Why we need to eat more like the Greeks
WE’RE now being told to eat ten portions of fruit and vegetables a day — and about time, too (Mail). Most of the other countries in Europe eat way more than our previous target of five a day. This feeble level was suggested only because the Government realised that our diets are so poor that we would struggle to achieve even that. A survey found that men aged 19 to 24 ate a mere 1.2 portions of veg a day on average. Compare that with Greece, where they’ve advocated nine portions a day for years. This is part of the healthy so-called Mediterranean diet. Further afield, in Japan, they eat around 16 portions a day and they don’t suffer the Western diseases we do. Europe looks in amazement at us British with our addiction to junk, processed and convenience food, with its resulting diabetes and looming obesity crisis that is having such a catastrophic impact on the NHS. Sixty years ago, our diet was primarily plant-based. Now it’s animal-based and children eat only a third of the fruit and veg their grandparents did. We British are eating ourselves into an early grave. The average person of 55 takes four prescription pills a day, mainly because of poor diet and lifestyle. No wonder the NHS struggles to cope. People don’t value something that is free, so the NHS is abused. We should all take far more responsibility for our own health rather than expecting the NHS to sort us out. Junk food should be taxed to pay for the damage it causes. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine said: ‘Let food be your medicine.’ It’s logical that what you eat affects your health, yet we have a health industry that, until now, cared nothing for food and a food industry that cares nothing for health. Perhaps, now, change is finally in the air?