UPDATE - Issue 24 - Winter 2005
Older men do well - could do better
We've all heard of the Government's Five a Day campaign to encourage the consumption of fruit and veg. Now statistics have been collected to show how well we are all doing Across the population a mere 23% are consuming the suggested five a day. Older men, however are among the most diligent at looking after their lifestyle. The 65 to 74 age group are the champions at 29% closely followed by the 55 to 64 group on 25%. We were depressed to learn that as many as nine per cent of us consume absolutely no fruit or vegetables during a typical day.
Some other health yardsticks that the Department of Health keep track of include seeing what proportion of us are taking 30 minutes' exercise five days each week. The average is 35% but that means little because of the relationship to age. Half of the under 24s, a third of the 55 to 64s and just 17% of the 65 to 74s take half an hour's exercise on five days in the week. Among the over 75s the figure falls away to just eight percent.
We're fatter, we exercise less and we're developing heart disease, diabetes and cancer at rates unimaginable to our grand parents.
Another figure they are keeping tabs on is the body mass index. (See the last edition for details of how to measure yours). There are four categories, underweight, desirable (make of that what you will), overweight and obese. Two thirds of the population are now (2003 figures) overweight or obese while just 28.8% have a desirable shape. One depressing fact is that this is down from 37.8% a decade earlier.