Scottish Daily Mail

Is it just ME?

Or is healthy living disastrous for friendship­s?

- Kathryn Knight

UNTIL recently, whenever I met an old friend the formula was always the same: a cheeky cocktail or two and a bottle of wine, consumed while we put the world to rights.

But of late all this has changed. ‘I’ve given up booze,’ my chum announced as I brandished the drinks list. ‘I just decided it’s healthier to cut it out altogether.’

I’ll confess I was dismayed — and not just because quaffing Sauvignon alone never feels quite as much fun.

Because it’s not the first time in recent months that someone I know has gone from zero to 100 on the healthy lifestyle front.

There are the sponsorshi­p requests for marathons from people who once believed exercise meant a trip from the sofa to the fridge. Or the gluten-, sugar- and dairy-free brigade telling me about their ‘lifestyle overhauls’.

The mantra ‘everything in moderation’ feels as remote from modern living as a black-and-white TV.

It hasn’t always been this way. Even ten years ago, if you felt you were packing a few extra pounds or needed to boost your energy levels, you took a few simple steps.

A skipped dessert here, an aerobics class or two there, fewer glasses of wine on a Friday night — job done.

Now it’s all spiraliser­s, green smoothies, ‘free from’ foods, 5:2 diets and extreme physical challenges. Macrobioti­c Gwyneth Paltrow started it all off, with her Goop website paving the way for the Hemsley sisters and Deliciousl­y Ella.

At least no one in my immediate circle has gone ‘full kale’ yet and given up everything that isn’t green, though I fear, given the rising number of teetotalle­rs and sugar free-ers, it’s only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, I continue to believe that when it comes to wellbeing, a few tweaks can match any extremes.

I hope to clutch on to a cheese toastie and a glass of rosé until the bitter end — with the odd walk thrown in.

I’ll be clutching a cheese toastie and glass of rosé until the bitter end ...

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