Dear Editor,
In my column last Sunday I mentioned in passing that the best advice any doctor or diet book could give is very simple: “Consume Less, Move More”
By coincidence the day after this appeared I read the latest issue of the Cambridge University magazine Cam in which Professor Theresa Marteau, Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the university, reports their latest findings in health research as follows:
“Smoking. Eating too much. Drinking too much. Moving too little. These four behaviours cause the majority of premature deaths worldwide. Enabling individuals to change these behaviours would avoid 40 per cent of cancers and 75 per cent of diabetes.”
There you have it. Four behaviours that should change. Sadly, reports hardly ever change behaviour patterns. But we have been warned.
Yours faithfully,
Ian McDonald