It official Beer can make you live longer.
But only if you are a fat, lazy, couch potato, who does no physical exercise (no changing TV channels with the remote does not count for Physical Activity).

You must be a SMOKER, eat Junk, do no or very little  exercise for this to be your savour..

OK

Ready

Set

Go!

YES! the crowd goes Wild…..

Cheers resound throughout the Beer Drinking World…..
Men all over the globe rejoice, telling their wives I am off to the Pub, for daily health tonic…
This is no rinky dink, fly by night study, this is credible. Heres how it works and what they found.

The study - co-authored by Australian expatriate Professor Michael Marmot and published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health - charted almost 10,000 men over 17 years.
“A significant benefit of moderate drinking compared with abstinence or heavy drinking was found among those with poor health behaviours (little exercise, poor diet and smokers),” the study says.
But for those who did more than three hours of vigorous exercise per week, ate fruit and vegetables each day and did not smoke, alcohol was of little help.
“No additional benefit from alcohol was found among those with the healthiest behaviour profile,” the study concluded.
Carpenter Mick Howie, 42, of Stuart Park, admitted he drank “a couple more” than the recommended 14 standard drinks per week the researchers had recommended - but said the amber drop had some obvious benefits.
“It is good for your health, it tastes good and it helps you sleep,” he said.
Mr Howie said he enjoyed the occasional cigarette, but is not too keen on exercise.
“You won’t see me on The Esplanade jogging - that’s what’s going to kill you,” he said.
Despite the research, Professor Marmot advised against running straight to the pub for a beer and a smoke.
“Stopping smoking, eating more fruit and vegetables and taking more exercise will also reduce heart disease risk,” he said.

Sounds like to much hard work, for us fat, lazy, beer drinking, smokers.
Why bother when we sit on our butts all of them and get the same benefit… as all those silly folks out there jogging in the wind and the rain, we can sit and watch them sweating in summer from our deck chair and if you wish you could always offer them a nice cold beer…. convert these poor souls… they dont know what they are missing..

This is great news!

I am not sure whether I find the results of this study as Pleasing, as I do the fact that it was done  by an Aussie… perhaps its both….
However I am taking heart (no pun intended) that I can sit at my computer and do not much else, have at least 2 beers a day and then I can say I am doing my heart good…..
So there is light at the end of the tunnel, smokers and slobs alike rejoice I can hear you all jumping up and down with excitment..

NO DON’T EXERCISE IS BAD FOR YOU!

STOP IT NOW!

Trash a fast foodjoint or eat in one while trashed? Incidents like this are covered in the 2006 Eric Scholsser book called chew on this that I’m tucking into here in Mumbai.

In 2001 500 Hindus trashed a McDonlalds and smeared cow dung on the status of Ronald McDonald here when they realised that they’d been eating ‘veggie’ meals when in fact the fries were cooked in beef fat!

Some Mc’facts for you from Schlosser:

A fast food hamburger can contain pieces of a thousand or more cattle.

A typical fast food chicken lives squashed between 30,000 other birds and rarely lives beyond 6 weeks.

These chicken gain 2.5kg per month in weight. If a child gained weight this fast they’d weigh 127kg by the time they are 6 years old.

(more…)

Hi from Mumbai where I’ve just pitched up for a few days of GSTF work with the Flora2000 team finalising the future plans to make this place an authority on inspiration, health, travel, food and media whilst becoming a thriving online community like no other. It’s 7 months since the last visit here - where did all that time GO?

Could you pin the tail on the map and accurately place Mumbai, without googling? Click here for the answer.

I revisited Leopold’s, tucked into one of my latest books, Maximum City by Suketu Mehta whilst washing down the finest carrot juice resisting the temptation to wade into a chimney of beer:

The rain has been really heavy as the monsoon season comes to and end here where scenes like this at nearby Chowpatty beach will soon return to brighten up the days of the estimated 16 million people who live in the city.

Have you resisted any temptation recently or caved in and folded like a cheap suit? Do tell.

Following GSTF Founder Taylor Blue’s lively, timely and excellent post on 9/11 we have learnt that a new study by the World Trade Center Health Registry claims that the 9/11 terrorist attack led to some 70,000 people developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The public health registry was created right after September 11, 2001 to track the health effects of the disastrous attack. In addition, between 4,000 and 12,600 have developed asthma due to the traumatic event.

Women, minorities, and low-income participants had higher rates of physical and mental problems, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said. Katherine L. Muller, director of psychology training and director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, told journalists that more and more people were reaching natural recovery from the traumatic experiences of 9/11.

