We have two wonderful friends, Sandra Betzina and her husband Dan Webster, who always have the most fun dinner parties. A few weeks ago Sandra’s  brother Doug, was the guest of honor and he is a fascinating man; thoughtful, imaginative, and deeply concerned with the state of discourse in America. Unlike most people though Doug is doing something about it. I’ll write more about that another time but first I wanted to share a couple of stories from a blog he writes. These are true stories. Which makes them all the more amazing.

TRUE STORY NUMBER ONE

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn’t famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder

Gangster Al Capone

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed ‘Easy Eddie.’ He was Capone’s lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie’s skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but Eddie got special dividends, as well. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn’t give his son; he couldn’t pass on a good name or a good example. One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al ‘Scarface’ Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against the mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. So, he testified. Within the year, Easy Eddie’s life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street . But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read: ‘The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time for the clock may soon be still.’

STORY NUMBER TWO World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to return to the carrier.

Butch O'Hare

Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet. As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw something that turned his blood cold; a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn’t reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber’s blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible, rendering them unfit to fly. Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved, Butch O’Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch’s daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft. This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy’s first Ace of WW II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man. So, the next time you find yourself at O’Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch’s memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It’s located between Terminals 1 and 2.

SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER? Butch O’Hare was ‘Easy Eddie’s’ son.

Hey, there’s a new twist on an old idea – and I mean really, really old – that claims you can be healthier in just 24 hours, and all you have to do is keep your mouth shut. Well, not completely, you do need to drink plenty of water. Anyway the idea has been around since Biblical times that a quick short fast or a partial fast is good for you, and will give your digestive system a little rest.

You can think of it as meditation time for your organs because by fasting for this short amount of time, every once in a while, your body will begin to burn stored sugars. This in turn will cause insulin secretion to slow down because less insulin will be needed to digest the food you didn’t eat.

What’s the benefit of that you ask. If you burn up the sugars and decrease insulin, you have less taste for sweets and we all know if we harness that sweet tooth our body fat will decrease too.

The sugars in our body are called glycogen and they are necessary for energy and thinking. However, Dr. Naomi Neufeld of UCLA says we have a store of these sugars throughout our body, so fasting won’t cause a problem and it may even help the body to get a 24 hour rest from eating. The key is to drink lots of water during that 24 hours, to help flush out the toxins that have built up. Drinking fruit juice doesn’t work, because they contain more of the same sugars you are trying to get rid of.
Partial fasting may have beneficial effects on the brain too because there’s good evidence it protects against diseases of aging like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and stroke. There’s also evidence that lowering glucose levels can help prevent diabetes and lower blood pressure, according to Mark Mattson with the National Institute on Aging.

So when Spain’s King Juan Carlos told President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to shut up, he may just have been thinking about his health!

Non-Fat! Huh! – What is it good for….Absolutely Nothin’ Say it again!

The food industry has lots of ways to make us believe we can eat what we want and still stick to our diet! Have you been lured into the evil ways of the “Non-Fat” food industry? You know the one that says, “Ice Cream…sure, have some “Non-Fat” ice cream, go ahead, have as much as you want! It’s Non-Fat! Ever looked at the label? Check out those calories, but here’s the good news!

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that women who have at least one serving of full-fat dairy products, (like that ice cream) a day gain less weight than women who don’t. They aren’t sure why this is the case. It could be that a compound in milk fat may aid in weight loss, but my take has always been, “I’d rather have the “real” thing! “

Dieticians believe that the protein found in full-fat foods might satisfy your taste buds and curb your hunger at the same time  They say full-fat foods taste different and trigger the brain to feel satiated sooner than with non-fat foods. It makes sense, if your craving is met and the protein makes you less hungry, you won’t need to eat as much.

Lot’s of people fill their refrigerators with non-fat products ranging from creamers for coffee to cheese that tastes exactly like, well, non-fat cheese. Amazingly this doesn’t satisfy the craving for the taste of the real food.

