There’s a certain type of person, a character set, that we should never allow to get anywhere near actual power over us. Because their point is that we must all stop whatever it is that we desire to do and start doing as we’re damn well told. The major problem with the European Union being that these are the types employed to write the rulebook for 500 million people. But, of course, we’ve got our own home grown ones as well:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Three-quarters of food bought in UK hospitals is unhealthy, audit shows[/perfectpullquote]No one bothering to ask the obvious question, how much of food consumed is bought from a shop in a hospital? If it’s 100% of a weekly diet then perhaps there’s a point here. If it’s 10% then so damn what?
No, think on it. It’s as if they analyse drinks bought in a tea shop and insist the population’s about to die of tannin overload. Or complain that customers of a sweet shop bought sweets – that last being something they might well do.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Researchers have called for radical restrictions on junk food in UK hospitals after an audit of NHS health centres found that people overwhelmingly bought unhealthy snacks and drinks on the premises. Three-quarters of the best-selling snacks in hospital cafes and canteens were rated as unhealthy, along with half of the most popular cold drinks, according to a report by the audit’s authors. Despite hospitals taking steps to promote healthier eating, the audit found that medical staff, patients and visitors tended to shun nutritious snacks in favour of crisps, sweets, cakes and other baked foods including pastries and muffins. [/perfectpullquote]Jeez, they’re analysing sales at caffs. Which is where you go to get your daily ration of fat and sugar, right?
Seriously, we’ve all got to get with the program here. Hoick these anal retentives and obsessives out of any position of power over us that they might have and return to a sensible polity. One where consenting adults get to be consenting adults. Otherwise what’s the point of having this freedom and liberty thing in the first place?
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They aren't even looking at meals but just snacks. Strangely enough snacks do tend to be an unhealthy treat, particularly given sugary drinkers are well known to be a useful for its calming properties (at least that's what the NHS reports https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/sweet-tea-soothes-stress/), I think most people find going to hospitals stressful experiences...
How much of the food, the 'healthy' food, served to patients remains uneaten? You send your visitors to get proper nosh from the caff.
A couple of years ago, after feeling faint from having a blood test (combination of 12 hours fast and early morning appointment), the nurse sent me to the hospital caff for a fry-up.
I responded to a similar previous column by lamenting that we need a new Australia to send the world's control-freaks to, and you replied that the old Australia is still there. It's a bit more civilized today than I think would be ideal for such people, but undoubtedly would be superior to no action at all. How soon can we start?
Absolutely not. We've got too many of the drongos over here as it is. But we'll be happy to ship you some of ours, though.
Healthy food? Quite what is healthy food is up for some serious debate. Rising obesity levels and the increase in diabetes have gone hand in hand with campaigns that advocate reducing protein and fats, supplementing them with carbohydrates. Other lifestyle activities, or more specifically a lack of activity, no doubt play a role, but the state has been promoting a high sugar(carbohydrate) diet for decades, we are now seeing the result.
Salt, a necessary regulator of blood pressure, has been demonised as a factor in heart disease, yet countries where people eat higher levels of salt than the average have lower levels of coronary disease. They are also the countries that eat more than average amounts of animal protein, Japan and Australia for example.
An eight-year study in New York City of the hypertensive population found those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those on normal-sodium diets; the exact opposite of what the anti-salt hypothesis suggests. (1995 Dr. Jeffrey R. Cutler) 40,000 people a year are hospitalised in the USA specifically because their salt levels are too low, something which was unheard of until the anti-salt campaigns.
In the UK it has got so bad that Transport for London banned an advertisement for farmers' markets because butter featured, presumably expecting that people should replace dairy with the almost inedible trans fatty acid emulsified fat known as margarine.
The state don't know what is and what isn't healthy food, bureaucrats and doctors are just as prone to food faddism as the general public. They are best ignored.
Excellent comment. The latest incarnation of the government's "food pyramid" STILL recommends limiting salt intake, even though it becomes more clear with each new study released that this is bad, potentially deadly, advice. Salt is an essential nutrient, and millions of years of evolution have honed our bodies' feedback mechanisms so that "salt to taste" covers the right intake for all but a very tiny minority who have some exotic disease.