B is for BRAN

It went something like this. 'A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play.' That just about covers everything, don't you think? The work and play bits I can understand, the rest bit sounds like a good advertising campaign, which it was. What could be better than being advised to eat a Mars bar every day, with its perceived benefits in all aspects of your life. Except, the advice is coming from the makers. So where's the flaw? Well I suppose there would be just a slight concern that it would take an awful lot of work and an equally strenuous amount of play to burn all those calories from one bar. I guess, the rest kicks in soon afterwards. And that's before someone thought of deep frying the bars, just in case you have any excess energy to burn. These day, our motto tends to be 'A fun-size Mars (shared) a day helps you work with no time for play!'

Look, to be honest, this is not a 'get at Mars' rant for I do like the odd fun size bar. No, it's more about how our attitudes to food and health have changed over the years. Every week, we are being advised of a new danger from a well established food that we've eaten for years with no ill effects and I'm pretty sure we all have second thoughts about some of the things we put into our shopping trolley. That's where the bran comes in. They tell me if I eat bran every day, my system will run like clockwork. I hope it's not the clock that used to hang in our hall for it has been stopped for years! So I do eat it every day, either as bran flakes, very, very occasionally as All Bran and often in the brown bread we buy. In fact we're probably into fibre in a big way, with potatoes eaten with their jackets, apples unpeeled, and lots of wheaten bread. I hope they're all doing their job!But in general we are more health conscious as individuals and as families than ever before. I see our cooks in school offering vegetables every day, bread and fewer days with chips plus regular helpings of fish and a salad bar on display every lunchtime. For pudding, no more of the jam roly-poly, chocolate cake and custard and all those other things we used to love, but instead yoghurt, fresh fruit and wholemeal biscuits.

As well as the bran cereals, there are a whole range of nutty varieties and low sugar foods that are meant to improve our health, less additives, less colourings, less fat, less salt. Sometimes it makes me wonder about some of the junk we used to have to eat. I suppose it makes sense really, that we are more careful about the type of foodstuffs that make up our diet, but I can't help thinking my dad lived until he was ninety and he was pretty fond of his Ulster fry, his fried cabbage, his butter on the potatoes and his fatty gravy every Sunday with the red meat. In fact his only contribution towards healthy eating was the bowl of porridge in the morning, which he covered in sugar. So are we too paranoid about the foods we eat? I really don't know any more, because by the time I have started to enjoy a recommended food, some 'expert' has brought out a paper full of statistics informing me that I might be at risk from a disease that it might cause. Progress with a small p I think!

During conversation the other night, a good friend said, 'If God has decided the number of days you live on earth, you're not going to change them.' I guess she's right, but I understand people who want to live as many of those days in as reasonable health as possible. But the truth is, we are generally more concerned about our physical well being than our spiritual health. Yet Jesus tells us, in Matthew's Gospel, 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? I think we all need some spiritual bran to get us moving!