I have been suffering from bloggers block! Over the last 10 days I have started a couple of blogs but they have become a bit windy - lacking focus - so I have set them aside for now dear readers - but hope to finish them soon ha! (#generationgap & technology changing our lives #Brexit why is there no news reporting about EU internal problems?)
A comment about the weather as of course we Brits are obsessed by it. A beautiful clear morning out there this morning - but a few bins have been blown over - and a few twigs and leaves scattered on the paths. According to the Met Office "Storm Aileen" came through last night! To be fair to the Met Office it was a bigger blow in the North West of England but still a puff compared to Category 5 - hurricane force "Storm Irma" that has decimated parts of the Caribbean and Florida. We are indeed lucky to live in a place with such an equitable climate - a maritime climate. Ok we get maybe 35 inches of rain annually and weather is changeable even in summer - but we almost never have blizzards (leave alone serious ones) or really destructive winds. It never gets really cold - we never suffer from drought (maybe a hose pipe ban on watering the lawn) and are in a stable geological area (touchwood). It must be very unsettling to live under the constant threat of EXTREME weather. Hard to understand why weather is such a big talking point for us given that nothing dramatic ever really happens - ha!?
Back to my blog subject. I happened to come across this yesterday :-
" if you do not treat food as medicine - medicine will become your food "
Reading it made me smile and I have found myself thinking about it. Is it wrong? Is it right? Is it too gloomy? Is it overstated? Is it daft ?! Is there a lesson to be learned?
My conclusion - it is more right than wrong. It is helpful - beneficial to keep in mind perhaps. It ties in with "you are what you eat". With my kids when they were younger I used "what do you have to put in a car to make the engine run smoothly ?" Certainly good clean high octane fuel should help our bodies function well - too little or dirty fuel - will not. However this analogy doesn't deal with over fuelling - because unlike the fuel tank on a car the human stomach capacity has virtually no limit and obesity as a consequence is probably our biggest health danger.
There is a middle ground. I am going to advocate it. Food can be one of life's pleasures - more than just medicine surely? (whilst agreeing that the lengths chefs can go to produce food can be excessive and hard to justify). Years ago I remember a caller complaining on a Radio 4 news programme that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been irresponsible in his budget by not increasing tax enough on "dangerous" cigarettes. The caller was very distressed about it. The next caller commented on the previous caller - suggesting that stress was the biggest killer and caller 1 should take up smoking in order to calm down a bit! To some extent this is my view with food zealots - terrified that they should only ever eat what they perceive as "good" for them. Rarely do you see a healthy looking vegan - it is the stress that is doing them in! I will throw this in too. When I was a young man I had a friend who was seriously hurt in a car accident. He was fit - but carried a bit of excess. His doctor told him it was a big advantage - it gave his body something to use in recovery. Skin and bones are not always so positive as there are no reserves (but obesity is obviously a much bigger danger.)
But there is little doubt we will end up on medication in later life if we ignore obesity warnings, or ignore the proven link between junk food and poor nutrition - of too much salt or sugar. It is not just a life on medication or life expectancy - it is its impact on quality of life. Diabetes is a major killer and increasingly so. It can be very debilitating affecting sight, mobility and of course, major organs. A clear regard for food (as medicine) - what and how much we are taking in is a sensible approach to the challenges of responsible eating and living a full life.
To round off on a happy and positive note - "real ale". My son George and I regularly console ourselves with a pint on the basis that we are in effect having a nutritious meal - yes maybe even medicine - or at least a tonic! "Real ale" is not pasteurised or full of chemicals like sterile keg beer that will last for months. Live real ale will barely last a week because of the active yeasts - that are so GOOD for you - ha! Food for thought!
A comment about the weather as of course we Brits are obsessed by it. A beautiful clear morning out there this morning - but a few bins have been blown over - and a few twigs and leaves scattered on the paths. According to the Met Office "Storm Aileen" came through last night! To be fair to the Met Office it was a bigger blow in the North West of England but still a puff compared to Category 5 - hurricane force "Storm Irma" that has decimated parts of the Caribbean and Florida. We are indeed lucky to live in a place with such an equitable climate - a maritime climate. Ok we get maybe 35 inches of rain annually and weather is changeable even in summer - but we almost never have blizzards (leave alone serious ones) or really destructive winds. It never gets really cold - we never suffer from drought (maybe a hose pipe ban on watering the lawn) and are in a stable geological area (touchwood). It must be very unsettling to live under the constant threat of EXTREME weather. Hard to understand why weather is such a big talking point for us given that nothing dramatic ever really happens - ha!?
Back to my blog subject. I happened to come across this yesterday :-
" if you do not treat food as medicine - medicine will become your food "
Reading it made me smile and I have found myself thinking about it. Is it wrong? Is it right? Is it too gloomy? Is it overstated? Is it daft ?! Is there a lesson to be learned?
My conclusion - it is more right than wrong. It is helpful - beneficial to keep in mind perhaps. It ties in with "you are what you eat". With my kids when they were younger I used "what do you have to put in a car to make the engine run smoothly ?" Certainly good clean high octane fuel should help our bodies function well - too little or dirty fuel - will not. However this analogy doesn't deal with over fuelling - because unlike the fuel tank on a car the human stomach capacity has virtually no limit and obesity as a consequence is probably our biggest health danger.
There is a middle ground. I am going to advocate it. Food can be one of life's pleasures - more than just medicine surely? (whilst agreeing that the lengths chefs can go to produce food can be excessive and hard to justify). Years ago I remember a caller complaining on a Radio 4 news programme that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been irresponsible in his budget by not increasing tax enough on "dangerous" cigarettes. The caller was very distressed about it. The next caller commented on the previous caller - suggesting that stress was the biggest killer and caller 1 should take up smoking in order to calm down a bit! To some extent this is my view with food zealots - terrified that they should only ever eat what they perceive as "good" for them. Rarely do you see a healthy looking vegan - it is the stress that is doing them in! I will throw this in too. When I was a young man I had a friend who was seriously hurt in a car accident. He was fit - but carried a bit of excess. His doctor told him it was a big advantage - it gave his body something to use in recovery. Skin and bones are not always so positive as there are no reserves (but obesity is obviously a much bigger danger.)
But there is little doubt we will end up on medication in later life if we ignore obesity warnings, or ignore the proven link between junk food and poor nutrition - of too much salt or sugar. It is not just a life on medication or life expectancy - it is its impact on quality of life. Diabetes is a major killer and increasingly so. It can be very debilitating affecting sight, mobility and of course, major organs. A clear regard for food (as medicine) - what and how much we are taking in is a sensible approach to the challenges of responsible eating and living a full life.
To round off on a happy and positive note - "real ale". My son George and I regularly console ourselves with a pint on the basis that we are in effect having a nutritious meal - yes maybe even medicine - or at least a tonic! "Real ale" is not pasteurised or full of chemicals like sterile keg beer that will last for months. Live real ale will barely last a week because of the active yeasts - that are so GOOD for you - ha! Food for thought!
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