Folks who regularly choose non-fat products are more likely to take in more calories because they tend to eat larger portions more often. Think about it, real ice cream or non-fat ice cream. I know what your thinking. “Well, it’s non-fat so I guess I can have a larger serving.” Right, but does it really satisfy your craving for the real thing?

There’s a commercial that shows a woman coming home from a hard day at work. It must have been a hard day because she sheds her shoes as she enters the house, she drops her jacket on the floor and somehow someone left a piece of frosted chocolate cake on the coffee table which she eats, licking the frosting off the top as she lies on the couch. Believe me, she looks pretty satisfied. Then they tell you it’s “non-fat. I can tell you this, non-fat just doesn’t taste as good as the real thing, but then this skinny woman is getting paid to enjoy the non-fat luscious chocolate cake. I’d rather have a smaller piece but have real chocolate.

That means you have to make a decision, and choose wisely. If you crave a steak, choose the lower fat cuts like sirloin, or T-bone. Want a hamburger? Choose lean meat and hold the mayo. Enjoy your dairy products, like Ice cream, or cheese and be judicious with the servings. You don’t have to have a lot and it will make you appreciate every bite.

It’s all about making the best choice, be careful of the calories and enjoy the taste of the real thing.

Well, I just read an article called “Mid-Life financial check-up” it’s about reassessing all the things you have done over the years with your money and how to re-focus, depending on your needs, in the future. And it got me to thinking – it happens from time to time – that maybe what we all need is a “Mid-Life Self Health Really Honest check-up”.

The financial check-up was very informative because it asks you questions about where you have your money, how much debt you have and have you saved enough for a healthy financial future. So our little “Mid-Life Self Health Really Honest Check-up”, could follow that example and ask you questions about your health, and you answer really honestly in your own private setting with no one listening. Ready?

Q – How long have you been saying, “I’m going to start a regular exercise routine.”

a) 1 month b) 6months c) 1 year d) Over 2 years e) All my damn life or it seems like it.

Be honest, have you walked your talk yet, or is the future still the place where you are “gonna” get into an exercise routine, really.

Q – Are you doing enough to insure a healthy body well into your 80′s?

a) I watch my diet and choose wisely b) I moderate the treats c) I consider allergies, health issues and I don’t expect a pill to be the complete answer.

Hey, we’re living longer that’s why we need more money as we age, but if we only have the money and our health is shot we are just waiting for the end, and it’s not a pretty future.

In a recent New York Times article Dr. Vonda Wright studied people of a certain age who had been in physical competitions like running and found them to be playing the age game and winning. She also studied folks who began an exercise plan in their 40′s or 50′s, even 70′s and the same benefits applied. They were healthier seniors who were defying the stereotype of the elderly. They were not shuffling, doddering old folks, they were vibrant physically fit people who have lived a non-sedentary life. They were healthier! So it’s never too late to start, no matter what age you are.

Q – How long have you been planning to finally break that “bad habit” ? Whether it’s smoking, overeating or just not taking care of yourself or your body?

Be serious here, no one is looking. Really what have you done to free your mind of the guilt you feel, the self hatred that rages through every single cell in your body that is screaming “You are killing me! You are not worthy of living! You are so far gone now that it is just too late! Too late do you hear, you lazy, fast-food chomping….”
Hold it! Stop! I got just a little carried away there, but you get the idea.

Q – How is your unofficial really honest self health test going?

a) right on track!

That’s what I thought. Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and foremost scholar on aging, says life gets even better as we age. She is best known for debunking all those nasty stereotypes of aging as frail and surly. She says we have more control than we think. All that’s needed is to get control of our mind, body and our finances. You still have time, start now.

Just when I thought I really didn’t want to hear anything else about health care reform, something came along that really caught my attention and got me excited all over again. And it came in a venue and from a source that I least expected it!

The past few months have been distressingly, depressingly bleak when it came to hearing thoughtful, considered discussion of the need for health care change in the U.S. All we seemed to hear were voices raised in anger and ignorance, spewing out fear and loathing. Lies about “death panels” gained ground while the truth about other options were ignored or shouted down.

