Much of our thinking about health is based on wishful thinking. But science provides clear and simple advice for a healthy life. Graham Lawton explores the evidence. Graham proves that you don't have to be a health and fitness extremist to be reasonably healthy. He has rounded up the latest and strictest health research and changed it into useful advice on all the big health questions: diet, weight loss, exercise, sleep, ageing and so on.
Graham, New Scientist feature writer, is not the common health expert. He sometimes eats fast food. He has a gym membership but rarely uses it. And he takes medicine to keep his blood pressure under control. He neither has a diet plan nor a 6-week program to keep fit and thin.
But he does have a much better weapon: science. In a talk, Graham explains the basic science, tells people some of the secrets of science, teaches people to use the ability of judgement to tell the good from the bad, and helps them to see beyond the headlines. The talk allows people to eat healthily, lose weight, and sort the truth out from science facts.
But he loves outdoor sports. Last year Graham cycled over 1, 200 miles and ran the same distance of 15 marathons. He often goes swimming outdoors, walks up eight flights of stairs to his desk instead of taking the lift. He eats his five copies of fruit and vegetables a day, keeps enough water in his body, and doesn't eat much meat. Despite all the bad habits, his good ones seem to be winning. Graham is 50, but his "biological age" was recently measured as 45.
