Editor's Blog July 17th 2012
Good morn… no wait I’m running late today, so good afternoon. What can I say it’s been a long night for Eddie and the day seems like it may be even longer, but it’s not all “doom and gloom”, to coin the phrase from our Business Matters presenter.
It’s been a good night; yesterday evening we were very pleased to find out that one of our team member’s son was born. A very cute baby, mum and boy are doing great which has really cheered us all up here in the office, especially dad, he’s now got two weeks paternity leave…
So I think to myself, it’s good and it’s bad, it’s up and it’s down, the reality is you just have to make the most of it. Until I read yesterday’s press release about the Gibraltarian people and the unhealthy state we are in! The facts speak for themselves:
60% of Gibraltarians are overweight – This sums up to meaning that most of us are fat. Not necessarily orca fat, but fat all the same.
42% of Gibraltarians who are overweight are unaware of the fact – So nearly half of the fat people don’t know their fat? Really? How can we be unaware… unless by overweight we are working off the principle that your optimum weight and BMI if you are female, 5 ft 8 is between 64-75kg. Does that mean if you’re sporty and if I remember biology correctly, muscle weighs more than fat, that you are overweight because you weigh 77kg ???
Below is a BMI chart that I found on the BBC website, it’s from the BBC it must be right… Not 100% sure though as there were a lot of varying charts, images, calculators and equations out there, that all seem to differ slightly.
Back to the stats:
75% of men aged 45+ are overweight. Does this mean that for Christmas this year we will have a lot of jolly Santas?
75% of Gibraltarians do not eat their “Five a Day” – We prefer a McDonalds or a Cheese Naan with Korma sauce… Let’s face it they taste much better… Just to give you an idea about this statistic, in the latest NHS report, I quote:
“In 2010, 25% of men and 27% of women consumed the recommended five or more portions of fruit and vegetables daily.”
Wouldn’t that mean approximately 75% of them don’t eat their “Five a Day” either… another interesting fact about the “five a day” principle, only a few months ago, dentists were going mad because parents thought it was ok to give their kids 5 a day of fruit, (fruit has fructose, fructose is a sugar, sugar eats your teeth away and dentists get rich fixing your kids teeth). It’s another “Catch 22”.
29% of the population are smokers (a much higher figure than in England & Wales) – well yes it would be slightly higher than the England & Wales wouldn’t it? I mean we sell them a 25% of the price. The UK raised the tax on cigarettes and France did the same thing, in Gibraltar we can smoke a packet of Marlboro lights for less than £2.50… More of us are going to smoke.
31% of young people binge drink – my favourite part of the press release, as it has been a while since I have seen a statement about binge drinking… I’d like to think I am in the “young people” category but I don’t think I am anymore… The legal age to purchase alcohol up until very recently was in fact 16… When we refer to “binge drinking” according to the NHS it means “consuming twice the recommended allowance in a single drinking session” for a man that’s 8 units and for a woman that’s 6 units (before anyone says anything, yes it is sexist and no it’s not my fault!).
To give you a break down of this, a pint of Heineken is the equivalent of 2.8 units. So for a binge drinking session you would need to have drunk three pints 2.8 x 3 = 7.8 and be just starting to sip your fourth pint… You Binge Drinker You!
For the ladies who don’t like pints, but think it’s harmless to have a double vodka and coke, well that’s 2 units, meaning by the end of your third drink, you have been Binge Drinking Too!
The only reason I have brought this up is that over the years it has become increasingly easy to showcase positive and negative points using statistics, 11 out of 10 people know that!
And another statistic before I leave, did you know that only one out of seven dwarfs is happy!