So for a while I started to tune it out thinking that I would wait to see the final health care reform proposals before paying attention again.  That was before I went to a conference on health care reform, staged by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce – and in the interests of full disclosure I have to admit that the event was sponsored by the hospital I work for.

The guest of honor was House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi and there were other heavy hitters in attendance, but the most riveting part of the program came from three characters who are responsible for taking care of a huge chunk of the population of San Francisco.

Dr. Warren Browner, CEO of California Pacific Medical Center (and my boss) asked Dr. Mitch Katz, Director of the Department of Public Health for SF, and Mark Laret, CEO of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center a simple question; name areas of waste in the current health care system that could easily be cut.

The answers were blunt, direct and fascinating.

Dr. Katz began by saying he didn’t think we needed people to be paid $350,000 a year just to read mammograms. He says it isn’t necessary for someone to go through four years of medical school just to be able to read mammograms, that we could train people to do it for a fraction of that cost and pay them a lot less than radiologists currently get, without impacting the overall effectiveness or accuracy of the mammogram reading.

Now that is not the kind of answer that is going to get a round of applause at a radiologists conference, but it is an intriguing idea, a fresh way of looking at health care and instead of thinking about how to tinker with the current system basically says ‘to hell with the current system, let’s take a serious look at everything we do and question if we need to do it.”

Then Mark Laret said that at UCSF, one of the most highly regarded medical centers in the U.S.,  anytime a patient comes to them from another center with a diagnosis of, say for example, a brain tumor, they’ll almost always ignore the fact that the patient has already had a brain scan and order a series of new tests.

Those new tests, done on the very latest equipment are very accurate. They are also very expensive. So Laret posed the question, do we really need to do another series of scans when the tests that were done in previous hospitals are just fine?

Now, if it’s your life that is on the line you might think ‘abso-bloody-lutely we should do more tests’, but is there really any evidence that it improves outcomes, that it does anything other than generate a nice income for doctors and hospitals.

Maybe the doctors are doing the scans not because they don’t trust the other hospital’s work but simply because they want to reduce the likelihood of being sued if something goes wrong. By ordering fresh tests they can show they were being diligent, thoughtful and thorough. But along the way we also incur a huge medical bill.

Two very different ideas from two very different parts of the health care debate, the public health sector and a leading academic medical center. But two fresh approaches, blunt, direct, and intriguing.

Maybe we should get other hospital leaders to think about how they would answer that same question. You never know, it could lead to some equally fascinating and provocative answers. It certainly makes a refreshing change from most of the other conversations about reform that are currently taking place.

One of the few things in life that I have ever really regretted is getting a full-body tattoo depicting scenes from the Battle of Gettysburg. Ah, the things you do at 17 after a night on the town with a crew from a visiting Portuguese warship.

To be honest, there are several parts of the battle I’ve never seen, though my closest friends tell me that Picket’s Charge – which snakes up my left hamstring and ends in, well, disaster – is particularly wonderful.

Anyway, I was reading this fascinating new study the other day that says many people are now getting medical tattoos and that doctors need to get up to speed on it.

The study, presented at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists meeting, says many people are getting tattoos that alert people to their medical condition. It can be anything from a warning that you have diabetes to tell paramedics that you have a severe allergy, say to peanuts, that can render you unconscious quickly.

Anyway, the survey says many doctors don’t know anything about this and suggests they need to become better informed so that if one of their patients comes in and asks about it, they can have an informed discussion and decide on the best course of action.

If you have seasonal allergies, it might not be necessary. But if you have a deadly reaction to penicillin then you might want to consider it. Maybe on a background of a skull and crossbones.

That way you can look cool and be safe at the same time.

Fat Fish & Men’s Hearts

This study is important for many reasons. First, it proves men do have a heart, and secondly it says that chaps who eat salmon or other fatty fish just once a week can reduce their risk of heart failure.

You might have missed the study because you allowed your subscription to the European Heart Journal to slip. That’s understandable. Ever since they got rid of that centerfold shot of Surgeon of the Month it hasn’t been quite so much fun, but this study is worth reading.

