"EVERYTHING in moderation" is today's catch-cry but one Australian doctor says four things in life should be excepted from the maxim: laughter, sex, vegetables and fish!
Speaking at the annual A5M conference on gut health in Melbourne, medical doctor and author John Tickell asked "What would people rather have, life expectancy or health expectancy?" The overwhelming response was health expectancy.
The author of the book Laughter, Sex, Vegetables and Fish has visited 100 countries to study the habits of the longest-living, healthiest people on Earth.
He spoke about the people of the Japanese island of Okinawa in the East China Sea, whose long life he puts down to their outdoor lifestyle and locally sourced diet of fresh vegetables and fish.
Dr Tickell said the message health practitioners should be promoting to their patients is that to have a healthy gut, people need to eat 85 per cent vegetables and grain in their diet and only 5 per cent meat.
He said to see a real impact on the future health of Australians, the government should double the price of cigarettes and invest the money on providing free fruit and vegetables to school children.
Dr Tickell recommends physical movement every day, laughter and having sex as the best breakers of stress. Oh, and eating vegetables.
