For all of “Dr” Gillian McKeith’s many faults, the initial impact of the You Are What You Eat cannot be denied. Though we are now inured to the sight of pale, viscous shit and flabby bellies, the first time you see it is a revelation. My own favourite bit is when they present the lardarse with a table containing everything they consume in an average week. Fatty usually breaks down in tears at this point. It is easy to convince yourself that one cream cake is excusable, but when you eat thirty it is difficult to deny that you have a problem.
When I was down in Devon recently I became aware that I had a certain yearning for certain types of tea at certain times. Fortunately, I never travel without supplies, so never had to suffer withdrawal symptoms, but it did make me think that perhaps I had become overly regimented in my tea routine.
Firstly, I should point out that I don’t drink monkey tea (ie black tea) or coffee. Since reading Patrick Holford’s book Optimum Nutrition for the Mind (which shows that far from allowing people to focus, caffeine actually reduces concentration), I have eschewed all caffeine except for a little green tea and the occasional chocolate digestive.
Second, I don’t really like tea or, ahem, infusions. At least, not enough to want to drink them all the time. I do, however, prefer virtually any tea to drinking water. And thus, I try to vary the types of tea I drink; to keep it interesting, as it were.
Now, this is where the You Are What You Eat reference comes in because, in an idle moment, I managed to jot down what tea I drink and when and the results were shocking.
0800 - Camomile (sometimes don’t finish this when I’m in a rush)
0900 - Red Bush
1030 - Camomile (or green tea if I’m hungover)
1220 - Peppermint (aids digestion)
1330 - Green (post-prandial pickmeup)
1500 - Red Bush
1630 - Peppermint
1730 - Ginger, Ginseng and Gingko Biloba
1900 - Peppermint
2000 - Jasmine
2130 - Camomile
Is this normal? Is eleven cups a day excessive?
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