How much alcohol is optimal? Maybe less than you think

var citeN=0;I have been regularly recommending to users of the software HCE (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1) to include a column in their health data reflecting their alcohol consumption. Why? Because I suspect that alcohol consumption is behind many of what we call the “diseases of affluence”. A while ago I recall watching an interview with a centenarian, a very lucid woman. When asked about her “secret” to live a long life, she said that she added a little bit of whiskey to her coffee every morning. It was something like a tablespoon of whiskey, or about 15 g, which amounted to approximately 6 g of ethanol every single day. Well,...

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Happy anniversary Rubbish Diet! Five years old today.

Distracted by the snow,  today's school closure and the prospect of sledging with the 8 year old, it almost passed me by that today is the fifth anniversary of when I launched The Rubbish Diet blog. So forgive my momentary lapse of celebration as well as my now very loud 'whoop-whoop'! 5 years!  Blimmin' 'eck!Back then, I didn't think I'd still be blogging about rubbish even a few months later, let alone five years on.  And as for the amount of rubbish I've avoided and the money saved, that's worth celebrating in itself. So, thank you to ALL who have inspired me and to everyone who has taken steps to make a positive difference...

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We've caught the swapping bug! Sustainable Bury launches its first Swap Shop

L-R: Pippa, Fiona & me: Some of the founding members of Sustainable Bury, at our very first Swap Shop. Photo credit: Sandy Jackson. I've been to several 'Swap shops' or 'Give & Take' days organised by Transition Town groups around Suffolk. the last one being being held by Sustainable Bungay in September.  I must confess that when I left that event, I was both quite jealous that Bury St Edmunds didn't have such an occasion to get the good town-folk out swapping, but also very much inspired to do something about it.After all, in Bungay, what I witnessed was not just a great way of motivating people to declutter their unwanted...

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Don't let food waste be next year's shock headline - my two penneth

Well Happy New Year everyone.  I can see it's kicked off in fine style!Having just got used to my back-to-school routine and having my first day at the laptop, this morning I found my Twitter stream awash with the topic of food waste and the media's shock that statistics published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reveal that 30%-50% of the world's food never gets eaten.These are huge figures to contemplate, whichever way you look at it, with growers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers all playing a key part or being affected.But this isn't the first time that the headlines have been full to the brim with the horror of food waste.  Here's a random sample, taking us back to 2007, when I first became aware of the issue.2012 - Unilever calls on companies to tackle food...

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