Letter: The food advice I needed came from a song

From Alan Larman, Congleton, Cheshire, UK

Your article on food advice was unintentionally very amusing (13 July, p 32). I have read New Scientist from cover to cover since your first issue and have followed the changing, often conflicting, advice on food and nutrition. Since leaving boarding school, I have lived by the advice that “a little of what you fancy does you good, but too much of anything will kill you”.

I have a very varied diet and love fruit, vegetables, fish and meat, but have only a small appetite. I recently turned 80, but I am often mistaken for 60 or even younger. Another good piece of advice, taken from an old song, is “I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry… if whisky don't kill me, I'll live till I die.”

I hope to be following New Scientist for many years yet – and enjoying my food.