How is your health?

We usually only talk about health once something is wrong. At 25 we ask each other about work, flats and holidays – hardly anyone asks: how are you, actually? At 40 or 50 the same question suddenly sounds different.

With symptoms we react at once

Palpitations, joint pain, breathlessness: for these we look for a specialist and follow their recommendations. And rightly so.

With weight we look away

When we put on weight slowly, we rarely see a health matter in it. Five to seven kilos more seem harmless and daily life carries on as before – often without knowing what is actually on the plate. Behind it usually sits an off-putting idea as well: that «changing your diet» means going without and eating blandly.

It doesn't have to. Anyone who knows how much energy a meal provides and how it is made up can go on eating what they like – just in different proportions.

What helps

• Knowing what you eat: nutritional values per portion turn a gut feeling into a decision.
• Regularity: fixed mealtimes prevent ravenous hunger better than any diet.
• Movement that fits your day: walking to work counts for more than a resolution that never starts.
• Patience: habits built over years do not change in a week.

Eating too much should not become a permanent state. The way back is rarely spectacular – it consists of many small, repeatable decisions. With health complaints or marked over- or underweight, a medical assessment belongs to it; the content of this website does not replace one.