The researchers followed 39,367 Swedish men between the ages of 45 and 79 from 1998 to 2004 (perhaps those boys from Abba were among the study group?) They found that men who ate fatty fish – such as salmon, mackerel, herring, whitefish and char – were 12 percent less likely than men who didn’t eat the fish to develop heart failure.

Perhaps our fast food friends will take note and create a heart healthy Big Mackerel burger. We can dream can’t we!

More on why wine is good for you

What better to wash that fish down with than a lovely glass of wine. Well, actually beer would be just as good.. but I digress.

So, normally when you are writing about dry stuff like medical research you tend to have to jump into the findings pretty quickly otherwise you risk losing our audience, but when the headline screams that wine is good for you you can take your sweet time about saying what they found.

But obviously not too long or you’ll jump to some cheap celebrity news site. So here you go.

A study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research found that people who drank wine before they were diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma had a reduced risk of death or relapse compared to people didn’t drink wine before they were diagnosed with the disease.

Now, you may never be diagnosed with non-Hodgkings lymphoma but can you really take that risk? So, stop reading this and open a bottle of wine and protect yourself.

There are times that I just don’t know what I’m going to write about, so I look for inspiration all around me.  I just finished reading “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.  She is the brain scientist who had a massive stroke at the age of 37.

She was able to observe her own brain deteriorating as it hemorrhaged,  cutting off the entire left side of her brain.  She couldn’t talk, walk, read, write, or remember any part of her life.  Dr. Taylor made a complete recovery after 8 years of rehabilitation, and discovered much along the way.

You may be familiar with Dr. Taylor, she’s been on all the major shows, Oprah included. She talks about how she sees life now.  But that’s not what I want to talk about today.   Today, I want to talk about Jack LaLanne!

You probably already know that I just admire Jack LaLanne.   Why, you ask?  Because Jack LaLanne is right!

He was right in 1956 when he advocated healthy eating on his exercise show and he’s still right in 2009.  Jack says that he was just a puny, pimple-faced boy when his mother took him to see a lecture on nutrition.

The lecturer was Paul Brady and he must have been pretty persuasive because from that night on, Jack Lalanne became the Jack we know and love. The man who lives a healthy life,  and has become an icon of health and exercise.  The man  who says no matter what age you are, you too can be healthy!

Jack believes, that most Americans eat over-processed, overcooked foods, when medically it’s  a known fact, that we need 5-6 vegetables and 4 or 5 fruits every single day to maintain a healthy body.

Jack believes that because we eat too many cooked foods and over-processed foods there just aren’t enough nutrients making their way to our cells.  Yes, your cells!  He says your body has some 80 trillion cells that are alive, and in Jack’s opinion, if you put dead processed foods into these cells they are not going to be properly nourished.

That’s why there are so many out-of-condition people with no vitality and low energy, not to mention bad skin.

Okay…so stay with me here because we’re going to take some twists and turns in reasoning so you can think about this and how it applies to your own life.

This past Sunday was Easter Sunday; Kevin and I had given up sweets during Lent so yesterday was the first time we had candy and dessert.

Last night I was so agitated and jumpy I just couldn’t sleep.  I wanted to just crawl out of my skin.  So when I started thinking about how I was feeling and why I felt that way, I was reminded of the last few chapters of “My Stroke of Insight”.

You see, Dr. Taylor cannot tolerate sugar or caffeine it makes her want to crawl out of her skin!

She has observed her brain and her cells more than anyone and she says the 5o trillion cells work together in perfect harmony to create a healthy mind and body. ( Okay, so Jack was off by 30 trillion!)

She takes care to give them the nutrients they need to continue their work.  Of course, her entire life was at stake, but isn’t yours?

So what does that have to do with Jack LaLanne?  Well, Jack has been telling us the same thing for years. It really is what you put into your body.  So don’t do it for yourself, but think about the trillions of cells that will thank you.

