More variety needed

SO much diet advice is currently based on restrictions, said Kirsten Jackson, who is also known as the IBS Dietitian. She pointed out that too often guidance focuses on restricting calories and fat. Instead, Jackson recommends adding to your diet ­ and plants above all ­ for optimum gut health.

“We should aim to eat at least 30 different plants a week,” she said.

Even coffee would count as one, she explained, and a spice as another. “Grains too, so don’t stick to wheat­based bread and pasta but add barley, rice and quinoa. Add herbs to dishes and snack on nuts and you’ll soon reach 30.”

The bad news is that they sleep less, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

University of California cardiologist, Dr Gregory Marcus, tracked 100 adults for two weeks, monitoring their movements and sleep patterns on the days when they did or did not drink coffee.

Results suggested people who drink coffee regularly walk 1,000 more steps than non­drinkers each day, but they lose out on around 30 minutes of sleep at night.

“The reality is that coffee is not all good or all bad, but has different effects,” Dr Marcus said.

Hi Euro Weekly LETTERS

I thought your viewers would like to hear my experience with Spain’s bus services. My wife who had a stroke in July and now uses a wheelchair wanted to go to Fuengirola for the day on the bus. Local people said the bus was very good for disabled people, so we set off. The bus pulled up, driver said no and left without us. So I pushed the wheelchair into La Cala. The next bus driver also said no. I asked if I could use the ramp. He said not possible, so two unknown men offered to lift the wheelchair onto the bus. The driver said ok however the same thing happened on the way home. A man came over to me and lifted my wife onto the bus. What I can’t understand stand is why a bus has a disabled logo on the side then you are told you can’t use a wheelchair. Anybody had the same experience as us? My wife and I are both 76 years old.

Regards Jeff & Maureen Milner, Alcantara

Hi Leapy

Unfortunately I am back in the UK for a while due to this ridiculous 90­day rule because my lovely lady has Parkinson’s and thought she would be treated better in the UK. She wouldn’t sign up to being a Spanish resident although we had lived in Spain for circa 13 years and paid all our non­resident taxes and everything we were asked to pay, but I love her so much I agreed. Possibly a mistake, but as they say love is blind. Now I have a gallbladder full of stones, an enlarged prostate which keeps me going to the toilet all night and a hernia that has reappeared after 30 years like a duck’s egg sticking out of my groin. Of course when I went to my doctor’s surgery after paying my National Insurance non­stop since I started work at the age of 15 and on April 6 I will be 75, there wasn’t a chance in hell of it being repaired, so on the 19th I go in to a private hospital here to get it sorted and will leave hopefully ok, but £3,500 lighter. We have also spent a bloody fortune on private health care in Spain so we wouldn’t be a burden on the system but of course it is a repair so not covered. Had it been a new hernia I would have been straight in to San Carlos and it would have been sorted now. I am sure I have bored you beyond belief but actually the whole purpose of this email was for me to see if you could find out who signed off the paperwork to enable that vile scum Glitter to go straight in front of people who have been waiting for months if not years and have a private room and have a very expensive op (at taxpayer’s expense) to have his knees operated on. I myself feel he should have been so far down the waiting list that he would have been long dead before he was called up and hoped he had suffered more pain than those poor children that he abused, it just beggars belief Leapy. Now I know as you say you get so many people contacting you that you can’t reply and I fully understand that but it would be nice to read in the EWN that at least you have voiced your opinion on this. Keep up the good work and although we are back in the UK for a little while we always check your opinions on line and 99 per cent of the time agree with you entirely.

Joe

Dear Sirs

I have just read with great interest your article on applying for a blue badge. I started the process for applying for a blue badge for my husband in February 2020 and he finally received it in December 2022, which is two months short of three years and nothing actually went wrong. Your article seems to imply that your doctor can declare you as having at least a 33 per cent disability. This is not the case. You have to have an interview at the Centro de Valoracion y Orientacion in Malaga. You have to apply for this interview submitting all of your relevant medical history. After submitting the application we waited for this appointment for over two years.

Then several months after the interview for them to award their decision, then we were able to start the process for applying for the blue badge. Never in all of this procedure were we asked to provide passport photos. I have actually heard that the process is now taking even longer. I cannot help noticing recently that there are many unoccupied disabled parking spaces. I presume this is down to the virtually impossible task of actually obtaining a blue badge.

Kind regards

Valerie Neal, Mijas Costa

Just a thought

Lanzarote’s president has a point. Spain’s tourist image is damaged by an irresponsible minority.

For many decades, excessive drunkenness by certain British tourists has been a problem in Spain. The consequences can range from loud, juvenile groups at the next table in a restaurant to fights, vomiting and vandalism in public areas.

This behaviour can ruin a night out or even a holiday for more mature holidaymakers and is an unacceptable inconvenience for local residents.

Other nationalities don’t necessarily drink less than these Brits; the point is that they generally handle it better ­ possibly because they are in better mental and physical health.

David R Worboys