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What the
doctor ordered.

How to die young at ninety
Dr. Jan de Winter

£7.00

The main aim of this book is to highlight the vital link between nutrition and correct weight in the avoidance of premature aging and degenerative diseases.

In the affluent West for instance, one person in three eats too much and too richly; as a result one person in four is seriously overweight and periodically attempts to redress the situation by intermittently submitting to one or the other of the 600 listed slimming regimes, only to regain the lost weight on resuming the old eating habits.

Apart from looking less attractive and being at serious risk from degenerative illnesses, an obese person has the added disadvantage of aging more rapidly. The reason for this is simple: a person is as old as his or her arteries. Since the condition of one's arteries hinges on the degree of self‑imposed moderation and restraint, clean arteries, like a clean driving licence, are achievable only by constant vigilance and in the absence of habitual indiscretions.

For instance, of the twelve different categories of environmental factors, dietary factors are estimated to contribute up to 37 %, smoking 30 %, sexual behaviour 7 % and alcohol 3 % to overall cancer mortality. Thus three out of four cancer deaths are known to be due to self‑indulgence and are therefore avoidable by a change in personal habits.

Many illnesses are thus brought on by the wrong sort of food and drink that we consume compounded by such bad living habits as lack of exercise, stress and smoking. This causes the arteries to become clogged‑up, the blood‑stream to become sluggish and the tissues to become oxygen‑depleted.

By contrast, free‑flowing blood in clean, elastic arteries is the best insurance against illness and premature aging, with diet as first line of defence and exercise as a second line.

However the novel art of living that this represents will be unacceptable to most adults who have grown up with the mistaken belief that, for instance, only animal proteins have any "goodness" in them, that potatoes and bread are more fattening than meat and fats or that cold food is less nutritious than hot food. In other words, before they will be prepared to accept fruit, vegetables and cereals as their staple diet, in preference to meat, fats and confectionery, a fundamental change in traditional and inherited eating habits will have to take place.

This change will have to go hand in hand with a much wider range and much greater availability of quickly prepared, high‑fibre, low‑fat and low‑sugar content foods, which will be sold in new take‑away salad bars, which would compete for customers with "fish and chips" shops. Similarly, "fresh fruit‑holding slot machines" would provide an alternative to the currently so very popular processed and prepacked convenience foods, which abound in (empty) calories, that is they are almost devoid of nutritional value.

The case for anticipatory care is nowhere better proved than in the prevention of such degenerative diseases as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, diabetes and obesity. To wait for these diseases to develop is bad medicine. The "rule of halves" indicates that for every patient identified to have the disease there is another in the community about to develop it. Therefore, the earlier the underlying dietary and other contributory causes are detected and corrected the greater the chance of avoiding the disease altogether and with it premature aging, thereby also, very importantly, preserving individual freedom and independence, the two precious personal prerogatives which are so essential for, and conducive to, meaningful enjoyment of life.

Jan de Winter