who has got it right

When I was at uni, there was a looooong corridor next to the biology labs. It was lined with lists of known carcinogens (and this was the 70s, I'm sure they've found more.). The font was pretty small, the paper was wide computer printout, and the corridor was maybe 30 feet long. The game was to find ANY food missing. we never did.

When I was teaching our staffroom had a kitchen in the corner where we could make drinks and heat food.

Many of the female teachers were hooked on redbush and other fruit teas and were quite critical of others who weren't. One of the men used to come in in the morning and make himself a cafetiere of very nice coffee. Once he was rebuked severely on health grounds by one of the 'tea ladies'.

I wondered to myself what the truth of the matter was and looked up the benefits and drawbacks of coffee. I was astounded to find how beneficial coffee was from many points of view, for example, it is a significant protection from some types of cancer, a preventative of the onset of Alzheimer's and a stimulus to physical and, especially, intellectual activity to name a few of its merits.

Sometimes I think that the advice we are given on health topic is like the Hokey Cokey, from day to day it is 'In, out, in, out, shake it all about.'

I suppose the lesson is to find information at source and be well informed, rational and sensible.

And have a coffee and a bikkie while you are looking it all up.

Don't deny myself anything within reason. Had Leukaemia 2001 and life's too short so everything in moderation of course

Greenfinch - My DH also thinks its raw unless its black!

After the war, when bread was rationed, my Mum scrapped the burn off the toast and we ate it. She lived until she was 98!

When its brown it's done and when it's black it's buggered!

Yep....maybe boring but makes sense to practise a combination of moderation in all things with a little bit of what we fancy with a little eye to health for a fitter longevity. The daily sensationalism is often funded by undeclared commercialism. Consider it then absorb or reject. We have experience of life as well as a brain (well.....what's left of a brain after all the attempted washing!)

My mother when she had burnt the toast said"charcoal biscuits are good for you."

My old dad lived almost 87 years on a diet consting largely of chocolate brazils........had all his own teeth too.

roses

I think we could drive ourselves mad trying to take on board all the advice in the media. I am able to decide for myself which foods are good, not so good or downright harmful
I am sure everyone on GN can do so too.
Of course there is always new research which will help if we have a particular problem but generally we can police our own diet. Moderation in all things is my motto ( except chocolate)

....or even "eat" - sigh.

roses My DH says" if it's not black it's not done "

I am sorry, I rather spoilt that story by inadvertently typing 80 instead of 90! Back to bed I think!

When my OH was a medical student and my Gran had just had her 80th birthday he saw her eating the fat on her ham. He said:"You won't make old bones if you est that!" She gave him a wry look!

DH told me about this new 'ruling' last night and said he had eaten so much charred food over the years ( damn cheek!) that he probably won't be around much longer.

It is nonsense of course. Sensationalist journalism with scant regard for the facts. This article puts it in perspective.
health.spectator.co.uk/dont-need-worry-eating-browned-toast/

My DH's late grandfather however always maintained the only dietician for him was Marie Lloyd when she sang
"A little of what you fancy does you good"

This thing about charred food is not new; we were warned about it some years ago. Who in their right mind eats burnt food anyway? As for the rest of the incessant barrage of lifestyle advice, I have managed to survive to seventy without slavishly adhering to any of it. I eat and drink what I want within reasonable limits and exercise moderately when I feel like it, and I am fit and healthy for my age (touch wood!). Stress kills people faster than an unhealthy diet.

If it says it on the radio, or the newspapers, they are not 'scientific'. The reporters know nothing about science, they make wow stories from some obscure bit of research without all the statistics that go along with it.

Well sort of travelsafar but much of the time they come out with these dictats about what we should be eating, doing, not doing then a new study is done an turns everything on its head. For example, now they are saying that an obese patient recovers quicker from surgery than a thinner person. If one follows this info to the nth degree does that mean we should all start overeating just in case? Rather than try and follow all the so-called healthy living guidelines I tend to use a common sense approach, little of what you fancy does you good, everything in moderation etc. I won't stop eating bacon, often have a bacon butty on a Saturday. Like you I have thought that the mere fact that life expectancy is higher creates more problems with an ageing population but I don't know the answer. I do think that worrying too much about doing everything the "advised" way could create more mental health problems. However much one adheres to a so called healthy lifestyle we are well aware that some unforeseen calamity will bite you on the bum from nowhere.

Also today's scientific facts are apt to be overturned one day by new scientific facts. E.g. Butter. Providing there is no medical problems requiring dietary measures, I believe in everything in moderation, including an occasional treat. And only eating when we are hungry. That is my struggle!

OH! I don't think that would happen travelsafar. We oldies all know we have lived too long - often told we are a drain on the resources, but of course we ate all the wrong things, and did all the wrong things, because there was no-one 'out there' telling us otherwise. On the other hand, there was not the variety of food available for us to poison ourselves on, having a car was a luxury, so we walked and kept fit. Personally, I think we had the best of times, many of my contemporaries agree with me.