A couple of weeks ago we ran a Special Report about a new approach to tackling the problem of obesity, one that targeted the fast food industry and used the same kind of public health strategies that are proving effective against tobacco and smoking, namely restricting where they can be consumed and by whom.

Now the food industry is once again coming in for a less than flattering comparison to tobacco from the world of public health. This time, two of the nation’s leading public health experts are calling on the food industry not to try the same stalling and counter strategies that the tobacco industry used for years to fight anti-smoking campaigns.

At issue are tactics that smear anyone critical of the industry, distorting science around the health and quality of fast food, and insisting that they are not encouraging children or anyone else to overuse their products.

The two health experts are Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale, and Kenneth Warner, dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

In an article in The Milbank Quarterly, the two say that the food industry is adopting similar tactics to those used by the tobacco industry to combat its critics.

In a news release Brownell says “One is heavy-duty lobbying; two is paying scientists to produce results that favor industry positions; three is fighting to frame the issue as a matter of personal rather than corporate responsibility, and the fourth is funding front groups to do their dirty work.”

The two issue a number of actions they say the food industry needs to take to show its sincerity in helping tackle the issue of obesity. They include:

• Stop selling unhealthy products in schools and hospitals
• Stop blaming people for their actions regarding obesity
• Stop using celebrities and slick ad campaigns to promote their products
• Stop marketing unhealthy foods to children
  

They also called on the food industry to reformulate their products with healthier ingredients.

Naturally the food industry is not taking kindly to the criticism, or the suggestions. It has long been their position that this is a matter of individual responsibility; that no one forces people to eat their products or to eat them in amounts that are bad for them.

However, given the billions of dollars spent every year in advertising and promotion, and the fact that in many poor and low income communities there are few if any stores that sell fresh produce, many people have few options.

Walk around any impoverished inner city neighborhood and count how many supermarkets there are, or even corner grocery stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. Then compare that to the number of liquor stores and fast food restaurants in the neighborhood. The latter vastly outnumber the former.

It’s difficult for a community to improve its health on either a collective or individual level when it lacks the resources to do so. Without easy access to healthy foods, without access to safe streets and parks where people can exercise and children play, it’s hard to turn the tide of obesity.

The food industry is right that individuals bear some responsibility for their health issues. But the industry also has some responsibility in pushing their products. They can’t simply load the gun then walk away and say it’s not their fault if the consumer pulls the trigger.

We’re all in this together, which is why Brownell and Warner’s call for action is so important. It moves the issue from some overweight Big Mac fans looking for someone to blame for their expanding waistline to serious, thoughtful public health experts looking for ways to resolve a national, indeed international, heath concern.

Until we, as a society, take responsibility for this problem nothing is going to change. The food industry may not like it, but they are part of the problem. The only question now is do they want to be part of the solution.

When I was at university in England one of my room mates was a lad from Sunderland. Ted was a real character. One of the ugliest people I have ever met, uglier than me even, and one of the most engaging. What was particularly fascinating was that he had a thick ‘Geordie’ accent so it was almost impossible to understand a word he said, yet somehow he managed to charm us all.

Ted is also the fellow who introduced me to the delights, or lack thereof, of fish oil.

First thing every morning Ted would have a tablespoon of Cod Liver Oil. He swore by it, said it was like lubrication for the joints. It made sense to me so I started doing the same thing. It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted – ok, second most disgusting, jellied eel is still the worst – but if Ted said it was good for you I for one wasn’t going to argue.

Fast forward 30 years and science and the rest of the world have finally caught up with Ted. Now almost as many Americans take a fish oil supplement as take a multi-vitamin, and with good reason; there’s a growing body of evidence to show it’s good for you.

Let’s take the most recent example. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center say that taking fish oil supplements helped this year’s Super Bowl champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The study randomly assigned 36 Steelers between the ages of 23 and 41 to take highly purified fish capsules or a placebo for 60 days.

Those who took the fish oil raised their HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, by 26 percent. The control group who got the placebo only saw their HDL go up by 14 percent – which is still not too shabby for a sugar pill.

