Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.

A little while ago, before I returned to Wales I saw an elderly Korean woman on TV showing feats of energy, strength and flexibility that most 20 year olds from the UK would be proud of. But to call this woman elderly was doing her a disservice. She was beyond elderly. She looked, with the greatest of respect to this amazing woman, like a corpse. Her eyes were extremely sunken in their sockets, her teeth were long gone and her legs were bowed, probably due to malnutrition as a child. This remarkable woman carried a bag of rice that was probably 20kgs with ease (and in Korea rice comes in multiples of 5 or 10kgs, not 500g bags). She raced and won against women at least 20 or 30 years her junior, out stretched all in her yoga class (think leg behind the head) and easily did sit ups during a for TV fitness test, a feat that a scary percentage of Brits couldn’t do.

My taekwondo teacher is 60 and as you might expect from an 8th Dan grandmaster, is fit, flexible and incredibly strong. As the oldest and biggest student in the class I am often the test dummy when it comes to demonstrations. The other class members watch as I am kicked, punched and thrown (yes thrown, taekwondo is more than just kicks!) in the name of learning. He is like a tree, a solid, unmovable man with a bite far worse than his softly spoken, fatherly bark would indicate.

These two examples of Korean health and fitness are by no means the exception to the rule, they are the rule. There are hundreds or thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of older Koreans all over the country with similar never say die attitudes that every day get up out of bed and leave the house to squat all day at a market stall selling fruit or hiking up mountains.
The unwavering work ethic of the Korean people and their fitness levels, especially in later life are perfectly highlighted by the recyclers. These people, often elderly men and women walk around cities all over the country, from morning to night collecting paper and cardboard to be recycled. I’m sure they get paid for it, a pittance surely but I am almost certain that it is not to do with money. Korean people work hard, very hard. Nowadays, right from when they can walk they are shipped from academy to academy, to special high schools and if they are lucky to a foreign university and into a company to work until they retire. The generations before the 60 hour school week was introduced are the ones who work on the market stalls and collect the recycling. The reason they do it is because if they don’t they would probably die. These jobs keep them going, give them a reason to live and because they know no other lifestyle that to work hard.

The recyclers are the most poignant example of the differences in attitudes to health and fitness between our two countries. They can be seen pulling two wheeled carts, like rickshaws but instead of passengers there is a mountain of cardboard. It is quite astonishing how these people carry such loads. They vary in age of course but I have seen old, very old people, more often women carrying or pulling loads several times their weight and height.
Are these human ants a product of a lifetime of kimchi or is there just something in the water in Korea?

It begs the questions "Is there really something in the water in Korea or are we as a nation just lazy, complacent, greedy slobs?"

A no brainer for me.

Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may have diabetes

I'm not a Christian, in fact I don't have a religion, I suppose you could call me an atheist. I do however subscribe to a set of beliefs that are very similar to the 10 commandments, that bastion of Christian belief, but I am not a Christian. I just don't steal, or kill, or commit adultery or any of the other things Christians aren't supposed to do. I do however believe in karma, that cosmic force that rewards those who do good things just as it punishes those who do bad things. The problem with karma, or more accurately with people, is how do we know where karma begins and ends and when do we have to take responsibility for our own actions, when does "it's karma" as an excuse fall down?

In the last few years, but more recently in the last few months my parents' health has declined. A combination of age and lifestyle has combined to give them a cocktail of ailments that has left me wondering what have they done to deserve this? The answer is of course nothing. This isn't karma at work, it is more to do with bad lifestyle choices, diet, lack of exercise as well as other factors like family history, all adding to make people a little bit more predisposed to certain conditions. I am a firm believer in 'you get out what you put in' and if you abuse your body for decades with alcohol and fast, greasy food and rarely exercise don't be surprised one day if your doctor tells you have diabetes or a heart condition. I am not suggesting these are the only reasons for the current state of my parents' health but they have almost certainly contributed. The worst part is that these ailments tend to wait until a point in your life where you are already winding down to retirement or are sufficiently advanced in years that the willpower or strength to fight them off starts to wain. Karma does not dish out diabetes or heart attacks, bad lifestyle choices do and that is hard thing to say when it is my parents who are having the problems. 

Jamie Oliver has a new series on TV that has just started called 'Jamie's Ministry of Food' and the first episode was a real eye opener. He goes to Rotherham, a typical Northern town where the locals have bad teeth and even worse dietary habits. One girl of 22 feeds her young daughter exclusively on fast food and then breaks down later, explaining what we all already knew, that she is lazy and selfish and doesn't have the best interests of her child at heart. I seriously think that feeding your child that kind of crap everyday amounts to child abuse and I am sure it won't be long before we hear of someone suing their parents for abuse when they were younger based on their diet. I wonder if it will happen here first or in that real bastion of fatness, the US of A? 

That old excuse of 'it didn't do me any harm' or 'My parents never taught me to cook' is wearing incredibly thin and will no longer suffice as an excuse to feed your young children on strips of kebab meat and chips. Cooking for your family needn't be haute cuisine, it should be simple food made with fresh ingredients, more about getting vitamins and minerals into your body than taste sensations. I really admire Jamie Oliver but he is not only fighting a losing battle, he also seems to be vindicating their lifestyles. At one point he gets really angry and says that he doesn't know who to be angry at when the answer is staring him in the face. The mother of the fast food junkie five year old is to blame. Nobody makes her order fast food and as she later admits it is to do with laziness and selfishness on her part not because she can't cook (I mean who the hell can't boil an egg?) 

My parents' health has declined in no small part to their diet and to this day (well not this day actually as my father is currently in hospital) my father insists on eating a ridiculous amount of salt on his food and he point blank refuses to stop eating the fried breakfasts that he has enjoyed for decades. My parents were born and grew up in post WWII Britain and even though fast food wasn't around then, beef dripping and lard were. The next generation, born in the sixties and seventies that saw the boom in fast food and curry houses and frozen meals and the generation after that, the microwave and kebab generation are the ones in real danger. Then there are the poor buggers from places like Rotherham (although it might as well have been anywhere) that are growing up, or should I say out, on a  diet of cheese and chips, doner kebabs, Mcdonald's, pizza hut and all other manner of 'food' stuffs that are almost certian to cause long term damage.

I don't blame karma for my parents current predicament, in some way I blame them but then maybe the excuse of "We didn't know it was bad for you" holds some water for their generation, but what will the excuses be when the generation after them and after them have the same complaints?  To say that people of those generations were unaware of the health risks of not eating well is offensive to anyone with a bit of common sense but the generation that Jamie Oliver is trying to help, my generation, are just down right offensive with some of their excuses. "I were [sic] never taught to cook" is not, has never been and will not ever be a valid reason for feeding your child on fast food and burdening them with a possible lifetime of weight problems and the associated psychological problems that come with it, as well as the possible consequences later in life, debilitating and soul destroying condition like diabetes, heart conditions and all other manner of vile conditions that attack and break down your body until you are a shadow of your former self. 

My parents are now shadows, they are still my parents and they still have the same spirit that have always had but it is now in short supply and it is heartbreaking to hear news from family members of another setback caused by the diabetes or the doctor can't do this operation because of the heart medication ad nauseam, literally.

karma can only do so much, after that it is up to you.