"A little bit of what you fancy does you good" and "You'll have to eat a pack of dirt before you die" were two sayings often uttered by my grandmother.
She lived to be 98, and right up until the day she passed away, (due to an unfortunate accident I might add), dined on a diet of meat and two veg, rice pudding and trifles, bottles of Guinness, the occasional cigarette, and regular pots of Typhoo tea.
She also enjoyed barley sugar, caramel toffee's, the occasional bet, regular trips to mass, fortune tellings, bingo, and her weekly copy of "Tit Bits", the contents of which she frequently quoted from. (As children we were never in doubt about what Elizabeth Taylor had been up to).
Many years have passed since then, another nearly over - but this one, like so many, again filled with often conflicting stories about what we should and shouldn't eat, how much we should and shouldn't eat, and last but not least, about how far our food had to travel before it landed on our dinner plates - all of the above preached whilst a growing number of "Celebrity" chefs promoted them selves, their recipes, and the ingredients they used - ingredients I note, which not only had to be imported, but frequently failed to adhere to the advice often given to us about what we should and shouldn't eat. (NB:Incidentially- I cannot think of anything more boring than having to watch somebody make a meal that I'm never going to taste, can't smell, and will never be satisfied by. To me its tantamount to virtual sex - all tease and no satisfaction).
But of course that's not the point, the point being that whilst I fully understand the importance of a balanced diet, surely such a diet is one which is balanced over a period of a week or more, and not necessarily over the period of twenty four hours -Pizza, burgers and chips having never been intended to be consumed daily - (neither for that matter were alcohol, cakes and tobacco), but designed to be enjoyed as an occasional pleasure alongside much healthier fodder.
The problem is, I think, that nobody does surveys about pleasure, the impact it has on our lives - doctors and nutritionists seemingly failing to understand that Life isn't just about doing the right thing, avoiding the wrong things, but also about enjoyment, fun - gratification and risk - a little bit of what we fancy doing us a lot more good than harm - providing of course, that we're not made to feel guilty about it all the time.
So please, please, could we be spared all the guilt trips of 2007 in 2008, and be allowed to enjoy and get on with our lives, our children's lives - to be free to live them in just as varied and in just as diffuse a way as indeed my grandmother lived hers.
Holding mine up as an example, we might even get to live as long as she did if left alone to live ours the way we choose - and if freed from all the guilt betowed upon us. Who knows, we might even get to enjoy the journey just as much as she did.
