Kitchen Garden Forum

My view that each new government guideline that updates the privious guideline just very slowly diminishes the credibility of each and every supposedly researched guideline that has been sexed up, and I'm going back a few years.

So, I'm with Rosie Millard of The Independent.

My only hope is a mung bean diet, drink just water, walk everywhere and do some mindfulness.

Most of the NHS is burdened by people eating too much food, we have dialysis centres opening everywhere to cope with the load. It appears most never drank alcohol, just eat lots of cakes so why not a reduction in cakes in my diet ?

Probably because it sounds silly.

Don't smoke; it'll kill you!
Don't drink; it'll kill you!
Don't eat or drink sugary things; they'll kill you!
Don't eat processed meat; it'll kill you!

In the end you will die, after a happy or miserable existence.

The end.

I was watching it on the news last night with interest as I've been told I have to adhere strictly to the guide lines, not once did they give the reasons or criteria on how they had reached their conclusions the only thing that is certain we will have them quoted at us at every opportunity , they have closed most of our pubs down with the laws on smoking now the rest will close because of the joke they call guide lines, this country is getting impossible to live in

virtually all the healthy diet advise thats been dished out in the last 50 years has been based on either flawed research or sometimes none at all. a lot of it has come from the food processing industry or the pharmacutical companies , either directly or via funded research, with the sole aim of selling product at inflated prices.

There is a load of nonsense being bandied about with regards to what we should and eat drink and there is one word they never seem to mention is MODERATION. Sadly the sort of people the warnings are for are the sort who couldn't give two figs for anything that will change the life style that they enjoy.
Yesterday a female doctor, new to our local practice, told me that if I continue to smoke I will probably die within the next 15 years and when I started laughing she got very cross until I asked her to simply look at my date of birth. No more was said.
Perhaps not everybody will get the irony of her comment.
JB.

And, at the risk of repeating myself. I invite any of you to do some internet research to find any warning about prescribed drugs, particularly in the case of long term use. Each and every drug has it's likely and rare side effects though none are carcinogens.

Ok, in recent years certain NSAIDs have been withdrawn to be replaced by others. The cynic in me says there have been other reasons than our welfare.

Yesterday I did a rare trip into a town about 20 miles away for some new year bargains, I had to stand outside with my dog whilst she went into the shop (not the dog) at midday I noticed two blokes coming out of the nearby pub for a smoke. This pair had likely been drinking since maybe 11 am and were likely to go back into the pub for another hour then maybe start the whole thing again in the evening. Both were sick looking and overweight and both were representative of people that died an early death through bad habits and both were representative of people I know that lived into their late seventies eating bacon sandwiches.

We're living longer though that in itself has become a problem, I'm already walking round on metal hips and a knackered back at 73. I'm happy slim and managing to keep active but it's all downhill, then I'll probably keep someone employed looking after me but I don't have the cash.

I might die worrying about my eating and drinking habits though the cobalt in my bloodstream from my hip resurfacings so far hasn't worried anyone and most of us are showing glyphosate in our urine but no one is concerned about that.

Himself plays in the 'old fellas' local cricket team and one of his mates used to be a Royal Navy doc, 'How do you know when you're drinking too much?' my other half asked. 'When you feel like c..p in the morning' was the reply... seems good advice.

I've never smoked (hate the smell), and for the last 15 or so years I've not drank alcohol as it turns out I've developed a reaction to glycerol which is in all alcohol and used by food processors as a cheap, sweet, bulking agent under its other name of glycerine. Plays hell with cake consumption

So I'm casting around for a vice that the government can advise me on, any ideas?

Dear Motherwoman, i do know of a couple, but i think just sticking with gardening is the best advice i can give you....

Motherwoman wrote:
So I'm casting around for a vice that the government can advise me on, any ideas?

Given your location I would suggest something that involves needles, but not of a medical kind...so no toyboys.

I thought glycerol was 'an' alcohol but isn't in alcohol we drink? The alcohol we drink is ethanol, which is different.

Must be running a little slow this morning, as it took me a couple of minutes to see where the needle connection came in....

You're just too clever for me, Pa Snip.

Sorry Pawty, it's in there! Absolutely it's in there... Takes only a very small amount for me to react to it. And when they say cooking removes all alcohols... nope!

'Of the three chief by-products of alcoholic fermentation, only glycerol remains at present referable directly to the sugar.'
Alcoholic Fermentation Arthur Harden

Is gardening a vice OH? I suppose doing it the way you suggested might be... just wellies and gloves! Would cause a bit of a stir on the allotment. Do the government have any advice on it? Should we set up a think tank?

Someone just made a point, I never even get pissed. Just sleepy.

The alcohol day has just started, I'm wheelbarrowing a trailer full of logs that were just delivered so I'm having a beer break rather than a cup of tea though beer won't do when I want a cup of tea and neither tea nor beer will do in the morning when it's coffee time.

I'm addicted to all three.

I'm reliably informed that the best vice to adopt in your later years is almost any crime, perhaps something fairly harmless like persistent shoplifting. The reasoning is that it is a lot cheaper to live in prison than an old peoples' home and the standard of care is quite good. If you can find a nice open prison that allows a bit of recreational gardening, what could be better?
I'm not much of a drinker so the new guidelines are OK by me. Even though we have been retired for some years we still share a bottle of strong red wine on a Friday night, I usually have a pint of beer on a Saturday and my wife has a G&T and that's usually about it for the week. The occasional slightly heavier night with visitors or going out doesn't get us up to a 14 unit average. Don't watch sugar and salt too carefully but probably OK; don't sweeten drinks and eat most fruit unsweetened but fruit sugars might be too high with juice for breakfast as a drink and muesli moisturiser, wife cooks with little salt (particularly in bread, way less than Paul Hollywood). Perhaps should worry about caffeine, pint of filter coffee a day and four pints of tea. General eating is pretty healthy I think with lots of vegetables and not masses of red meat, perhaps too much processed meat as sausages and bacon. As JB says - balance, moderation and common sense.
I rarely take any medication. I don't understand how I spawned a GP, we have this perpetual argument where I say most illness is in the head and most medications are placebos. It seems to me the medical industry has propagated the idea that you should feel tip top all the time and if you don't they have a pill for it. If they could persuade people that an off day doesn't merit a trip to a GP or A&E followed by popping a pill the health service could probably cope with looking after the really sick.

Geoff, I knew I had a guru in you, now you confirmed that I just can't and probably won't aim to achieve your high standards in things we have in common.

I don't suppose with your habits it will be a huge blow when next year someone comes up with statistics that zero alcohol will help your useful life-span even though it discredits the nice-guy who said we should drink red in moderation.

Moderation is a slippery word.

Behind the curtains some party pooper is right now working on the ill effects of eating cabbage, no really. I once made a casserole with a lot of cabbage in it and whilst my guests were over the moon with the flavours, so-much-so that they eat seconds and thirds but because they were not used to eating that amount of fibre and whatever else upsets people when they ear cabbage she ended up in A&E and at the risk of exaggerating they never spoke to us again because I had poisoned her according to the A&E person who attended her needs.

Cabbage is a killer and you heard here first.