The current issue of TIME touts the benefits of fat vs. a lead "fact" of the last 3-4 decades, that fat, or at least its "unsaturated" variant, is the root of all dietary evil.

As the article indicates, the truth may be a lot more complex. Reducing fat - and praising non-sugar carbo-hydrates - may have led to the rampant obesity we see in the richer nations of the world. Because all "carbs", including sugar and all forms of bread, tend to get converted into triglycerides when over-consumed - the long-term body fat many of us have too much of.

Nutrition advice is a mine field, in my personal experience. If you don't submit devotedly to one expert who becomes your god of goodness, you tend to find a plethora of mixed messages out there: Reduce fat and exercise (Susan Powter); keep fat as part of your diet and be aware that exercise will not make you weigh less (TIME). And so on.

Here's what I - a non-expert fiftysomething - go by at the moment: Keep fat intake at roughly 30% of daily consumed calories (on a given supermarket product, divide fat grams times nine by kcal, to get the percentage - this is Powter's formula); to reduce calory intake in general, look for foods around or below 200 kcal per 100g or 100ml. Avoid salty foods - make them the exception (once or twice a week, no more). Do not avoid fruits & unprocessed veggies. Keep "carbs" below 5g per 100g or 100ml; for drinks reduce this from 5g to 1g!

The last sentence is the most difficult one for me at the moment. I am in the process of giving up almost all my favourite drinks - that "healthy" carrot-orange-water-mix at 3g per 100g, for instance! Instead I'm trying to get back my taste for plain water; I find if it's cold - in summer - it's at least a little pleasant.

For the future, I need to drink more water & tea - way more than 1 litre a day. And I need to spend a lot less time in the evening alone. Spending time with people makes me eat less! So I'm going to push up my regular social evenings every week from now on. Not eating any "carbs" at all in the evening is a good thing, my young (fit) twen cousin told me some years ago.

So here I go. (Again.)