I came across another of those pseudo-medical health/longevity reports that leave me exactly nowhere. According to this update on the role of carbohydrates in one's diet, you should keep carbs at not less than 40% of your diet and not more than 70%. A careful middle-ground regime like this should enable a 50-year old to live another 33 years, according to the report, that would be to the age of 83. So where does that leave me? I've already lived past that reassuring figure.

One reaction could be to give up and eat whatever you want and as much as you want, for the rest of your life. I have seen some people live like that- "digging their graves with their teeth", used to be the description of such careless behaviour. When women do this it is said of them that they have "let themselves go." Go where? What would be the point?

I still watch what I eat. It gets a little easier. St. Augustine said "we do not leave our sins; our sins leave us." That, is if you consider French fries sinful. Or chocolate. I haven't eaten pie for decades - two at least - I don' t even twitch at pecan pie; it has left me. Does that mean I'll live a few years longer? I don't think so.

All my good habits now, such as they are, and so carefully cultivated, are not a bid for immortality, or even a few more hours. I read one analysis of eating habits that predicted two more hours a day if you gave up something or other. We're all such hedonists, we don't like the idea of "giving up" something, but I guess some people like the idea of a trade-off. My trade-off is, since I seem to be living so long, to feel as well as I can for as long as I can.

And to hang on to my marbles - better than carbs.