What can society do to help post traumatic stress victims years on after the event? Do tell - Is it possible to ever get over being so close to such a mammoth event that shook the world?

Just a follow on from my Matlock Bath - Heights of Abraham post earlier this week, but it occurred to me that there are many such ‘attractions’ where a fear of heights could curtail the outing - particularly theme parks - it’s not the spinning - it’s the height!

Have you had a family (or otherwise) outing cut short or ruined by a fear or phobia?

Do tell (group hugs at ground level only please!)

Taking the opportunity of the last fine day of the year and the last weekend before the kids went back to school, we stayed a bit closer to home and visited the Heights of Abraham in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire.

One of it’s main attractions is the alpine style cable car ride to the ’summit’ and the visitor centre and cavern tours though old lead mines. Originally mined by the romans!

Of course yours’ truly can’t stand heights so we took the very invigorating walk up the hillside instead.

I was doing fine in the cavern tours as well until the second one at the top of the hill - towards the end after the last cavern, we were shown up a metal stepway that led to a set of steps back up to the surface.

Everyday folk would have had no problem but for me - I just couldn’t let go of the rail for dear life. So i opted for a walk back the way i’d come, scaring the life out of the next party coming through - perhaps I should have hid and made moaning sounds????

It was a great day, we all enjoyed it and I’ve blogged about it and Matlock Bath in more detail over at ‘our place’.

http://purple13.blogspot.com/2008/09/office-day-out-to-heights-of-abraham.html

Think is the heights thing did get in the way. What days out have you had recently that a fear or phobia affected you?

It seems over here in my neck of the woods that there really is no temptation to eat bad foods, because it’s just a part of the culture.  We eat pizza, tacos, deep fried carnie confections and more on a daily basis because it’s there and it’s good.  Did I mention it’s good? 

Of late though, I’ve been overdoing the eating of bad foods thing.  I just don’t seem to realize until it’s too late that I’ve overdone it and my stomach is periously close to rejecting those tasty treats. 

I’m going to make a concious effort to eat more veggies and less swill for a while to see if that improves the way I feel.  Have you noticed a direct coorelation to the way you feel what you’ve eaten or in the case of some flower smellers detoxed from your systems?

We’re not bad people, we just eat bad things.

Jim here with news that I am blessed with TEN TIMES more moles than the average person. The downside is I’m far more likely to contract skin cancer so I wanted to share with you what I learnt today after a check up that I’ve been putting off for a while. The upside? Erm, I’m working on that one something along the lines of flowers in the sun, perhaps.

The Doc checked every mole (it was along day) and reported that none of them where a major concern as he examined my body for moles that exhibited:

1) Asymmetry  - Two halves of the mole don’t look the same.

2) Border - The edges of the mole are irregular, blurred or jagged.

3) Colour - Uneven with more than one shade.

4) Diameter - Wider than 6mm - the size of a pencil eraser. 

Each year more than 100,000 people in the UK (hardly a hot climate) are diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer and a further 8,000 with malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.

Finally, on my face is a red spot like blotch which has cropped up over the last 6 months. I’ve been assured that applying Fucidin cream twice a day will get rid of this minor blemish that could lead to infection if I don’t nip this little flower in the bud.

Do you have your skin checked? Do tell and be sure to apply UV cream in comments as your skin related comments are welcomed here.

I’ll pop this post into the health section at forums so feel free to drop in and shed some skin there from time to time and your health issues are welcomed there aswell - within reason, of course.

We recently had the “Where the hell is Matt” dance here and I came across another dance we can all take part in and get a good 2 minute cardio workout. Sitting at your laptop all day means you need regular breaks for stretching and general movement. So, do you care enough about yourself to get moving?

It’s high time for another free flowers caption competition here at Flowers - our 31st!

Your chance to win $60 of flowers delivered anywhere in the world courtesy of our partners Flora 2000, the International delivery experts.

To enter just pop in ONE CAPTION in the comments section AND include one random fact about yourself relating to either health or travel - something that your have experienced or something that others may find interesting. Your chance to have fun and  share something about yourself related to either HEALTH or TRAVEL seeing as we’re headed that way with the content here at GSTF.

You could always celebrate summer and send flowers to someone right now, anywhere in the world . Simply click on our spanking new summer flowers banners and use promo code GSTF99 and you’ll be entitled to a bit of flower smelling discount! Contest ends on  Saturday 6th September Midnight Dubai time. Good luck flower smellers!

**Remember - Only 1 caption per person please - if you think a more than one then get a friend to enter