gone?

Syria and the power of the news

We should all be aware of the power (and therefore danger) of the institutions who bring the news to us.

They have incredible power to set a news agenda - to which the public and our politicians subsequently respond.

There is probably nothing more horrible, more wicked, more disastrous in humanitarian terms that what has been happening and continues to happen in Syria. The displacement of people is probably unprecedented - a generation will be lost. Women and children dying on a daily basis through the lack of basic commodity. And still the fighting and terrible killing goes on. The UN has been totally, wickedly useless.

But in many respects the news has moved on. The focus is now Ukraine. For a while it was Israel and Palestine.

What shall we be outraged about next. Who decides?

Certainly lazy journalists feed off each other. The BBC always report in terms of what the papers say.

Are politicians pulling strings ie leave off Syria because there is nothing we can do about it. There isn't the political will. It is too embarrassing to confront our lack of real humanity. Too confronting to face the reality of inaction.

Is it simply that papers and programmes have to sell - so news stories pass their sell by date.

The only answer is to dig beneath the headlines. Probe yourself if you are interested. Ask questions online. Blog even. Make up your own mind!

Hitler, Putin, Blair & Bush, Obama, Muslim extremisism, The Israelis

There has been much historical debate about whether the Second World War could have been avoided. There is a consensus I believe that in practical terms the only way it might have been achieved would have been for the West to intercede in Hitler's rise to power much earlier - to have put much more pressure on Germany before the whole thing got out of hand as it eventually did of course. There was not the political will in reality - or perhaps the perception of where it was heading.

A question - where is Putin heading. What are his aspirations. Crimea - Eastern Ukraine next. The land grab is very popular at home. Who is going to stop him?

Too many counties in the EU are dependent on Russian natural resources. Too many EU countries have no wish to stand up to Putin because they have an eye on Russian markets.

Putin is on a roll. Very dangerous.

Blair & Bush advocated intervention in the middle east.The consensus now is they were wrong to do so.

As a consequence Obama has retreated and the US is no longer playing the world policeman's role. There is a void.

So what is happening?

Syria is happening. Iraq is being torn apart. A Muslim fundamentalist state is emerging. What will be the global consequences of that as momentum gathers. Eventually the west will intervene. The loss of life and destruction are likely to be much greater when they do.

In the meantime the Israelis yet again take preventative action to stop the people who deny their right to exist in peace destroying them They live in the real world. They have no choice.

Easy to feel disgusted by human kind.

Assisted dying (suicide) bill

A controversial bill to allow anyone with a medically certified terminal illness (less than 6 months to live) and with their faculties - to be able to take drugs to end their life, is being discussed in parliament.

The bill has momentum and the tide seems to be going in favour of supporters including Lord Carey - past Archbishop of Canterbury and Norman Lamb the Care Minister.

Last night I watched a very concise debate on This Week.

A précis of the points made are :-

FOR

• it should be an individual right to choose the death you want.
• to reduce unnecessary pain and suffering.
• it happens anyway - we turn a blind eye but leaves the assistants vulnerable under the law.

AGAINST

The "thin edge of the wedge" fears. At this stage it covers a terminal illness - 6 months from death - with faculties to make the decision. It does not cover conditions like locked in syndrome or paralysis or advanced dementia.

There are real and legitimate fears (see what has happened to abortions - now available on demand in practical terms compared with the original legislation) that the law will be extended to cover other conditions and controls be possibly watered down. There is the area of faculty and whether this should be an essential requirement.

Tammi Grey-Thompson made the point that throughout her rich and full life people have often said to her they would not want to live if they were paralysed like her.

Alan Johnson made the point that while you would expect families (loved ones) to have the right motives - this could not be always assumed and referred to undue pressures to end your life. 

T G-T said concerns about being a burden is often quoted as reason rather than pain. 

Would I be worried that the NHS - would see a way to reduce the cost burden. What a position we are asking our doctors to be in too.

The final point made was how difficult it is to enshrine all the complex and individual situations under one law and might best be left unwritten - but of course this is unsatisfactory too if these type of cases are being brought to the courts to decide. Judges do not want the job either.

I believe the thin end of the wedge argument is very compelling and I really believe that immoral pressures will be brought on some individuals based on burden and cost considerations. For these reasons I do not support the bill.

