Letters November 6: NHS bears the weight of British diet

Nigel Brown’s Eat What You Like campaign (The Yorkshire Post, October 31) is the height of irresponsibility. The NHS is at breaking point because of what people eat.

Unless someone actually has the courage to tackle the “British Diet” head on then we will always have the spectre of politicians outbidding each other to spend money they don’t have on a system that encourages people to take no responsibility at all for their own health.

Becoming a vegan causes you to live longer, look and feel younger, have more energy, lose weight, lower your blood cholesterol and prevent heart disease.

It also lowers your risk of breast, colon and other cancers, prevents and treats diabetes, preserves your eyesight in later life, keep your bones strong, reduces the risk of strokes, prevents kidney stones, alleviates constipation, lowers your blood pressure, helps you avoid Alzheimer’s and beats arthritis.

If we all did this there wouldn’t be the need for 80 per cent of the NHS, with its emphasis on cure as opposed to prevention.

It makes no sense for the Government to continue to subsidise the meat, egg and dairy farmers who produce foods that harm us just as surely as smoking tobacco causes lung cancer.

As for Professor JA Double’s (Letters, October 31) assertion that a very large, age-matched population study has never been carried out, let me refer him to the book The China Study which is based on studies of 6,500 people over decades.

Hunting for supporters

From: Eric Beechey, Eastfield Lane, Kellington, Goole.

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, makes an interesting point in his article “It’s time to take the hysteria out of hunting” (The Yorkshire Post, November 3).

He states that on Boxing Day 250,000 people will turn out in market places and stately homes across the country to show their support for hunting.

It is now 10 years since the Hunting Act came into force. At that time the Countryside Alliance stated that one million supporters would turn out each year and show support on Boxing Day. Perhaps Mr Bonner in all his wisdom could explain where the other 750,000 individuals have got to, or was the original suggested figure one of the Alliance’s many fantasies?

A sense of obligation

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

I WISH to remember those who died in the First and Second World Wars, and am happy to attend local services on both Remembrance Sunday and November 11, the actual day that peace was realised. However though I do wear a poppy, it is more out of a sense of obligation than pride. Why?

Well it is not as if I want to appear disrespectful, rather that I feel I should be allowed to choose what good causes I wish to support.

What’s more, I do not feel that anyone who served their country should have to rely on charity. For if they fought in our name, they shouldn’t have to rely on bodies like the Royal British Legion or Help for Heroes.

Why are we paying price?

From: Dave Croucher, Pinfold Gardens, Doncaster.

Why is our Government going to pay out a million pounds of taxpayers’ money to someone who has spent 14 years in an American jail in Cuba?

If Shaker Aamer wants to make any claims in regard to his captivity at Guantanamo Bay they should be to the Americans or Cuba.

No wonder this guy is grinning on the front of every newspaper and he’ll be grinning all the way to the bank.

Starve IS 
of publicity

From: Hilary Andrews, Wentworth Court, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

How wise of Russia and Egypt not to give any publicity to the so-called Islamic State by entertaining the idea that they may have been responsible for the downing of the Russian plane over the Sinai Desert.

This ghastly group are fuelled by media attention. Would that the UK and the US were as circumspect when dealing with their atrocities.

Check your car’s lights

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

May I get astride my hobby horse and plead with the idiot drivers who drive in foggy conditions on sidelights?

Very often the car appears in view out of the fog before there is any sight of the lights.

Defective lights, now winter looms, manifests yet another problem.

Last night on a trip of 40 miles I saw no fewer than a dozen vehicles of all descriptions with defective lights.

Several were the dreaded cyclops who were displaying a nearside light only.

In foggy conditions this could be mistaken for a motorcycle, giving the impression of more room to drive through, only for a collision to occur.

A simple check on the garage door or wall would serve to disclose lighting faults.