Can we make healthy eating more about carrots than stick?

Okay, even the most ardent carnivorous alcoholic knows that, deep down, that the secret of longevity doesn’t lie in a mountain of red meat washed down with copious amounts of drink.

But for those of us of a more normal dietary equilibrium – and who are still blessed with the willpower of a will-o’-the-wisp – comes a meat-and-drink straw to cling to in the form of the Spanish nation.

Because we know they smoke like industrial chimneys and they’re never happier than when they have a bottle of Rioja firmly in their grasp, before they all head off for a sleep in the afternoon – which, it now turns out, might be the key to long life after all.

Because, according to a report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the Spanish are expected to have an average lifespan of 85.8 years by the year 2040 – outliving even the Japanese, who have long headed the global longevity tables.

That’s just under four years longer than our life expectancy here, a figure that’s even more acute if you’re an Irish male.

We equally know that a morning fry-up isn’t the secret to good health – but if you take all of the good out of life, what’s left to live for?

A group of killjoys from the University of Oxford want to sort this problem, by putting a tax of 79 per cent on sausages and rashers, which they say would prevent thousands of deaths year.

They also want to put a 14 per cent levy on steak because they say that reducing the intake of red and processed meat would cut consumption – and as a consequence, reduce rates of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The Oxford researchers believe that a global tax on red and processed meat could prevent 220,000 deaths a year and save £30 billion in healthcare costs.

It would also reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 1.2 per cent – so clearly, they are making a legitimate argument.

But why is that everything we’re drawn to has to be bad for us?

For more,  read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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