Interestingly the fish oil group saw the triglyceride level go down 8 percent while the placebo group saw their levels rise 44 percent. Triglycerides are a kind of fat found in the body and high levels have been linked with greater risk of heart disease.

The only thing the researchers didn’t say was whether the placebo produced the same burpy fishy taste that fish oil does. If not, maybe the folks who got the placebo knew it was a fake! I’ll get back to the burpy bit later.

The researchers who did the Steelers study say that the fish oil may help improve athletic performance because it is an anti-inflammatory agent that has been shown to help injuries heal faster, improve your attention span and reaction time – all pretty useful things for an athlete.

The only question mark about the findings is that some of the researchers had received funding at one time or another from the company making the fish oil supplement used in the study, and one even served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the company. Does that mean they skewed the findings? Absolutely not, but it’s better to know where even a small potential conflict of interest occurs.

So, back to the fishy burp side of this.

If you’ve ever taken fish oil supplements you know that sometimes they backfire on you. Literally. You are walking along, minding your own business, when you burp and your mouth is filled with this awful, rancid fish flavor. Urgggghhhhh.

But the February issue of the Mayo Clinic Health Letter has some great tips on how to avoid that.

1) Swallow the capsules frozen. Cool eh! Apparently freezing them slows down the breakdown of the oil in the stomach, helping you avoid the burpy aftermath

2) Take the supplement with food. That will trap it in the stomach and block the backwash. You could even go to McDonald’s and get an order of fries so you can have fish and chips for lunch!

3) Try and odorless version. But then, where’s the fun in that.

4) Switch brands. Different brands affect different people different ways. If the one you take is causing you to burp up fishy flavors regularly, try another.

Or you could just try and get it the old fashioned way. By eating more fish. What a novel concept eh!

Well, we’re into the second week of the New Year. How are your resolutions going? Yeah, mine too. But really, it’s not our fault. It’s the fault of the pesky Romans and Babylonians. They started this nonsense!

The Babylonians – at least according to the histories I’ve been reading – came up with the idea of making resolutions to start the new year. They began this illustrious tradition more than four thousand years ago and we’ve all been suffering because of it ever since.

Now, the Babylonians thought that what a person does on the first day of the New Year will have an effect on their behaviour throughout the rest of the year. So, if you start the year not smoking and trying to exercise more often then you may be more likely to continue those habits for the whole year.

It’s a nice idea. There’s only one problem. For the Babylonians the New Year began in March rather than late January. It was meant to coincide with the planting of crops in the spring, to celebrate the return of life in nature.

That makes a lot more sense. You’ve made it through a grim winter. The weather is getting better, you are going to be outdoors planting stuff (there’s your exercise) there’s more fresh fruits and veg around (better diet) and you are not stuck indoors all day with your irritating brother Hammurabi (doesn’t he ever bathe!) so it makes sense to start resolving to be a better person in some way or another.

Nowadays we make our resolutions in January when most of the country is battered by snow or is pounded by miserably cold, wet weather. Who feels like getting up out of bed to go for a run or even go to the gym before work when it’s cold and grim outside.

Come to think of it who feels like going to the gym or working out on the way home after work when it’s equally dark outside and even colder and more grim than in the morning.

We’re setting ourselves up for failure even before we’ve started.

Plus the gyms are all packed with other people making the same mistakes we’re making so you can’t even get on the machines you want to.
Who’s to blame for that change in timing? The Romans that’s who. They used to celebrate the New Year in Spring as well but then for some cockeyed reason moved it to January, and when you are the most powerful empire the world has ever known when you do something everyone else follows along.

And here we are, more than 2,000 years later, stuck with some arbitrary date because some guy in a toga and birkenstocks decided it worked better for him.

But guess what? The Roman Empire is long gone – though their aqueducts are still around and the Colosseum is still way cool – so we don’t have to do what they say anymore.

So here’s an idea. Forget the resolutions. At least until March. As Spring comes, the days get longer, the weather better, the odds of trying to be more active are greater. Forget the Romans, be a Babylonian.