New Year's Resolutions!

Another year older, another year wiser!  Hm maybe.  The wise thing would be to not make resolutions as they are always so hard to keep.  For some reason we always feel the need to restrict or deny ourselves, ie giving up alcohol, getting fit or going on a diet.  Wouldn't it be more fun to learn a new skill, give time to a needy cause or just to go out every single Friday night?

My resolution a few years ago was to go running regularly.  Good one, you may think.  Well yes but a tricky one for a vegetarian running on beans, pulses and vegetables.  With every step I became more and more wind-assisted with the sound of a woodpecker hot on my heels!  This caused my running partner to laugh so much that she would wee herself.  Needless to say, our running relationship was not an ideal pairing!

In a job many years ago I worked for a Consultant Gastroenterologist and shared an office with secretaries to an Endocrinologist and Rheumatologist.  The latter came back from clinic one day with a tale about a rather well-to-do-lady whom he had been asking to do straight leg raising.  "Oh no doctor" she said "if I raise my leg any higher I shall surely fart!"  I am guessing she was probably a vegetarian.

So yes it is a well known fact that vegetarians are usually a little on the windy side but, in a roundabout way, carnivores actually produce more methane gas.  Each year 300 million cattle are slaughtered and consumed.  Each adult cow can produce 500 litres of methane from their burps and farts every day!  Well, you do the maths!  Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and it has been calculated that an adult cow produces the same effect on global warming as a family car!  Even I can't compete with that.