Procrastination or manana (manyana)

I am typically an early riser. This morning was such a lovely morning. By 7 I had walked dog in the fields and then rode my bike along the seawall. I hardly seen anyone and certainly talked to no one - so plenty of time to think - plenty of time to plan the rest of the day.

I have quite a lot of things to do. I always write a list - a moving list. There are always things to do!

But today is such a beautiful weather day in prospect - according to the forecasters the hottest day of the year so far.

A challenge - because I can readily procrastinate - a weakness maybe?

Or shall I adopt the Mediterranean approach - the one we romanticise about on our hols. Manana - tomorrow will do - is this a strength?

My pearl of wisdom - alongside smoking and obesity - I believe sustained STRESS ranks as the biggest killer. The ability to leave a job undone - a task not completed - without getting worked up or giving yourself or anyone else a hard time is in my view an asset. For myself I work in bursts - in spurts. When I feel like it the job gets done much better and much quicker than when I don't.

On the other hand a job not getting done now can make it harder to do later - a stitch in time etc! Jobs back up - it will save time in the long run to do them now - much more efficient.

Solution - I shall half procrastinate and half manana. Good to have balance in your life - ha! So which half to do - shall have to think about that over a cup of coffee ?!

Holiday choice & Cornish pasties!

We are off for a family holiday - only a week in a tent. We have being going to the same site in same village to the same beaches and same pub for years.

In that time we might have had touring holidays or gone to a different area every year. We have possibly missed out on many other places and done other things we would have enjoyed.

But what have we gained?

Well here is a considered list :-

• We have created a family tradition - with lots of do you remember anecdotes prompted by our familiar surroundings. For the second year my grand children will be with us - a new generation to follow. 
• We have got to know the area really well - can make comparisons against year on year - what has changed - we take an interest - have made a sort of investment in the place - an affinity.
• We have learned what works for us - short cuts - local knowledge. Perhaps we feel we get the best out of the area.
• We are greeted as old friends at the camp site - in the local store and the local pub. There is an extra warmth for us and that is nice.

In life you can't have everything. I don't think we would give up our Cornwall week even if a trip to the West Indies were on offer. We would miss Margaret's pasties too much!

Exercise yourself slim. You can't!

We know there is an increasing obesity problem. We know very significant numbers of people are battling with their weight.

This morning I must have seen a dozen joggers taking an early run. (Noticeably more than half of them were overweight women.) It is admirable that they were making the effort - beneficial for their cardio vascular system - surely good for their general health and hopefully their spirit and self esteem. But will it mean they will shed the pounds?

There is a brutal reality and I wish I could spell it out. I shall try here.

If your attitude is I will start exercising and weight will automatically come off you are wrong.

If your attitude is if I exercise I will be able to continue to eat and drink what I want with out putting on weight you are wrong

The reason - normal exercise doesn't burn off anything like the calories you think it does - or think it should do - given the hard efforts you are making. You cannot exercise your self slim.

What exercise does is improve muscle tone - and maybe redistribute some weight. As I have said there will likely be other health benefits too. What exercise will not do automatically is help you lose weight.

Stating the obvious - if you regularly take in more calories than you burn you will put on weight. You can only make a marginal difference in the calories you burn through normal exercise.

The answer lies in reducing what you eat in calorie terms. It is the only way.

Regular exercise is a brilliant thing to do of course. Better to do it than not do it. But it is food and drink were the answer to losing weight really lies. You cannot get away with eating in excess because you have been out for a jog.

This understanding is very important because people seem to start exercising to lose weight. Ultimately they are not rewarded with the weight loss the hoped for. They give up. Weight continues to go up and their general health will eventually suffer.

The right joke at the right time

The other day I was up on my allotment and talking to one of the stalwart gardeners who has been very helpful to a relative newby.

We were looking at his plot and I said "Martin how do you get your soil looking so good?" He said in a very practical way they had had their allotment for over 20 years and they had put a lot of good stuff on it!

He then said my question reminded him of the story of an American tourist visiting Hampton Court Palace.

American to old gardener - gee how do you get your lawns looking like that?

Old gardener - well you prepare the ground, plant the seed, watch it grow and then

MOW IT FOR 400 YEARS!

This little joke has made me chuckle on and off for ages. It was so right in so many ways.

It also serves to remind me that while gardening can produce short term rewards you also have to work at it!