Can anyone live up to official health guidelines?
Most of us fail to even get five a day, so how would Joshua Burt get through a week taking all the Government’s advice?
It’s day two of my attempt to live according to the Government’s health advice and I think I have overdosed on citrus. My tongue is tingling and the sides of my mouth feel furry, like pith. I make a mental note to press pause on the conveyor belt of satsumas heading towards my mouth.
Normally, eating too much fruit wouldn’t be a concern. I’ve always had a fairly fluid attitude towards my five a day – one that might find bread or chicken reclassified as honorary veg to maintain the equilibrium. And I’m not alone: even though most of us know that a diet high in fruit and veg is good for us, only one in four of us gets our five a day. In fact, there are more people who regularly eat fewer than three portions a day than those who eat five or more. Guilty.
It gets worse. According to new data from the Health Survey for England, our fruit and veg aversion is only one of many ways in which we fail to meet the standard guidelines for healthiness. A resounding nine in 10 of us have at least one unhealthy trait, which means that we regularly break one of the pillars of advice issued by various government bodies. It might be that we don’t get our five a day; or we drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week (that’s one-and-a-half bottles of wine to you and me); or we smoke, are obese, or fail to hit our exercise target of 150 minutes a week, including two strength training sessions.
What? 150 minutes a week? Last month, when I decided to see if I could obey the Government’s vision of standard healthiness for just one week, that was the guideline that really made me choke on my beer. I’m a busy man with a wife and two kids: I barely have 150 minutes a week to sleep, let alone run around and lift weights.
Living the standard healthy way sounded difficult, and hardly fun – but Dr Mike Brannan, national lead for physical activity at Public Health England, suggested I had no excuse: “The guidelines were drafted on the basis that they are achievable for the majority of the population.” If I was going to do what every healthy adult between the age of 19 and 64 should be doing every week of his or her life, I was going to need to find a way to fit a lot of exercise into my routine.
“Two-and-a-half hours might sound like a lot, but it isn’t,” said personal trainer Jeremy Johnston when I asked (pleaded) for help. “There are loads of little things you can do throughout the day to stay active. Instead of taking an escalator, take the stairs, or take the time to walk to work in the morning.”
Easier said than done when you work from home, Jeremy. While Johnston devised a workout plan that would hit my weekly quota, nutritionist Rebecca Pilkington took a long, hard look at my diet. Her conclusion? Some self-discipline was in order. No more double packets of crisps at lunchtime, nor forays into the biscuit tin to get me through the afternoon. If I wanted a snack – and I already did – then a handful of nuts would have to suffice.
Pilkington also took issue with my main meals, which tend to involve lots of delicious white carbs such as pasta and chips, alongside red and processed meat. She explained that the body loves to convert white carbs into blubber that sits around your midriff and generally harms your health; and that excessive red meat consumption is linked to bowel cancer.
Instead, Pilkington steered me towards grown-up things such as fresh seasonal vegetables and fish. “Make sure it’s oily fish: it contains omega-3 which is really good for your mental health.”
And then came the killer line: “Your recommended five a day should really be looked at as an absolute minimum. Try going for 10 portions instead.” Ten? Did she want me to turn into a satsuma?
“My clinical advice would be that if you’re only going to have five, they should all be vegetables, with fruit as an extra.”
Cue the longest Rocky montage the world has ever known. Here’s how my week of standard healthiness panned out…
Monday
I start the day with a gentle jog around the park, followed by a breakfast of wholegrain cereal. For lunch I have a sensible chicken salad sandwich, and dinner features brown rice, all washed down with a glass of finest tap.
I end the day gagging for a pint of
beer and about six packets of crisps. Minutes exercised: 20
Portions of fruit and veg: 8
Tuesday
I’m working in an office for the day, so I feign productivity while secretly devising a dinner that features a rainbow of healthy veg. “If you’re looking at your plate, 50 per cent should feature at least three different colours of vegetable,” advised Pilkington. “Different colours provide different nutrients.”
That night, my wife and I feast on butternut squash, green beans, and a vegetable-packed ratatouille. I allow myself some white new potatoes, as a well done for hard work, before overdosing on satsumas as “dessert”. Minutes exercised: 10
Portions of fruit and veg: 11
Wednesday
Today is an exercise day. Technically, the guidelines say you should do either 150 minutes of moderate cardio, or 75 minutes of high intensity work every week. Johnston has suggested a series of hill sprints as a good example of the latter, so I can squeeze my exercise into a shorter period of time.
The theory is good; the practice horrible. As I approach the summit of my sixth sprint, I collapse to the ground and make a mental note to follow the advice of Dr Brannan, who had told me: “Walking at a brisk pace is one of the easiest ways to get more activity into your day.”
Anyway, no time for such thoughts – there’s strength training to be done. At Johnston’s command, I haul myself over to the chin-up bars and try desperately to lift my frame off the ground. I manage a whopping four before we call it time for the day. Minutes exercised: 30
Portions of fruit and veg: 7 Alcohol units: 5
Thursday
I awake five units down on my weekly allowance. In a frenzy of self-congratulation, one glass had somehow morphed into two-and-abit. No matter, I walk off my shame with a hearty stroll around the park.
Thursdays would normally signal my descent into full-on “weekend mode” where rules be damned – but I’m maintaining my discipline. I’ve prepared carrot sticks as a snack and, as urged by the physical activity guidelines, I try to keep sitting down to a minimum by attempting to do some work standing up.
This does not go well. I feel as if I’m on high alert, waiting for something to happen. It’s also a lot more tiring than I’d anticipated. Minutes exercised: 20
Portions of fruit and veg: 8
Friday
I start the day with 5km on a local treadmill and later enjoy a dinner of oily fish, adhering to centuries of religious doctrine completely by coincidence. I then eschew my own personal religious doctrine by not finishing a bottle of wine in the evening. Enlightening.
Minutes exercised: 45
Portions of fruit and veg: 9 Alcohol units: 4
Saturday
Saturday starts as it always does, with my son’s swimming lesson. Rather than taking my usual poolside spot, I slope off for some laps of my own. On the way home we go to the supermarket, so I can lug the groceries home as a “muscle strengthening” exercise. Short bouts of exercise like this, as Johnston had suggested, are a good way of hitting your weekly quota without having to visit the gym.
The evening sees me polish off the remainder of yesterday’s bottle – and my alcohol units – with gusto. Minutes exercised: 25
Portions of fruit and veg: 6
Alcohol units: 5
Sunday
I’ve made it through the week. The contrarian in me was hoping to find something insurmountable, so I could aim a couple of barbs at the Government’s advice – but the truth is that living the life of a standard healthy person is completely doable. You can easily pepper your week with blasts of exercise without any toll on your family life, and maintaining a balanced diet isn’t rocket science, you just need a bit of self-control.
Will I be adhering to it from now on? Absolutely not. Where’s the fun in that? Minutes exercised (weekly total): 150 Portions of fruit and veg (average):
8 per day
Alcohol units (weekly total): 14