You might be starting to think that I have become a sort of hybrid of Bobby Kennedy Junior and the late Dr Michael Mosley. I am utterly convinced that part of the terrifying decline of the West is down to obesity and being fat. Governments chuck ever more cash they do not have at healthcare, at overpaid doctors and drug companies charging vast sums for ever more pills supplied. But the health of Western populations just gets worse and worse.
And that is because we are all getting fatter if not downright obese and that causes inevitable issues. I speak as someone who has been fat for too much of my life and who is now paying the price as a diabetic. I have other issues too which may not be driven by fat but I cannot think my diet has helped.
To fix the NHS our Government should be doling out tough love to the population not more pills and pay rises for the Shipmans. Folks need to be told that being fat is a personal choice like smoking or taking heroin. It can be fixed not with more expensive drugs but by folks just eating less crap and doing a bit more exercise.
So these days I have no booze, almost no carbs or sugary foods and try to do at least half an hour in the garden and the woodshed each day. If my other problems stop me sleeping at night I get extra exercise walking around the village in the small hours. I have now lost circa four stones since Christmas and my weight, at 13 stones, is deemed “normal”. I reckon I have another stone to go before I look at by belly and say that really is normal. My blood sugars and cholesterol are heading the right way. And diet is key to that.
My staple lunch and supper is tuna, chickpeas and tomatoes. For breakfast and puddings it is stewed apple with some Greek Yoghurt, raw oats and, as of now, a few prunes as well. Tea with milk has been replaced by green tea which, I am told, is a cholesterol burner. My coffee is black. I might snack between meals with a kiwi fruit (skin on) or some raw nuts. So far so good but I worry about the tomatoes from Tesco.
They are cheap but are they really as healthy as the fresh tomatoes from my garden that I jarred up a few weeks ago. Those jars are now exhausted and I know that the only ingredients were tomatoes and a tiny amount of salt and some lemon juice. They taste better than the tins from Tesco and those tins flag up that they contain sugar. I bet they have a stack of chemicals too and are effectively processed food. Are they fake healthy? My instinct is that they are not as bad as a donut but that they could be a lot better.
Thus my plan is just to buy fresh tomatoes from Tesco and jar up myself. At a cost level I think I might be roughly even stevens but I feel pretty sure that a health level I shall be at least a bit ahead. Does this sound a bit to Bobby Kennedy cranky?