If health is wealth, there's a lot of rich people, or are we fooling ourselves?

DO health fiends make you sick?

You know the type; they come across as self-righteous as they report doing at least 10,000 steps daily, according to their Fitbits, the modern day equivalent of wearing sackcloth and ashes.

I’ve never succumbed to the Fitbit, preferring to enjoy my daily walks plugged into the radio, rather than trying to clock up the prescribed amount of steps and maybe panting with the effort.

As it happens, the sacred 10,000 steps a day are totally arbitrary. The number was chosen because the Japanese character for 10,000 resembles a person walking – and the idea caught on.

The ad campaign, launched in 1964, has been a huge success. There are a lot of suckers out there who like to be told what to do in pursuit of perfect health.

Some of us prefer to tailor any healthy habits we have to fit in with our lives, rather than following some strict regime so that you can’t even enjoy a meal out without worrying about calories and cholesterol.

And then there’s drink. It’s the demon substance that blights lives and can wreck health. But come on? 

Is it really accurate to label 24% of the population binge drinkers because they drink six or more standard drinks on a typical drinking occasion?

That’s the figure the Healthy Ireland Survey, published last week, has cited.

Six standard drinks (equal to three pints) is not excessive, I would have thought, having been an enthusiastic imbiber in the past.

If I had left the pub after three pints, I’d have been on good terms with myself for such moderation.

I recall a friend who, when pregnant years ago in less politically correct times, said she was off drink apart from a few beers at night! (For the record, her now grown-up daughter is perfectly healthy.)

Not that I’m advocating drinking while with child. On the contrary, it’s a very bad idea.

But it didn’t do some people any harm. Call it luck, or being in possession of the constitution of a horse.

According to the survey, most of us think we’re in ‘good’ or ‘very good’ health. Yes, 80% of us report that sentiment, which is kind of reassuring.

However, 40% of people have a long-term health condition confirmed by a medical diagnosis – an increase of 11 points since 2021.

Thankfully, because of the wonders of modern medicine, many of us can reasonably hope to live a long life, despite having conditions such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Since I gave up smoking and drinking, I am now much more open to going to the doctor. When I was in the grip of the addictions, I felt a certain amount of shame.

And besides, why would I invite admonishment from my doctor for indulging in substance abuse? I preferred to stick my head in the sand and smoke my guts out. Not to mention horsing down the drink.

This Christmas, I will drink Shloer as usual, but from a wine glass, just to look normal. That would be ‘normal’ in the Irish sense of the word when applied to alcohol.

We all know that the person at the bar counter drinking fizzy water is possibly an alcoholic, or rather, a recovering alcoholic. You’re better off on the ersatz drinks, although I would never touch alcohol-free beer for fear I’d get a lip for the real thing.

Your relationship with alcohol can often influence your mental health.

In the average Energy and Vitality Index score of the Healthy Ireland Survey, 65.3% reported positive mental health in 2023. This is an increase from when the index was last measured, in 2021 at the height of the pandemic restrictions. Then the average was 62.4%.

Higher positive mental health is reported by men more than women.

Anecdotally, men seem to be more cavalier about their health than women.

I can think of three (not very scientific) women who are constantly giving out about their husbands’ unhealthy eating habits. As an exercise, look into your local chipper and chances are the majority of customers there will be male. They love their chips and battered burgers. Some will pour curry sauce on their portions of high cholesterol-inducing food.

Women are more vain and health- conscious. We know that a serving of chips will last a minute on the lips and forever on the hips.

And, brainwashed as we are in the ways of diets and calorie-counting, we would experience a lot of self-loathing if we went to the chipper. It’s a once-a-year treat, as opposed to an every-weekend habit of men-folk.

Who do they think they are fooling?

Granted, young men these days are often very body-conscious, but there is a cohort that frequent chippers, dicing with death. You know who you are.