Doctor: You need to quit smoking, drinking and eating junk immediately.

Patient: Nah, it’s too late for me anyway.

Doctor: Don’t say that, it’s never too late!

Patient: Well I guess I’ll just wait a while longer then.

I still think this joke is funny. But… When somebody close to you falls ill, nah, when enough people around you have developed chronic diseases to shatter your comfortable denial of the fact everyone’s arse -yours included – isn’t getting any younger, it’s time for some introspection and life-changing plans. I’ve been relying on my robust genetics and love of movement to keep me healthy and presentable for decades and I guess it would be wise to add healthy nutrition to the mix. I’m a vegetarian with an inclination towards occasional forays into the pescarian (=fish-eating) domain. My dad taught me how to fish when I was little and this is probably why I still consider fish fair game but it’s not something I’m particularly proud of. I’ve been helping take care of my mum’s koi and I’m finding this whole fisher-gatherer attitude increasingly difficult to pull off. It’s complicated 🙂

Anyway, considering the fact I mostly eat fruit and vegetables it would be easy to assume my diet is healthy enough as it is. But unless you’re an all-out vegan (meaning no dairy products or eggs make it on your plate) you can still indulge in a whole range of sweets and junk food and my penchant for sugary and spicy stuff has been well-known. I’m also becoming more and more aware of how much it matters where and how your food was produced. The fact some product made it past inspection doesn’t mean you should be eating it without consulting the label very, very carefully.

A while back when I was waiting for the results of my medical check-up to come in I seriously started thinking about all the sugar, salt, flavour enhancers and countless mysterious additives I’ve been gulping down all too casually. I realised I haven’t been keeping as good care of myself as I could have. Luckily my doctor gave me a clean bill of health, complete with his complements on my lifestyle. Being a medical translator I’ve received my fair share of e-mails from doctors but needless to say this one made me particularly pleased with myself 🙂