Food for thought and the NNT

I’ve just stumbled upon Zoe Harcombe, a British expert in Public Health Nutrition as I researched whether I really ought to perhaps eat less butter, and this article written by her popped up. It’s dynamite and just confirms what I had already begun to think when I looked at the ingredients of Benecol – which would quite possibly have been my choice of alternative – which was … can this really be more healthy than a natural product such as butter?

Reading the comments that followed the article and following links from her site (apart from noting she’s also a follower of Malcolm Kendrick’s writing) I came once again to the presentation of risk called the Number Needed to Treat by David Newman. There’s a great website that demonstrates the NNT for a number of treatments commonly applied in medicine, but don’t go to the website before you watch this TEDx video. Once you’ve watched that, and perhaps read Doctoring Data or Bad Pharma you’ll certainly think more about relying solely upon advice from medical experts, and will consider a lot more taking control of your own health for yourself. 

Walks around Llanishen

… and elsewhere too!

This appeared earlier today as a protected post as I worked out the privacy aspects of Strava – something bike owners are understandably interested in. Having assured myself that my walks don’t reveal where I live, I’m ready to post them on this page as part of my recuperation strategy – ie Daily Exercise.

Of course I realise that absolutely no-one apart from me, and perhaps a couple of family members will be remotely interested in where I do my daily walks, I nonetheless will post as many as I can as a way of incentivising me to stay on the right path (so to speak) to recovery!

The walks are recorded using Walkmeter on my iPhone, uploaded automatically to Strava from which I then get an embedded map to post to this page. Notes on the walks appear below the maps.

I walked into town for a U3A Xmas Party and Quiz and then back as far as the Lake before hopping on a bus. I used to do this bus-walk-bus hopping a fair bit when I was as work. It’s a good way of getting some exercise in.

Another circuit, quite a good one, building-up eventually to a circuit that takes me to The Heath.

With a couple of stops on the way, I walked into town for a U3A meeting, and then walked back to the bus stop at Lowther Road.

The threat of rain, and a busy morning ahead saw me “jump” out of bed and repeat the walk I did yesterday afternoon. Pleased that I did it 3mins quicker. This, as I suggested below, may become the “standard” walk. The “come rain or shine” walk.

If there was to a regular walk – this would be it. A bit of a climb to get started, then a gradual climb up into Thornhill, across the contours and then down beside Caerphilly Road until you dip into Llanishen Park and the village. Nice to get out walking after a break of a couple of days.

A lovely sunny morning so I hitched a lift with Jen to the doctor’s surgery and then walked from there along the cliffs and then back through the town.

Mum wasn’t well so we drove down to the New Forest late on Wednesday. Here’s my dusk-walk which included a couple of rather scary bits where the oncoming traffic certainly didn’t seem to expect a pedestrian!

A shorter walk from yesterday, the object of which was to discover whether there were any unknown snickets or alleys alongside the Llanishen stream just down from the Rugby Club building – there was!

This walk was done to complete the pair of walks to cover Thornhill, or at least the southern part of western Thornhill. The longer walk will come later. I also wanted to drop into M&S and pick-up my repeat prescription from the village pharmacy (boring)!

This walk was a discovery of snickets and alleys and the finding of a path that enable me to walk down from Thornhill without having to use Heol Hir.

A longish walk that was designed to include a coffee break at Rhyd-y-Penau and a meet-up with a U3A friend. Lovely sunny day.

My first recorded walk using Walkmeter and Strava, done with Jen. A gentle stroll around Llanishen.