Health tips - what did you wish you knew

Skyr can be a bit strange at first as it doesn’t have the same texture as other yoghurts, it’s a bit fluffy but fine when stirred. I find it keeps me quite full if I have it in the mornings. However, I went off it a bit lately after having the cold / flu bug that’s been doing the rounds, it seems to have affected my sense of taste and put me off certain things.
I also find the halibut oil capsule I take every day greatly helps my joints in winter, especially my knees.

I buy Skyr here (the natural one).

I just realised I’ve been buying the high protein one so that may explain the strange texture.
I usually have with some pecans or walnuts and a drizzle of honey.

It’s easy to get real Greek yoghurt in the UK but it would not to be so here.

I went to coop today and bought one of each yoghurt and so will be doing some taste tests!

Another thing about Skyr, it’s not great for cooking. I often finish curry off with yoghurt but i use a Greek style for this as Skyr splits and is pretty horrible.

I’ve mentioned before on the forum a few times that before you take any credence in the results or recommendations of a study or paper, you should find out who paid for the research.

I was listening to the Two Docs podcast on BBC Radio 4 and they mentioned dry January.
Any amount of alcohol is bad for you but many of us chose to still drink, in moderation but cutting down is a good idea and not just for one month.

It turns outs out that Dry January was a Drinks Industry Marketing success.

It hasn’t affected alcohol sales too much as January is the month when people don’t drink too much anyway - people are taking it easy after the holiday excess, the party season is over, there are few weddings and other bashes.

Come February and people are back to their old drinking habits.

There’s a good reason why there isn’t a Dry December !

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I guess this is one case where the industry and the consumer’s objectives align. The industry wants more or less healthy consumers that buy during their whole long lifetimes. Consumers want more or less the same, enjoy a bottle of wine or a few beers during dinner when I’m 80 YO.

Not everything is bad when it’s a proposal from the other side. It may be a win-win.

Yes, but without full disclosure, it does look suspicious.

No, that wasn’t really the point.

If you abstain from drinking in January but continue with an excessive consumption for the rest of the year, that’s a lot less healthy then drinking throughout the year but drinking a lot less.

That’s healthier for the consumer but not for the drinks companies profits - which is why they push Dry January.

You seem to have fallen for the Marlboro Light fallacy.

Alcohol consumption has been trending downwards for quite some time now and the drinks industry has been heavily marketing low / non- alcoholic drinks - the craft beer market has really boomed and some of the products aren’t too shabby, compared to not so long ago when they were awful.

Mainly seems to be the youngsters who aren’t so interested in alcohol these days but I’ve noticed that there’s a definite shift, at least among our circle of friends, to not really bother with alcohol. Over the Xmas period (Dec work parties through to NYE) I think I had about 3 glasses of Prosecco in total, and a glass of red with the turkey dinner, but that was it.

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I drink a lot less compared to my young self. I think I got there by taking some breaks which helped to stop downward spirals, get back something less self-destructive and find better things in life. I had my own Dry January in August or whatever.

Dry January may be a marketing thing, but it may also be one of those breaks that help to stop a fall into full self-destructive addiction. Of course, it would be better if the marketing would be “take a break when it’s needed, it doesn’t have to be January”.

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I think if someone is worried that they may be an alcoholic then abstaining for a month or a couple of weeks is an excellent idea to see whether they can go without.
I have done that.
I’ve seen what becoming an alcoholic does to people’s lives and would hate to become one although, with the amount I drink these days, I don’t think I’ve got much to worry about.

The health message though should be to cut down throughout the year if you are drinking too much and not just abstain for a month and then carry on.

The program I referred to though was a UK one and there is much more of a drinking culture than here.

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I myself drink less due to the stiffer drunk driving rules.

I drink too much coffee and can see negative effects of it, but can’t abstain from it for long

I can’t cope with strong coffee and that seems to include most capsule coffee.

So, I don’t drink those and tend to have espresso coffee brewed with arabica beans as the lower temperatures of espresso cause less caffeine to be leached out and arabica beans have less caffeine than the cheaper robusta beans.

The worse coffee for me is the forementioned capsules and filter coffee.

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1Nespresso a day, first thing, to start my heart.

I rarely drink coffee at all, just an occasional capuccino. Problem I have with coffee is it acts as a diuretic with me, I know if I was to drink a cup at 4pm by 6pm I’d be running to the loo all evening (this includes decaf).

As for Dry January, I did it during the second year of Covid lockdowns and it extended into February. Felt better for it and lost some weight, however after Covid restrictions were out of the way I went back to my naughty old self :smiling_face_with_horns: I haven’t drunk spirits for years and when I do have a drink it’s either white wine, dry vermouth with tonic or an alcohol free beer.
OH is in Spain this week, great for me as I don’t eat a lot, drink alcohol or eat rubbish like crisps when he’s not here. He’s visiting am English friend from university who had a quadruple bypass 2 years ago and spent about a year convalescing in hospital after. He’s 64 and it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be around too much longer :anguished_face:

Murica…

Adopting a no meat diet is the best thing that anyone can do for their health.

Actually it’s not, but never mind. Eating too much is not a good idea and a healthy diet is important.

Apart from the things you shouldn’t do, like smoking, probably the best thing you can do is have a high level of physical activity in your week - both cardio and muscle strengthening.
It’s also good in that it costs absolutely nothing.

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Especially if you ride public transport. Then you are are always running for the bus or train.

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