nanny state

That's all very well jings. Advice about taking exercise has led to orthopaedic wards overflowing with middle aged men needing their knees seen to. You can't win.

I think it is the hysterical press that turns the guidance into 'nanny state' statements.
Probably any 'guidance' says something less 'shouty' than the papers would have us believe!!

It's not really about nannying though, is it? It's about managing a tight NHS budget. If people make the effort to keep themselves healthy, there will be more money to go round for people who are in need through no fault of their own.

Guidance is good when it comes from the proper authorities. Money is being spent on researching the best foods to eat and the best lifestyle choices to make, and we need to be given the results of that research.

After that, we are free to make our own decisions.

Same here, goldengirl. We've gone back to full-fat milk and butter - the amount we get through in a week is not going to make much difference. We changed originally because OH was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, mainly on account of his high cholesterol count - then the opinion was reversed after many tests and his just reducing his sugar intake.

I'm back to whole milk and butter in protest! I'm sick of being told what I should or shouldn't eat. I don't drink gallons of the stuff and I don't have much butter, but I do make cakes with butter when formerly I used soft marg. Probably my next blood test will show my cholesterol has shot up - but my parents lived on this stuff to a ripe old age and brought me up on it. It was only reading how bad it was etc in the papers that I changed. I've had it up to here [points to eyebrows emoticon] with do gooders telling me what to do.

gracesmum

It was wooden - was it the same one she used for darning socks? I remember she used to boil her knickers in a big aluminium saucepan too...

2 points
1) greatnan if one square of dark chocolate is good for you, how much better is the whole bar?
2) Only 40 minutes for cabbage and sprouts, mamie? You all know that timing for sprouts is place 3 large stones in a pan of cold water, add sprouts, boil until the stones are tender, drain and serve.
and 2 1/2) was the wooden mushroom cooked or raw?

My mil did the same! I'm more healthy!
I rarely eat greens! And when I do I like them soggy!

Oh yes, my Grandma was like that. Forty minutes for cabbage and sprouts, twenty for beans and peas. She added bicarb to keep it green and then pounded it to death with a wooden mushroom. Yum.

bags great link!

Re healthy diet: My MiL boiled veg to death. We could arrive at 11a.m. for a 1:00p.m. Sunday lunch to find the carrots and cabbage happily simmering away with the meat loaded with added lard. She ate loads of cakes, bananas & oranges the only fruit she ate regularly (2 x week) and plenty of suet puds, lemon meringue and trifle! She lived to 98 but never smoked or owned a car.

Not really, Jess - I don't like sweet things, so I never eat cakes, biscuits, or sweets. I find just one square of chocolate is as much as I can eat. It used to infuriate my daughter, who is a chocoholic, when I bought a bar and it lasted me a week!. The only exception is chocolate brazils, as long as they are made with good chocolate, not cocoa powder.
My weakness is for lovely fresh French bread and for potatoes.

I actually forgot yesterday that I have some caramel cheesecake chocs sent by DD2! I ate one the day they arrived and hid the rest from DD3 . Oh well, I can enjoy a couple later today after my hike

that is amazingly restrained.

Oh, good - I eat one square of very dark chocolate a day - just because I like it. It has to have some orange, mint or nuts in it, otherwise it is too bitter.

Well here is some news to cheer you up from the frontiers of medical research, recently published in the BMJ.
Daily consumption of 100g dark chocolate 100 g can help prevent heart attacks.
The group studied were at a high risk of heart problems. But not a good idea, obviously, for diabetics. And it has to be Dark! And it is probably not twice as good if you have 200g!

Ah, how well I remember my dinking years . No,on second thoughts I remember very little of them!
The worst thing was waking up with my contact lenses glued to my eye balls, then there was the migraine, the nausea, the embarrassment.......I am glad I don't need to dink any more!

I'd like to meet someone who has taken part in one of these surveys because no one has ever asked for my opinion in all of my 60+ yrs.

The term nanny state was probably coined by the Conservative British MP Iain Macleod who referred to "what I like to call the nanny state" in his column "Quoodle" in the December 3, 1965, edition of The Spectator.[2] (source wikipaedia)
There I was thinking that Tory central office had dreamed it up in Blair's time.

Another little dink won't do me any harm...

I like 'dinking'. Is it more or less harmful than drinking?

Dinking or drinking - you fall over when you've done too much of either!

Dinking?!? How will I know when I have done too much?

The phrase 'too much' is often used to load questions for surveys, e.g. do you think too much TV is bad for children?' By definition, of course, too much of anything is bad!
I had to smile at this example of stating the bl**ding obvious on the TV news yesterday 'There is an increase in alcohol related liver disease, caused by too much dinking'.

A little of what you like is no bad thing ...any over indulgence can make you poorly ...except too much time on GN!!

But , as usually, the research was turned into media grabbing headlines ...rather than taking a measured assessment of their findings. and tomorrow too!!