Soluble Fibre
In an earlier post, Does Gluten Lower Cholesterol, I pondered why my cholesterol was higher than it should be.
Yesterday, I went to see a dietitian and it would appear that I’m not eating enough soluble fibre; oats, beans and pulses. In fact, with the exception of the odd tin of baked beans and broad beans when they are in season, I don’t eat much at all.
As I drove back home, I pondered why I don’t eat as many of these as I should.
For a start, I should say that I actually love beans and when I was left alone in my teens, supper would nearly always be a cold tin of baked beans and orange squash. How we lived then? I’ll eat most beans and pulses, so why have they dropped from my diet.
Could it be that, when it comes to vegetables, that I actually prefer the broccolis, cauliflowers and greens of this world? I do and I wonder if it is because my late wife didn’t eat any of them, so when she cooked the vegetables were inevitably peas or if it was something like sausages, baked beans. So now, I’m in charge these have been relegated to the subs bench. I do eat baked beans, but because of my high cholesterol, I’ve been avoiding the sort of fatty foods that I usually eat them with!
So it looks like I could have been drawn into a trap of my own making, by cooking food I like for myself, rather than following a correct diet.
How many others don’t eat enough soluble fibre becuase of ignorance like me?
There was a sad footnote to the appointment with the dietitian. They used to know my old doctor from Woodbridge, Dr. Ian Bowles, who was our GP for perhaps fifteen years or so. It was sad to hear that he died a couple of years ago, many years before he should. Such is life!
Tower Block Safety
Years ago, we lived in one of the tower blocks in the Barbican. At the time, they were some of the highest residential blocks in Europe and you can still see Cromwell, Lauderdale and Shakespeare Towers looming behind the City of London like three cricket stumps.
I am always nervous of fire, and we wouldn’t have moved in with our young family, if we weren’t satisfied that the blocks were safe.
- All of the balconies on the blocks connected up, so in an emergency, you could go all the way round the block to get away from the fire.
- Each balcony had two escape staircases, that connected to the lobbies below your floor.
- There was of course a protected stairwell to get down in an emergency.
It am not aware that there has not been a serious fire in any of these blocks, so other precautions must have worked as well.
So it would appear that well-designed tower blocks can work. And talking to my children now, they all enjoyed the time spent living above the city.
But.
We have just had the tragedy in Camberwell. Was that block built to the same standards as the Barbican?
Steve Race
Last month I missed that Steve Race had died. He was one of the last great broadcasters from the 1950s to the 1970s, who were at home doing everything. He was a jazz pianist, author, broadcaster and television panelist. And he even used to create the Quick Crossword for the Telegraph. I think too, that he was one of the original presenters of PM on Radio 4.
He was one of my favourite broadcasters and I know it is often said, but I don’t think we’ll see the like of him again.
Godfrey Rampling
This is an interesting obituary in today’s Telegraph of Godfrey Rampling, who has died at a 100.
He was considered one of the finest one-lap relay runners of all time and helped the British team win Gold at Hitler’s Olympics in 1936.
He is also remembered as the father of Charlotte Rampling, the actress. She was one of the few famous people born in Haverhill in Suffolk.
Mollie Sugden
Mollie Sugden, one of Britain’s comedy greats died yesterday at 86. That was a good innings and we’d all like to do as well as she did. We’d probably all like the nation’s affection too, but we’d never get to her levels.
The Telegraph obituary saved us all a typical joke for the end.
Mollie Sugden and her husband had identical twin sons, born when she was 41.She confessed that when they were very young she had to keep them labelled so that she could tell them apart and that “more than once I bathed the same one twice”.
Do It in God’s Name
I’ve just watched the Channel 4 programme, Dispatches about the attacks in Mumbai.
It’s chilling and it shows the callousness of those that controlled the gunmen from Pakistan. Is it alright for them to send young men to their deaths, when they are sitting comfortably at home? The title of this post is what a controller said to a gunman.
They said they did it in God’s name! Whose God? Not mine as I have none but life itself. And any religion that preaches death is some nihilistic cult that goes against all I believe in!
They were not even doing it in the good name of Islam. Much of Islam is now a bastardised version of a religion that looked after our science and made women equal. I’ve read enough history to know that.
But why do I feel so affected by the Mumbai attacks?
I wasn’t there, but I was in the Taj Mahal hotel two weeks previously. How many of those wonderful and kind people that we met in the hotel, died in the attacks?
Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai
I shall return to the hotel to show that terrorism will never get the better of me.
Jerri Neilsen FitzGerald
Sad to see that this courageous doctor has died.
She gave herself a biopsy without anaesthetic, whilst working as a doctor at the South Pole and then treated herself for breast cancer. Just like my wife, she got over the cancer and returned to work. Jerri became a motovational speaker and carried on until the cancer took her in the end.
She is quoted as saying this.
It doesn’t matter how or when you die. The only thing that matters is, did you ever live?
I’ll go with that and I’ll give her a toast tonight, when I have my evening glass of wine. Or two!
Michael Jackson and Seve Ballesteros
The news is dominated by the death of Michael Jackson. I wasn’t a fan at all and the outpourings are in my view totally over the top. He may or may not have done things he shouldn’t and we can look forward to large amounts of allegations that can’t be verified one way or another.
Jackson may be dead, but long live the Michael Jackson industry!
Much more important news today is that Seve Ballesteros has made what seems to be a pretty good recovery from his brain tumour.
He was in a far worse state than Jackson and it shows that by focusing on the future and doing everything you can to help, you can make a recovery from the darkest places.
Good luck to Seve!
The Anonymous Widower 