The Time Bubble

So, it seems that we can now only drink 14 units of alcohol a week. Otherwise we increase the risk of this that or the other. It was all over the papers this morning. This is hot on the heels of stories about processed meats and countless others that churn never-endingly out of the media, determined to spoil any ounce of enjoyment we might like to try and squeeze out of our short time on this planet. Two things come to mind. Firstly, why is it that all the things that make life enjoyable are so universally condemned. Sugar - terrible, causes diabetes etc. Salt = high blood pressure and heart attacks. Alcohol - cancer, heart disease etc. Basically any food that tastes nice is going to shorten your life, allegedly. Yet all the horrible stuff i.e. salad, various other boring veg, cottage cheese, those horrible rice cake things that remind me of polystyrene, and anything else that is flavourless, bland and boring, that's what they'd have us eat. Smoking, I won't comment on ...

It seems I can't open a newspaper these days without finding yet another article about how bad sugar is. Yes, it seems that sugar is this year's public enemy number one. We just can't be left alone to enjoy our lives can we? It seems to be one thing after another. One minute we're a nation of binge drinkers. Next salt is the silent killer, oh and keep off the coffee too. Then the focus is on fats - good fats, bad fats, let's confuse the hell out of everyone. Now it's sugar - and great the paper is telling me there's 5 teaspoons of sugar in every banana - one of the few "healthy" things my children enthusiastically ask for. Thanks for ruining that for me. Then there's 23 spoons of sugar in a can of drink and 86 in a chocolate bar. OK I'm exaggerating now, but even so the amounts quoted seem ridiculous on some of the things. Does all this scaremongering do people any good? None whatsoever - all it does is confuse and annoy them and give t...